From this point onward, Anna's condition deteriorates rapidly.Ībout two-thirds through the film, after summoning the committee, Nurse Wright reveals her assessment of the situation: 'Anna's mother, Mrs. Nurse Wright soon escalates her watch over the miracle patient by insisting the O'Donnells no longer come into Anna's room. It isn't clear if we're witnessing a loving kiss on the forehead or something more disturbing. Not long into Nurse Wright's stay with the O'Donnell family, we see young Anna's mother lean in close to her daughter's face during a nightly prayer. Netflix Is it true that Anna doesn't need to eat? Amid the stresses of her current job, the ritual seems to further loosen Nurse Wright's grip on reality.Īnna (Kíla Lord Cassidy) refuses to eat because of her beliefs. Pricking her finger with blood could be a way of checking she's still alive - or it could be a form of self-harm. Nurse Wright has suffered her fair share of tragedy - her baby daughter died and her husband left her soon after - and the night cap might be her way of coping. Nurse Wright's addiction to what looks to be laudanum, a tincture of opium, is another nod to that question of what's real and what isn't. What does Nurse Wright drink every night?

This framing also sets us up to be aware of the transportive power of storytelling - you're quickly immersed in the creaking, drippy, smokey world of the ship and Nurse Wright's journey, a journey the narrator has invited us to believe in. Nurse Wright is enlisted to watch the girl for two weeks to determine how she's still alive. The whole reason Nurse Wright is summoned by a self-appointed committee to a village in Ireland is that many people want to believe a young girl called Anna O'Donnell has miraculously lived without food for four months.

But it effectively sets up the main theme of the film: the power of belief.

William (Tom Burke), Anna (Kíla Lord Cassidy) and Nurse Lib Wright (Florence Pugh).

The wonder novel emma donoghue