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Summary: Chapter 5

Merricat returns to the house in the morning, and at first it seems nothing has changed; Constance is making breakfast and Uncle Julian is working on his book. When Constance informs Merricat that Charles stayed the night and slept in their father’s bed, Merricat becomes distressed. She insists he was a ghost, and throws her glass on the floor, believing this will prompt him to leave. Constance explains to her that Charles’s father, their uncle Arthur Blackwood, forbade Charles from visiting them. Now that his father is dead, Charles has come to help them. Merricat cannot understand why Constance hasn’t sent him away and feels threatened by his presence in their home.

Charles comes downstairs and meets Uncle Julian, informing him that his brother has died. Uncle Julian asks if Arthur died wealthy, which Charles denies, claiming he left nothing behind. Uncle Julian notes that Charles may see Constance as a romantic prospect. Merricat refuses to engage with him until Charles turns to her, asking the name of her cat and assuring her they’ll be good friends. Constance makes Charles pancakes, which Uncle Julian wryly notes Charles would be brave to try, given her history of having possibly poisoned the family. After hesitating, he eats the pancakes and offers to help around the house. When Uncle Julian brings up the murders, Charles shuts him down, declaring he doesn’t want to talk about them and the subject is best left forgotten. To placate the abashed Uncle Julian, Constance wheels him outside to sit in the sun. Charles tells Jonas he hopes Merricat will like him one day, but all that really matters is that Constance does.

After Merricat and Constance neaten the house, and Constance makes it clear she wants Charles to stay, Merricat begins plotting how best to drive him out. At dinner, he sits in their father’s chair at the table. Uncle Julian addresses Charles as if he were John, and Charles once again firmly commands Uncle Julian not mention the murders. He offers to fix a broken step and go to the grocery store in the village for them the next day, taunting Merricat because he’s taking her job. Merricat reels off a list of poisonous mushrooms in response, making Charles uncomfortable.

Analysis: Chapter 5

Until now, we have seen little of Merricat’s relationship with Uncle Julian besides her promises to herself to be kinder to him (which she does primarily by asking Constance to make him his favorite foods), suggesting she has not always treated him kindly. But Merricat becoming angry with Charles on Uncle Julian’s behalf positions Charles as their common enemy. Charles presents a disruption of their carefully constructed routines, dissuading the disconcerted Uncle Julian from talking about the murders as much as he likes and wedging himself between Merricat and Constance.

From the start, Charles is focused on Constance; astutely, Uncle Julian points out that the reason Charles is most likely here is to make Constance his wife and gain access to their family’s money, which Charles is disturbed to learn they keep in the house. He takes their father’s chair at the dinner table and sleeps in his bedroom, furthering the symbolic connection between himself and John Blackwood. Merricat emphasizes this connection by insisting to Constance and Jonas that Charles is a ghost, an image evocative of the idea that their father has come back to haunt them. In his quest to become the man of the house, it’s clear Charles would not be as lenient with Merricat as Constance has been. He is not as accepting of her strangeness, nor of Julian’s, and when Merricat rebuffs his attempts to connect with her, he says it doesn’t matter if she likes him because Constance does.

The motif of threes appears once again as Merricat promises herself she’ll break the mirror in the hallway if Charles is not gone in three days. Just as she shattered the milk jug when Helen Clarke tried to persuade Constance to return, here again Merricat showcases an inclination toward destruction when dealing with difficult emotions, something that does not bode well for Charles.

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