Birdyline Book Blog

Coraline by Neil Gaiman is a creepy but child-friendly book that has achieved worldwide success as well as being adapted into a movie. While the central story follows an escape from an evil doppelganger, this bestseller is hiding something so much bigger than the “Other Mother.” By reading closely the contradictions of the Other Father’s as well as the descriptions of the corridor and the cat, the book becomes altogether more terrifying.

The Other Mother is undoubtedly a powerful being who possesses the ability to create illusions unrivaled by any sort of human technology. She’s referred to by the cat and her past victims as the Beldam, a middle English word simply meaning “grandmother” which has developed over time to signify malicious behavior and ugliness. Despite being able to shape the world around her into a trap for young souls, she is not the owner of the Other World as one might assume upon the first read of the book.

The evidence for this lies in what the other Father lets slip about the Other World. The Other Mother keeps him quiet for the majority of the book, but the last time Coraline arrives in their domain he gives us a vital piece of world building information. It is noted on this page that the Beldam has a black rat retrieve the key from the lock of the corridor door. When Coraline questions this, the Other Father states that “‘There is only one door. Only one key.’” (Gaiman 62) If the Beldam had created the Other World and presumably the corridor/key/door as well, would she not have at least created a copy of the key for herself? In fact, there is some even more compelling evidence to consider in that short statement.

What the Other father tells Coraline is simple enough, but we know it isn’t completely true for two reasons. First, the cat. The nameless cat can seamlessly walk from one world to the other with no difficulty, proving there are multiple ways in and out of the Other World. There’s also a quote from later on that directly contradicts the Other Father’s statement. Only six pages from the first quote the Other Father explains the Beldam’s absence to Coraline by telling her that she’s out “‘fixing the doors.’” (Gaiman 68) These two quotes when considered together support the idea that while the worlds are linked in multiple ways, the other Mother is bound to only using certain forms of transportation between them, just like Coraline. The Other Mother is an incredibly powerful creature, but she is not without her limitations. These limitations ultimately lead to the conclusion that the Other Mother is simply a resident of the Other World who is using it as a trap to fulfill her need for youthful sustenance, just like a spider stretching a web over a previously existing hole in a tree.

The links between the two worlds are evidenced by multiple occurrences in the book. First, Coraline of course encounters the cat in both her world and the Other World. The cat, however, isn’t the only animal linking the two worlds. Mice play an important role in Coraline. They even appear in her dreams the first night of the book. In her dream they sing a song that goes like this: “We are small but we are many/ we are many we are small/ we were here before you rose/ we will be here when you fall.” (Gaiman 10) The rhyme will be repeated twice later on, in two slightly different variations, but it is the first of them that adds the most to the story. We already know that the only place that Coraline can speak to the cat is in the Other World. That’s because, of course, animals do not speak in the real world. If we simply assume the same rules apply to mice it becomes evident that there is a link between the two worlds, at least in Coraline’s dreams. This is because Coraline’s dream is not just a dream- it’s prophetic in a way. The words sung by the mice while she sleeps echo the words sung while she is awake in the Other World with a level of accuracy that cannot be a coincidence.

This theory may be a stretch, but considering the different ways that Coraline, the mice, the cat, and the Beldam interact with the worlds, it is entirely possible that there are more creatures within one or both of the worlds- or maybe lying between them.

Coraline’s adventure starts with the door, but it is what lies behind it that matters. Coraline opens the door to discover the corridor leading her to the Other World for the first time on page 24. She calls it simply a “dark hallway” and then adds to its description with this bewildering quote. “It smelled like something very old and very slow.” (Gaiman 24) Does she mean it smells like a grandma? Perhaps. But this observation is important enough to repeat it not once but two more times before the end of the book. (And we have learned from the mice that Neil Gaiman likes to write significant quotes in sets of three.) On page 45 she again uses the words “old” and “slow,” but this time with added implications. “She became certain that there was something in the dark behind her: something very old and very slow.” (Gaiman 45) And once more, the final time she traverses the passageway while making her escape. “It was deep, and slow, and it knew that she was there…” (Gaiman 134) As you likely noticed, the word “old” is replaced with “deep” here, but the sentiment is similar.

The corridor is not just an inanimate hallway, and its primary purpose is not to lead Coraline to the Other Mother, as already proven by the Other Mother’s limitations. The corridor is actually a living creature, capable of just as much harm towards Coraline as the Other Mother. Here is the rest of the quote from page 134 – “She knew that if she fell in that corridor she might never get up again. Whatever the corridor was was older by far than the other mother.” That quote leaves little to question, but of course Coraline is just a young girl with a vivid imagination and it is only one single line that expresses anything off about the otherwise very corridor-y corridor. That is, until you notice the other two parallels between each of Coraline’s encounters with it.

Back on page 24, Coraline describes the corridor and the smell of it as cold. “There was a cold, musty smell coming through the open doorway.” (Gaiman 24) She steps into the hallway and almost immediately the book jumps to describing where she emerges. When she again walks through the corridor on page 45 she still describes it as chilly, but this time the air is moving as opposed to stale or musty. “…distant winds howled.” (Gaiman 45) Additionally, this trip seemingly takes longer. The book tells us that her heart is beating so fast that in order to focus on walking she “close[s] her eyes against the dark…” and that “eventually she bump[s] into something… an armchair, in her living room… [s]he was home.” (Gaiman 45)

The final trip proves to be the scariest of them all, and not just because of the predicament she’s in as she attempts to exit the Other World as quickly as possible. She mentions of page 131 that “it was colder in the corridor” (Gaiman 131) as well as acknowledging the “high wind.” (Gaiman 131) So the air is not only no longer musty, but the wind mentioned earlier has increased from “distant” to “high.” To make matters worse, the temperature does not remain “colder” for much longer. “The wall she was touching felt warm and yielding now, and, she realized, it felt as if it were covered in a fine downy fur. It moved, as if it were taking a breath.” (Gaiman 133) If you can believe it, it gets worse. A paragraph later she is worried she’ll bump into something because she can’t see. She reaches out and- “[t]his time what she touched felt hot and wet, as if she had put her hand in somebody’s mouth.” (Gaiman 133) Finally, this escape lasts a whopping four pages compared to the sentence of the first trip and paragraph of the second. Let us again read Coraline’s final quote on the corridor to conclude. “She knew if she fell in that corridor she might never get up again. Whatever that corridor was was older by far than the other mother. It was deep, and slow, and it knew that she was there.” (Gaiman 134)

It could still be argued that the corridor is an extension of the Other Mother. After all, the Beldam has demonstrated the ability to create wind etc. The cat is what disproves this. The cat is Coraline’s voice of reason. Interestingly enough, while it warns Coraline against the Other Mother from the beginning and clearly distrusts the Beldam, it doesn’t fear her. Perhaps it knows that it is not the type of prey the Other Mother is looking for. The cat makes frequent trips in and out of the other world but it notably never uses the corridor until it has to during the final escape. Even then, the cat hesitates. After finally pulling the door closed the cat tells Coraline, “This is not a good place to be in. Quickly.” (Gaiman 133)

It appears as if the corridor is not just a link from one world to another. It is a living, breathing creature with a mouth that is waking up and stretching upon becoming aware of new prey using it. It is capable of expanding or shrinking, an idea supported by the accordion-like design in the movie. The Other Mother has no control of it, and the cat avoids it fearfully unlike its indifference towards the Beldam. It is old, it is slow, and it is more dangerous than the Other Mother.