The Door in the Wall

Summary

The Door in the Wall is set in England in the fourteenth century, in the reign of Edward III, during the years of the Black Death. Robin, the ten-year-old son of the knight Sir John de Bureford and his wife Lady Maud, has been raised to expect the life of a nobleman's son: he is to go as a page to the household of Sir Peter de Lindsay, learn the arts of chivalry and one day become a knight like his father. But his father rides north to the king's war in Scotland, and his mother is summoned to attend the Queen. Left in the family's London house in the care of servants, Robin falls ill with a fever that leaves his legs weak and useless. When the plague reaches the city, the servants sicken or flee, and the boy lies alone and unable to walk. A friar, Brother Luke, hears of him and carries him to the hospice of St. Mark's, where the brothers nurse him back to some strength. Robin is bitter and impatient at first, but Brother Luke teaches him to use his hands: he whittles and carves wood and learns to read and write. Brother Luke also teaches him to swim in the river, which strengthens his arms, and Robin learns to get about on crutches. Over and over the friar tells him that every wall has a door if one follows it far enough, and that reading, craft and patience are such doors. When the plague has passed, Brother Luke and a cheerful minstrel, John-go-in-the-Wynd, set out with Robin on the long journey to Lindsay castle in Shropshire, near the Welsh border, where Sir Peter has offered to take him in. The journey is long and hard for a boy on crutches, and Robin learns to bear it without complaint. At Lindsay, other boys call him Crookshanks, and he learns to play the harp and to serve in ways that suit his strength. Then Welsh raiders besiege the castle and town in the fog, and the garrison is cut off. Robin, too lame to fight, volunteers to go for help: disguised as a shepherd boy, he slips out, crosses the cold river by swimming, and makes his way through the enemy to John-go-in-the-Wynd, who carries word to Sir Peter's cousin Sir Hugh. The relieving force arrives on a signal and the siege is broken. At Christmas the King and Queen come to Lindsay with Robin's parents. The King honors Robin's courage, and his father and mother rejoice in him as he is; Robin understands that he has found his own door in the wall. The book was published by Doubleday in 1949 with de Angeli's own illustrations and received the Newbery Medal in 1950.

Plot or Argument

• Alone in London

  With his father at the Scottish war and his mother attending the Queen, Robin falls ill and loses the use of his legs; the plague empties the house, and Brother Luke carries him to St. Mark's.

• Learning at St. Mark's

  The friars nurse Robin; Brother Luke sets him to whittling, reading, writing and swimming, and teaches him that there is always a door in the wall.

• The journey west

  With Brother Luke and John-go-in-the-Wynd, Robin travels on crutches the long road to Shropshire.

• Life at Lindsay

  Robin joins Sir Peter's household, bears the name Crookshanks, learns the harp, and finds ways to serve without walking easily.

• The siege

  Welsh raiders surround the castle; Robin, disguised as a shepherd boy, swims the river, slips through their lines and sends word by John to Sir Hugh, whose men lift the siege.

• Christmas at Lindsay

  The King and Queen arrive with Robin's parents; the King honors Robin, and his family welcomes him as he is.

Characters

• Robin, protagonist

  A knight's son of ten who loses the use of his legs and learns patience, skill and courage of a new kind.

• Brother Luke, friar of St. Mark's

  Robin's patient, cheerful teacher, who nurses him and teaches him to look for the door in every wall.

• John-go-in-the-Wynd, minstrel

  A traveling singer who escorts Robin to Lindsay and later carries his message for help.

• Sir John de Bureford, Robin's father

  A knight serving the King in the war against Scotland.

• Lady Maud, Robin's mother

  A lady in attendance on the Queen, separated from her son through the plague year.

• Sir Peter de Lindsay, lord of Lindsay castle

  The knight in whose household Robin was to serve as a page, who receives him in his lameness.

• Sir Hugh, Sir Peter's cousin

  Leads the force that breaks the Welsh siege after Robin's message reaches him.

