Secrets

An allusion is a literary reference to a recognizable figure, event, work of art, etc. “Secrets” alludes to several novels when describing the protagonist’s childhood interactions with his grandmother. Most—Lorna Doone, Persuasion, and even Wuthering Heights—are love stories, hinting at Mary’s repressed romantic side. However, the most significant allusion is to Miss Havisham, a character in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations left traumatized by the abrupt breaking off of a relationship; when her fiancé leaves her at the altar, she preserves everything as it was on the day of her wedding, letting the cake rot and her dress fade around her. Like Mary, Miss Havisham is thus an example of remaining frozen in one’s grief. However, the parallel otherwise works to Mary’s advantage, particularly in its allusion to Pip. Pip, the protagonist of Great Expectations, is a young boy when Miss Havisham summons him to visit her estate as part of an elaborate scheme for vengeance; in keeping with this, she manipulates him and allows her adoptive daughter to bully him. By contrast, Mary and the young boy in “Secrets” have a genuinely loving relationship until he breaches her privacy and she lashes out in response.