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The Last Unicorn
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Chapters 10-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary
Prince Lír and Molly sit in the scullery preparing vegetables for dinner. Lír is frustrated because he has slain five dragons and not once has Lady Amalthea spoken to him or been impressed by his accomplishments. Lír laments the way Amalthea’s expression made him feel sorry for killing the dragon. Lír has already accomplished many physical feats to impress Amalthea with no success. He’s even broken off his engagement to another princess. He has transformed himself into a fairytale hero just for her attention. Molly does not have much advice for him. A cat joins Molly and Lír in the scullery. Neither knows where it came from, but Molly is glad for the company.
Lír tells the story of his horse, whose legs were burnt badly during a battle with a dragon. Amalthea did not seem interested in Lír’s story about the battle, but she perked up when he mentioned his injured horse. Lír took her to the stable, and she placed her hands on the horse’s legs as though she were expecting to heal the horse. When the wounds did not heal, Amalthea ran away. Lír says he heard Amalthea weeping, but she shed no tears. Prince Lír urges Molly to tell him more about Amalthea, but Molly has nothing more to offer him.
Molly sings as she prepares soup, which Lír acknowledges as just one more wonderful thing that Amalthea has brought to the castle. Amalthea appears in the doorway, cutting the conversation short. She has only grown more beautiful as time has passed. Amalthea takes a seat and offers her hand to the cat, but the cat is reluctant to let her touch him. Lír announces that he will be leaving for a few days to face an ogre in a nearby village. Molly bids him farewell, but Amalthea stays silent.
Molly tells Amalthea she’s cruel to Lír, but Amalthea argues that cruelty and kindness are mortal behaviors. Molly wants Amalthea to simply speak to the prince, but Amalthea is afraid because she can tell Lír wants her in the same way the Red Bull wants her. Lír is more frightening to her “because he has a kind heart” (183). Amalthea laments that the horse died. Molly reassures her that she’ll regain her magic when she is made a unicorn again. Amalthea feels she is losing herself to her human form. She describes it as being herself and being a second person who doesn’t remember what she’s searching for or why she’s come to the castle. Molly reminds her that they’re searching for the unicorns. Amalthea remembers herself at this reminder.
They hear the Red Bull turning in its sleep, rumbling the castle. Amalthea wants to find the bull as soon as possible, “before I forget myself forever” (186). No one knows the way to the Red Bull, but Molly assures Amalthea that she and Schmendrick will find the way. Amalthea has lost faith in Schmendrick, who has played a fool for King Haggard, but Molly says this is Schmendrick’s diversion to buy them time.
Haggard’s four men-at-arms come to the scullery for food. They are very old and thin. One greets Amalthea with a vow to miraculously turn young again if she wills it, for that is how fair they believe she is. Amalthea replies that they’ll never be young again and leaves. The oldest man believes Amalthea is wise for her age and compliments Molly’s cooking. They do not ordinarily have savory food for Haggard thinks it’s a waste. The only reason they stay with Haggard, since he does not pay them, is because they are old and have no other prospects. One man comments that he looks forward to Lír taking the throne.
Molly asks about Lír and the curse, but the men think too highly of Lír for him to bring ruin to the castle. Despite the curse, the men believe the Red Bull will protect Haggard. One man admits they stay because Haggard wishes them to stay, and the Red Bull always ensures that Haggard gets what he wants. The men begin to debate the nature of the Red Bull. Molly asks if they know about unicorns, and the men finish their meals in silence.
Alone in the scullery with the cat, Molly listens as the Red Bull departs for the night, searching for the final unicorn that escaped him. The cat begins to talk to Molly about the Red Bull, and Molly asks if he could always talk, but the cat replies that it was Amalthea that made him want to speak. The cat knows Amalthea is a unicorn, which is why he was afraid for her to touch him. The cat warns Molly that Amalthea will lose herself to her human body if they cannot find the unicorns. He tells Molly of the king’s path down to the Red Bull, but when Molly asks for more information, the cat gives her a riddle involving wine, a skull, and a clock. Molly knows of a skull near a broken clock. Molly begs for more information about the path and about the whereabouts of the unicorns, but the cat refuses to give her straight answers and eventually ceases to speak altogether.
Chapter 11 Summary
When Lír returns from his conquest several days later, he tells Molly in the scullery that he has decided to silently adore Amalthea, and “be as anonymous as the air she breathes” (197). He plans to leave her unsigned love poetry but otherwise will not bother her. Molly says it’s a good idea, but Lír does not want any hope, adding that he “must learn to live without hope, as my father does, and perhaps we will understand each other at last” (198). Lír will still perform heroic feats but only because it is habit now. Molly proofreads Lír’s poems.
Schmendrick joins them. He is exhausted from the tricks Haggard has him performing every day. It’s like working at Mommy Fortuna’s Midnight Carnival, and Schmendrick knows the king extracts pleasure from Schmendrick’s misery. They lower their voices and talk about finding the path to the Red Bull, and Lír is too engulfed in his poetry to hear them. Schmendrick thinks Haggard knows about their quest and keeps Schmendrick busy so they cannot find the Red Bull. Schmendrick worries that Amalthea is no longer a unicorn because her human spirit has grown too strong.