Lessons

• The door in the wall

  Brother Luke teaches Robin that a closed path is not the end: if he follows the wall far enough, he will find a door. Reading, carving, swimming and music each become such a door for a boy who can no longer train as a knight. The book teaches children to look for what they can do rather than grieve only for what they cannot.

  • What were the walls in Robin's life, and what doors did he find?
  • Why does Brother Luke keep Robin's hands busy?
  • Have you ever found a door in a wall of your own?

• Patience is learned

  At first Robin shouts at the friars and refuses food. Slowly, through small tasks and steady kindness, he learns to wait, to try again and to thank others. De Angeli shows patience as a skill that grows with practice.

  • How does Robin act when he first arrives at St. Mark's?
  • What helps him become more patient?

• A different kind of knight

  Robin cannot ride into battle, but during the siege he risks his life to bring help. The book suggests that courage and service, not strong legs, make a knight's heart.

  • Why does Robin volunteer to go for help?
  • Which of his lessons at St. Mark's make his escape possible?
  • What does the King honor in Robin?

• Kindness to the helpless

  Brother Luke takes in a sick child whom everyone else has left, and the friars care for him without asking anything in return. The story shows the monastery as a place of mercy in a time of plague.

  • Why do the servants leave Robin alone?
  • What does Brother Luke risk by caring for him?

Context

The story is set in the reign of Edward III (1327-1377), when English kings fought repeated wars in Scotland and France and when the Black Death reached England in 1348-49, killing a large part of the population. Friars and monastic houses cared for the sick and the poor, and boys of noble birth were customarily sent to serve as pages in another lord's household before training as squires. The Welsh border country of Shropshire, where Lindsay lies, was guarded by castles held by marcher lords.

Composition

De Angeli wrote and illustrated The Door in the Wall in the late 1940s; unlike her earlier Pennsylvania stories, it required research into medieval England. Doubleday published it in 1949 with her own illustrations.

Reception

The book received the 1950 Newbery Medal and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1961. It has remained in print for decades and is widely read in elementary and middle grades as a story of perseverance through disability and an introduction to medieval life.

Comparisons

• the-secret-garden

  Colin Craven, like Robin, is a boy who believes he cannot walk; both recover strength and spirit through patient companions and work with their hands, though Robin's lameness remains.

• johnny-tremain

  Johnny's burned hand ends his hopes as a silversmith as Robin's legs end his hopes as a knight; each finds a new calling and serves bravely in a war.

• the-canterbury-tales

  Chaucer's pilgrims travel the roads of Edward III's and Richard II's England, the same world of friars, minstrels and inns through which Robin journeys to Lindsay.

• the-rule-of-st-benedict

  Benedict's Rule makes the care of the sick a first duty of the monastery; Brother Luke's house of St. Mark's shows that ideal at work in the plague years.

• heidi

  Clara, unable to walk, gains strength in the mountain air with Heidi's friendship, a parallel story of an invalid child restored by care and courage.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• How Robin behaves when Brother Luke first brings him to St. Mark's, and how that changes over the following months.
• Each new skill Robin learns, and when it later proves useful.
• The things Brother Luke calls doors in the wall.
• How the nickname Crookshanks makes Robin feel at first and later.
• What the King and Robin's parents say and do at Christmas.

Key terms and names

Page

A noble boy sent to serve in another lord's household as the first step toward becoming a squire and then a knight; Robin was to be Sir Peter's page.

Friar

A brother of a religious order who lives under vows and serves among the people, like Brother Luke.

Hospice

A religious house that takes in travelers, the poor and the sick; St. Mark's is where Robin is nursed.

Minstrel

A traveling singer and musician, like John-go-in-the-Wynd.

Plague

The Black Death, a deadly sickness that swept England in the fourteenth century and emptied Robin's house.

