comment on theme

Hannah’s continued loyalty towards Owen throughout the novel even as she discovers that he lied to her about almost his entire life speaks volumes about the nature of true love. Despite others telling her that she did not know Owen and that much of his identity was fabricated, she remains steadfast in her loyalty towards him, thinking “I do know him. I still believe this, despite the evidence to the contrary. And this belief in him (in us) will either show me to be a steadfast partner or a complete fool” (143). Though her inclination to remain loyal to him might at first appear naïve, it actually reveals an important theme of the book: that true love does not depend on knowing all the biographical details of someone’s life, but their deeper moral character. Her knowledge of Owen’s deeper moral character is exactly how Hannah is able to overlook all of his lies and remain loyal to him even as outsiders like Elenor and Nicholas Bell view his actions as irredeemable.