When Will announces that he will still commit suicide, Lou reminds him that he has told her not to let one day define her life. Yet again, though, the parallels are perhaps most useful because they shed light on places of divergence. Lou helps Will move through the physical world as easily as possible, and she also gives him an outlet to talk about his pain and his fear of the future. Will allows Lou to confront her fear of the castle maze, to understand that she is not at fault for her assault, and to approach the world fearlessly once more. Each is limited by their trauma, but each also works to help the other to confront these traumas. Will's is his accident, which has caused him to lose his physical independence. Lou's is her rape, which has caused her to lose her feelings of fearlessness. Lou and Will each have one traumatizing event from their past that haunts them more than any other. The similarities between the pairs of siblings largely serve to highlight their differences and show how healthy Lou's family life is compared to Will's. Lou and her sister, though, are open and caring with one another, while the same cannot be said of Will and Georgina. Georgina argues that her parents expect more of her after Will's injury than they might if the situations were reversed, and Lou resents Treena, since her life's trajectory has resulted in Lou having to support their family. Both Lou and Will have one sibling, and in each family, one sibling feels that they are less appreciated than the other. Will's relationship with his sister, Georgina, Parallels Lou's relationship to Treena. These images increase in frequency and detail throughout the book as Lou becomes more confident in her knowledge of clothing and fashion. We also see plenty of visual images describing Lou's outfits, which show us how much she cares about her clothes and how much thought goes into them.
#Me before you novel full
Will and Lou's travel destination of Mauritius gets the full treatment: not only detailed visual images, but tactile ones of sunshine and warmth, as well as taste imagery of various foods. The castle, in particular, is described with visual imagery demonstrating its grandeur and beauty. This contrasts with idyllic imagery of the town where the novel is set and its seasonal changes.
These images are mostly tactile, though they are sometimes visual. Both Will and Nathan, on different occasions, list the litany of physically uncomfortable situations in which Will might find himself, using images to ensure that Lou fully understands their meaning. Some of the book's most vivid images revolve around illness and disability, and the author does not shy away from disturbing portrayals of the pain and discomfort Will suffers. This more utilitarian prose discourages relaxation and prompts readers to feel anxious. When the protagonist feels dread, though, this is reflected in the mood as well, since the images become fewer and more unpleasant, the sentences shorter, and the language more literal.
When the protagonist is hopeful, the narration is rich with lovingly described images, and layered with figurative language, creating a relaxed, luxurious mood.
The mood is more variable, and tends to swing between hopeful anticipation and dread, following the novel's plot structure. Even when narrated by Lou in its more heartfelt tone, though, the novel avoids sentimentality, thanks partly to joke-heavy dialogue. Therefore it becomes matter-of-fact and restrained when Nathan narrates, or cold and clinical when narrated by a government bureaucrat. This candidly emotional tone is a reflection of a candidly emotional narrator, and on the occasions when the narrator switches, the tone tends to also. Louisa shares her feelings quite openly with the reader, and it is, after all, a love story, so there are plenty of feelings to go around. The tone of this novel is, for the most part, heartfelt and candid.
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