Siege

An attack in which enemies surround a castle or town to cut it off, as the Welsh do at Lindsay.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why is Robin left alone in his family's house, and what happens to his legs?
2. Comprehension What does Brother Luke teach Robin to do at St. Mark's?
3. Comprehension How does Robin help save Lindsay castle?
4. Interpretation Why do you think Brother Luke gives Robin a knife and wood to carve instead of letting him rest?
5. Interpretation Robin cannot become a knight in the usual way. Do you think he becomes a knight in another way? Why?
6. Interpretation How is Robin different at the end of the book from the angry boy at the beginning?
7. Big Question When something we wanted is taken away, how can we find a new good thing to do?

Faith Connections

• 2 Corinthians 12:9 (Scripture)

  My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Robin's lame legs become the occasion for skills and courage he would never have found as a strong boy training for knighthood.

• Revelation 3:8 (Scripture)

  Behold, I have set before thee an open door. Brother Luke's saying about the door in the wall echoes the Christian hope that God opens ways where none seemed possible.

• Matthew 25:36 (Scripture)

  I was sick, and ye visited me. Brother Luke and the brothers of St. Mark's care for a sick, abandoned child as Christ commands.

• The Rule of St. Benedict, chapter 36 (Church Fathers)

  Benedict commands that care of the sick come before and above all things, as if serving Christ. The friars' care of Robin follows this long monastic tradition of hospitality to the sick.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Robin loses the strong legs a knight needs. Brother Luke teaches him that every wall has a door, and through patience and skill Robin learns to carve, read, swim and play music. These new abilities let him save Lindsay castle. Therefore a closed path can lead to a different and equally honorable calling.

Rhetorical device: extended metaphor. Brother Luke's saying about the wall and the door, in the early chapters at St. Mark's, returns again and again until the last chapter, when Robin recognizes that he has found his door.

Debate: Resolved: that Robin showed more courage at the siege of Lindsay than a knight who could fight.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Choose three things Robin learns at St. Mark's and explain how each one helps him later in the story.

Comparison with The Secret Garden: Robin and Colin Craven both believe at first that they will never be useful. Compare how each boy changes and who helps him.

Medical Lens

The book is a children's story of physical disability and rehabilitation set against the Black Death. Robin's illness is never named: a fever leaves his legs weak and his gait crooked, and he walks thereafter on crutches. Modern readers have sometimes wondered whether de Angeli imagined something like poliomyelitis, a dreaded childhood disease in the America of the 1940s, but the book gives no diagnosis, and any such reading is speculation. Its picture of care is monastic: nursing, food, warmth, and above all occupation and exercise, as Brother Luke sets Robin to carving, reading and swimming to strengthen his arms and spirit. The plague itself appears in the emptying of the house and the city. For a medical reader the book is a gentle early portrait of what would now be called occupational and physical therapy and of the psychological work of accepting a lasting impairment.

• Opening chapters

  Robin falls ill and loses the use of his legs as plague spreads through London and his servants abandon the house.

  Fever Infection Plague Epidemic Disability Deformity
• St. Mark's hospice chapters

  Brother Luke nurses Robin and sets him to whittling, reading and swimming to restore strength and hope.

  Nursing Caregiving Disability Deformity
• Siege of Lindsay

  Robin, on crutches, swims the river and crosses enemy lines to bring help.

  Disability Deformity

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Draw a wall with several doors in it and label each door with something Robin learned to do at St. Mark's or Lindsay.

• Fiction

  Write the letter Robin might send his father from St. Mark's after he first learns to swim.

• Dialogue

  Write a conversation between Robin and John-go-in-the-Wynd on the night before he slips out of the besieged castle.

Further Reading

• Black Fox of Lorne, Marguerite de Angeli

• Butter at the Old Price: The Autobiography of Marguerite de Angeli, Marguerite de Angeli

• The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer

• Adam of the Road, Elizabeth Janet Gray

  1943 Newbery Medal novel of a minstrel's son in thirteenth-century England.