When the men-at-arms come to dinner, Lír leaves, embarrassed to be writing poetry in front of them. As he ascends the stairwell, he runs into a disoriented Lady Amalthea. She has had nightmares about her time in Mommy Fortuna’s carnival. Lír helps her to understand that she was dreaming. Amalthea tells Lír about her dreams, the content of which describes her life and journey as a unicorn, but she is vague because she does not fully understand the flashbacks. She cannot remember anything before coming to the castle. Though she is troubled, she does not cry. Lír tells her his only wish is to be useful to her. He wants her to dream of him so he can help protect her in her nightmares. Amalthea is comforted by this and asks him to sing for her. Lír sings to her, which makes her happy. When he finishes his song, they hear King Haggard and Schmendrick coming up the steps. Haggard complains about the singing, so Lír and Amalthea run to another part of the castle to be alone together.
As seasons pass, Molly and Schmendrick continue their duties. Lady Amalthea and Prince Lír have continued their courtship. Amalthea cannot remember anything before Prince Lír except when she dreams of it. One afternoon, Amalthea watches from a high tower for Lír's return from a journey. She watches the sea and sings to herself.
King Haggard joins her and watches the sea with her. He knows she was a unicorn. He warns her that her love for Lír has made her slow. Amalthea doesn’t understand what he’s talking about. Haggard does not love nor claim Lír as his own; Lír only made him happy for a short time. Only one possession has ever truly been his, and Lír doesn’t know about it. Haggard warns Amalthea against taking it from him. She thinks he means the Red Bull and says she only wants Lír. Haggard is angry that she has forgotten her quest. Her mannerisms, beauty, and reflectionless eyes have clued Haggard in on her true nature. He invites her to look at the sea with him: This is where he has kept the unicorns. The Red Bull gathered them for him. The unicorns dare not leave the sea, for they fear the Red Bull. Only the unicorns make Haggard happy. He saw a couple unicorns as a boy, and that memory is the only thing he cherishes. He hopes the unicorns will continue to fear the Red Bull once he dies so the unicorns will belong to him forever.
King Haggard finally tells Amalthea that she was the last unicorn and asks how she managed to change shape. Amalthea doesn’t understand and cannot see anything in the sea. Haggard looks in her eyes and sees his own shallow reflection. He grows angry that Amalthea denies herself. Memories of her time as a unicorn flood her head, but they are hard to piece together. She closes her eyes until King Haggard leaves. Schmendrick finds her and brings her inside, having heard about the unicorns in the sea. When he sees that Amalthea’s face is wet, he hopes that it’s just spray from the ocean and not human tears.
Chapters 10-11 Analysis
Chapters 10 and 11 primarily focus on the relationship between Lady Amalthea and Prince Lír and Amalthea’s descent into humanity. In Chapter 10, Amalthea confides in Molly about feeling herself slip away. She feels she is “two—myself, and this other that you call ‘my lady’” (184). Amalthea goes on to say the other “searches the sea and the sky, the castle and the courtyard, the keep and the king’s face, for something she cannot always remember” (185). Later, the cat warns Molly that “Soon [Amalthea] will no longer remember who she is, or why she came to this place, and the Red Bull will no longer roar in the night for her” (194). By Chapter 11, Lady Amalthea has completely forgotten her life as a unicorn, succumbing to her human form. She “remembered nothing before the castle and [Prince Lír]” (212). Her love for Prince Lír has occupied her mind, and her world “began and ended with Prince Lír” (212). Even when King Haggard reminds her of her true nature, Lady Amalthea becomes confused and frightened. Because unicorns are a symbol of innocence throughout the book, the loss of her unicorn-self and her descent into humanity represents the loss of innocence. The unicorn can no longer recall her immortal self or the emotions she felt about humanity from an outside perspective. She feels human through and through, showing how much of herself she’s lost.
Prince Lír’s attraction to and pursuit of Lady Amalthea parallels King Haggard’s desire for unicorns. In Chapter 11, King Haggard finally reveals why he’s collected the unicorns and where he’s keeping them. Haggard remarks that the first time he saw a unicorn, he was just a boy and he “thought [he] was going to die” of the joy he felt (219). Haggard indicated in Chapter 9 that there is little that makes him happy, but when he saw the unicorns, he decided “I must have that. I must have all of it, all there is, for my need is very great” (219). Haggard also explains that the Red Bull “can only tell the difference between what I want and what I do not want” (219). This parallels Lady Amalthea’s sentiments in Chapter 10, where she expresses that “[Prince Lír] wants me, as much as the Red Bull did, and with no more understanding” (183). Before Prince Lír gets to know Lady Amalthea, he is strongly drawn to her, begging for her attention and wishing to do anything for her. His desire for her rivals the Red Bull’s, which is just a vessel of fulfilling Haggard’s desire. In this way, Prince Lír and King Haggard, though unrelated by blood, have something in common: They both have a deep, aching need for Amalthea. However, Lír believes he is pursuing the fairest maiden he’s ever seen while Haggard knows he is pursuing a unicorn.
The theme of aging and mortality is revisited when Haggard wonders “what will become of [the unicorns] when I am gone” (220). He adds that he hopes the unicorns continue to fear the Red Bull and stay in the sea, “for then they will belong to me forever” (220). King Haggard understands his mortality and the inevitability of it. By keeping the unicorns trapped long after he has perished, he ensures that his legacy will continue as long as the unicorns remain in the sea. This plays into the tragic inevitability of aging. Because all mortals understand that they will grow old and die, they seek a lasting legacy to keep some part of them alive long after they are gone. They can never be perfect and immortal like the unicorn, so, as Schmendrick says in Chapter 3, “mortals [...] take what they can get” (47).
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