Kate DiCamillo brings us a surprising gem in this tale of a mouse. Somehow, she makes emotions, relationships, and vulnerability occur in a mouse, and she does it in an engaging manner. It seems easier to experience all of it through a creature- a mouse. By the end you realize all the symbols of evil including the darkness, the rats, the dungeon, the servant-girl turned criminal- it is all polarized human nature. All of these characteristics exist- inside each of us.
Despereaux was born a nonconformist. After all, his eyes were open and an mouse’s eyes should never be open after birth. “There’s something wrong with him.” Said the father. “Leave him alone.”
Despereaux could sense things no other mouse could. “It’s something else it sounds like... um... honey.” (He was hearing music, something no other mouse could hear.) This is a notable mixture of senses to draw attention to the power and magic of music. Music is not just something to hear- it invokes a flavor of honey in his mouth.
While receiving lessons on how to be a mouse, he was supposed to taste the books of the library. The instructions were to “First a bite of some glue and then follow it with a crunch of the paper. And these squiggles. They are very tasty.” Instead, Despereaux finds himself reading the “squiggles” of the phrase “Once upon a time.” This introduces him to the story that defines his future life- that of a princess and a brave knight who serves and honors her.
The “sound” of honey comes back. “He went to the library and read over and over the story of the fair maiden and the knight who rescued her. And he discovered, finally, the source of the honey-sweet sound. The sound was music.” He is so drawn into the honey sound that he forgets he is a mouse and crawls too close to the princess and her father, the king, who are playing the guitar and singing together. And because he comes too close, the princess reaches out and touches him and he falls in love. Only to be discovered by his brother, who then turns him over to the mouse council for an egregious sin- fraternizing with humans.
The beating of a drum is what dramatizes Despereaux’s trial in front of the mouse council. And it is his father’s job to beat the drum. One message of this book is “what happens to those who do not conform.” Lester (Despereaux’s father) conforms to the needs of the council and agrees to beat the drum at his own son’s trial. “Boom. Tat-tat Boom. Tat-tat. Boom.” This is the signal that an important decision is about to be made. It’s a poignant truth- the sound of a drum actually makes an event or decision seem more important.
And Despereaux’s ultimate conviction by the mouse council. “a mouse who would allow a human to touch him....cannot be trusted. This is the way of the world, our world.” Despereaux is sentenced to life down in the dungeon of the castle while his father Lester, just sits back and nods his head. For the fate of one who does not conform......
Once again, the beat of the drum accompanies Despereaux, wearing a thread around his neck, on his fated journey down into the dungeon. His mother and father just watch- bid him “Adieu”for farewell. His brother is charged with leading him to the dungeon. No effort to stop them or go in his place. The ultimate in conformist. He is, according to the law established wearing” the red thread of death.” Here is the use of color to illustrate perhaps blood? He is pushed down the stairs, and falls to his destiny, assumed to be death in the dungeon.
Meanwhile, in a separate part of the castle- the dungeon- another story is unfolding which will, in time, coincide with our first hero, Despereaux. The contrasts drawn here between the dark evil of the dungeon and the light goodness up above are sharp. A rat named “Chiaroscuro” is born into the “filth and darkness of the dungeon.” Roscuro, as he comes to be called, comes into the storyline nibbling on the rope of the dungeon-keeper, Gregory. This rope keeps him from getting lost in the maze and traps of the endless, black dungeon. Here DiCamillo uses a match flame to illustrate smell and sight. “But alas he did not close his eyes, and the flame exploded around him and danced inside him.” Not only does the flame light up the darkness- it dances in the nothingness of the dungeon. “He held the match closer to Roscuro’s face and a terrible smell of burnt whiskers rose up around the jailer and the rat.” This brings smell into the mix- sight, touch (movement of dance), and now the smell of the match. DiCamillo engages three senses through the simple lighting of a match. This encounter, ironically, gave Roscuro a taste for light. “He was always, in the darkness of the dungeon, on the lookout for light, the smallest glimmer, the tiniest shimmer.”
