Years of Wonder Case

Year of Wonders

"Unlike most ladies, Mrs. Mompellion did not scruple to toil with her hands."(35) Geraldine Brooks gives Elinor Mompellion a compelling personality that made a change in the "year of wonders". Her love for her garden and willingness to do the work of a man exceeded the standards for woman in those days. She would rather spend her time in the garden nurturing her radiant plants rather than in the house. She showed her capability and skills in a extravagant show of flowers in her garden. Elinor Mompellions unique character was crucial to each day to come within the chapters of this book. She worked, unaided in her garden for the benefit of others to see what growth and life could come from her work. She would soon have to turn her work to encouraging Anna to become a person who would be seen with importance and skills high above her stature in society and Anna was eager to learn.

Even before Elinor could know what would come from her schooling, she encouraged Anna saying "As a mother you would do well to add some herb lore to your store for knowledge …" (36). She could see Anna's desire for knowledge and potential to turn into something as amazing as Elinor's garden had become.. Anna made it easy for Elinor to teach and reassure her to do those things she knew Anna was capable of. "She commenced to shovel knowledge [Anna's] way as vigorously as she spaded the cowpats into her beloved garden" (36) and "for the most part [Anna] was a willing pupil" (36). Anna couldn't have guessed that the knowledge she hungered for would be knowledge that would lead to her saving lives, comforting those who were lying with the plague, and fallowing in the footsteps of her noble mentor. Elinor took pride in nurturing Anna as she would her own daughter, and Elinor did not hesitate to show the community what was coming from her work with Anna.

As she desires to create undeniable beauty from her garden, she desires to teach Anna to become a person of dependability. She taught Anna of herbs in the garden and of literature in the library. They read of medical practices and learned how to relieve those in pain, aide those just short of health, and to care for others with the skills and herbs they acquired from working in the garden. Elinor's hard work never went unnoticed and the village saw the strength in the pair and continued to return to them for their knowledge. Elinor's work was apparent within the garden and within her prospering partner. Everyone acknowledged the greatness in them as a pair. Mr. Mompellion didn't realize the depth of Elinor's friendship with Anna and when he instructed Anna to pass on the message "falso in uno, falso in omnibus" (265) he realized how little understanding he had of Elinor's friendship with Anna. He did not expect her to respond "Untrue in one thing, Untrue