What Maisie Knew

Theme

Family

We know you've heard it before, but it's really true in What Maisie Knew: home is where the heart is. For Maisie, this means not just where her heart is since she loves Sir Claude just as much as she loves Mrs. Wix. By the end, she realizes that his heart isn't hers the way Mrs. Wix's is.

His loyalties are divided, but as Maisie says, repeating Mrs. Wix's words, she's all that the governess has got. So maybe this means home is where two hearts are. But the main thing to notice is that, like family, home in James's novel is something that characters actively create, not something they're born into.

Youth

We know you've heard it before, but it's really true in What Maisie Knew: home is where the heart is. For Maisie, this means not just where her heart is since she loves Sir Claude just as much as she loves Mrs. Wix. By the end, she realizes that his heart isn't hers the way Mrs. Wix's is.

His loyalties are divided, but as Maisie says, repeating Mrs. Wix's words, she's all that the governess has got. So maybe this means home is where two hearts are. But the main thing to notice is that, like family, home in James's novel is something that characters actively create, not something they're born into.

Education

Maisie don't need no education. She don't need no mind control, no dark sarcasm in the classroom—because she gets plenty of education without ever going to…