To his comment that the meaning of life is light, his friend Botticelli states, “The meaning of life... is suffering, specifically the suffering of others.” This formally introduces the conflict between good and evil- and the question of which one is ultimately more powerful and influential. After describing how to torture an incoming prisoner to the dungeon, Botticelli says, “At that point, it is most effective to run back and forth over the prisoner’s feet, inducing physical terror along with the emotional sort....it is such a lovely game...and it is just absolutely chock-full of meaning.” The reader can sense the physical pain induced by the running on the prisoner’s feet.
When light leaked into the dungeon from the door to the outside Botticelli calls it “hideously ugly” while Roscuro says, “It was beautiful.” Botticelli classifies rats this way: “Listen. We are rats. We do not like light. We are about darkness. We are about suffering.”
Roscuro soon gets to test that hypothesis when he goes upstairs and sees the beautifully decorated banquet hall with all the royalty and the delicious food set out to eat. And the beautiful princess- loveliness and laughter- it all seems to glow brighter. He knows he was deceived, “...Botticelli..was wrong. Suffering is not the answer. Light is the answer.”
The flavor of the banquet soup is described in detail- our sense of taste comes alive with the description “The soup was a masterwork, a delicate mingling of chicken, watercress and garlic.” Roscuro falls from the chandelier above the table into Princess Pea’s bowl of soup. At this, the queen drops dead. And then soup is outlawed- along with all the utensils and accessories along with it.
Next, DiCamillo recounts the story of a poorly treated servant of the peasants- a Miggery Sow. She is denied much of her hearing due to physical beating of her “uncle” in the ears. Her “Uncle” being the man who bought her from her father, after her mother died, for a pathetic few needed items. One small comfort comes to her one day when the royal caravan passes her farm and she waves at the Princess Pea. “It was as if a small candle had been lit in her interior, sparked to life by the brilliance of the king and queen and the princess.” And she figures out what this feeling is called- “..she realized that the feeling she was experiencing, the hope blooming inside of her felt exactly the opposite of a good clout.”
Meanwhile, Despereaux had been rescued by his fate in the dungeon by the jailor who wrapped him up in a napkin and placed him on a tray delivered by Mig Sow (brought to the castle by the people collecting all the soup spoons, bowls and other equipment outlawed with soup) back to the castle kitchen. Upon getting his tail sliced off, he falls asleep and dreams of a knight with a sword. “And the dark took many shapes. First the dark was his mother, uttering phrases in French. And then the dark became his father beating the drum. The dark was Furlough wearing a black hood and shaking his head no. And the dark became a huge rat smiling a smile that was evil and sharp.” He asks the knight his name and the knight tells him he knows his name. But when he takes off his helmet, the suit of armor is empty. Despereaux is disturbed by this.
Meanwhile, Roscuro lures poor Migery Sow with a promise of becoming a princess. He has her hold the princess at knife point and lead her into the dungeon where he plans to hold her as his prisoner. While being held at knife-point, “She licked her lips, over and over again, because she thought that she could taste there the sweet saltiness of the soup that her mother had fed her in her dream.” The taste is a feeling of comfort for the princess.
His father Lester admits to destroying the drum that sent Despereaux to his death in the dungeon. “I’ve destroyed the drum. Will you forgive me?”
When the king finds his daughter missing from her bedroom, he weeps. “Tears were cascading from his eyes. A small puddle had formed at his feet.”
As Despereaux is pushing a spool of thread through he kitchen, on his way to rescue the princess in the dungeon the smell of soup reappears in the story. “He had never in his life smelled anything so lovely, so inspiring. With each sniff he took, he felt himself growing stronger, braver.”
Then the thread rolls down the stairs ahead of Despereaux and lands at the feet of the rats below. They know by the smell of it what is coming behind. “I smell ....could it be?...soup. And I smell tears. Human tears....of flour and oil....the blood of a mouse.”
The end of the story has a beautiful exchange between the rat Roscuro (who represents darkness and evil) and the Princess Pea (who represents light and goodness) “Pea was aware suddenly of how fragile her heart was, how much darkness was inside it, fighting always, with the light. She did not like the rat. She would never like the rat, but she knew what she must do to save her own heart. She said, “Roscuro, would you like some soup?””
And so it was the promise of a glint of light to the darkness that saved the Princess from her evil fate in the dungeon.
