Elaine Parry
Elaine Parry is Will's mother and John Parry's wife.
Contents |
Appearance
Will and his mother look alike {{quote|content="broad cheekbones, their wide eyes, their straight black brows."|source=The Subtle Knife
When Will takes his mother to Mrs. Cooper's house, Mrs. Parry has make up on one eye but not the other and her clothes have a musty smell to them. She also has a bruise on her cheek.
Will realizes his mother is different
| "Will had first realized his mother was different from other people, and that he had to look after her, when he was seven. They were in a supermarket, and they were playing a game: they were allowed to put an item in the cart only when no one was looking. It was Will's job to look all around and whisper 'Now,' and she would snatch a tin or a packet from the shelf and put it silently into the cart. When things were in there they were safe, because they became invisible... and when his mother couldn't find her purse, that was part of the game too, even when she said the enemies must have stolen it... he realized how clever his mother had been to make this real danger into a game so that he wouldn't be alarmed, and how, now that he knew the truth, he had to pretend not to be frightened, so as to reassure her. But sometime during the next few months, Will realized slowly and unwillingly that those enemies of his mother's were not in the world out there, but in her mind. That made them no less real, no less frightening and dangerous, it just meant he had to protect her even more carefully." | |||
| Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife |
Mary Malone speculates that Mrs. Parry's illness is
| "some kind of depressive what do they call it bipolar thing" | |||
| The Amber Spyglass, Mary's Notes, 10th Anniversary edition |
Protecting His Mother
Will takes his mother to Mrs. Cooper's house to stay for a few days when the men keep coming to the house and questioning and upsetting her. It's the only safe place he can think of.
Family
Mrs. Parry and Will survive on quarterly payments from a trust that John Parry set up for his family. Mrs. Parry never got over the disappearance of her husband, John, and her most precious position is his letters from Alaska. She tells Will that one day he will take on the father's mantle.
