Shakespeare References in The Arm Of The Starfish

Madeleine L’Engle’s novel The Arm Of The Starfish possibly contains a few Shakespeare references, and all three are to the same line from Hamlet, which itself is biblical reference. So it may be that Madeleine L’Engle is just making a biblical reference, except that the phrase is Shakespeare’s. The line she refers to is “There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow,” which Hamlet speaks to Horatio in Act V. The first time Madeleine L’Engle refers to this line occurs when Joshua is explaining to Adam the reason he must choose sides. Joshua says: “It’s the fall of the sparrow I care about, Adam. But who is the sparrow? We run into problems there too” (p. 83). The second time occurs when Adam has chosen sides. L’Engle writes: “He knew that if Kali needed him he could not reject her plea for help. Joshua had said that his side cared about the fall of the sparrow; Kali, in her frantic cry as Adam climbed out of the helicopter, had become a sparrow” (p. 153). And the last occurs on the book’s final page. L’Engle writes: “‘It was what he always said,’ Adam choked out, ‘about the sparrow. Even Kali would be a sparrow to Joshua. If you’re going to care about the fall of the sparrow you can’t pick and choose who’s going to be the sparrow. It’s everybody, and you’re stuck with it’” (p. 240).

The Arm Of The Starfish was published in 1965. My copy was from the seventh Laurel-Leaf printing, June 1983.