Nora Webster

Music plays a significant role in Nora Webster, but the early parts of the novel are notable for their silence. In the immediate aftermath of Maurice’s death, a quiet descends on the family, and music is simply not a part of Nora’s life. At this point, she associates music and singing with her mother, and to listen to or create music would therefore plunge Nora into a painful memory of past grief. Thus, in the wake of Maurice’s death, Nora gravitates toward silence to give herself space to recover, and she represses the role of music in her life to avoid the raw pain of the past. However, her silence in this early stage of the novel damages the emotional well-being of her sons, whose struggles require a voice. Faced with their ongoing difficulties, she finally realizes that something must change to bring sound and motion into the family’s silent life.

As Nora slowly rediscovers her love for music, this journey becomes an outward expression of her private healing process. However, her progress is far from straightforward, as she endures public humiliation when she sings in public for the first time. Fortunately, this moment of humiliation is fleeting, and Nora soon finds pleasure in her subsequent association with the Gramophone Society, even though she believes that this is something Maurice would mock. Thus, she finds pleasure in listening to music and in embracing the realization that she does not need to define herself by what Maurice might have thought; she can treasure his memory without being beholden to it. As her forays into the music world help her to gain empathy and connect with others, she realizes that she is not alone. Music therefore represents Nora’s emerging understanding of her place in society.

Most importantly, music allows Nora to rediscover her passion for life. As she immerses herself in recorded music and takes lessons with Laurie, she symbolically rediscovers her voice and even reconnects with the memory of her mother by singing in a similar style. Although she is later rejected by the choirmaster, she does not let this rejection define her, instead realizing that singing is its own reward. At the end of the novel, Nora accepts an invitation to sing in Laurie’s choir, and this development becomes a symbolic moment of catharsis as Nora puts aside the silence in her life and chooses to sing, literally and figuratively regaining her voice in the world.