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Summary: Chapter 6

Constance gives Charles a key to the gate before he goes to the village to run errands. Since Merricat has nothing to do now that Charles has offered to go into the village in her stead, she snoops in their father’s room where Charles has been staying. She discovers he has been looking through their father’s jewelry. Believing it will provide protection and help drive Charles out, Merricat takes a gold watch chain that belonged to their father and nails it to a tree in the woods.

When Charles finds the watch chain, he’s aghast that someone would be so careless with something worth so much money. Constance explains that this is just the sort of thing Merricat does. Later, while Constance is putting Uncle Julian to sleep, Charles obliquely taunts Merricat, asking Jonas what would happen to Merricat if he and Constance kicked her out.

Merricat asks Constance, not for the first time, when Charles will be leaving. Constance is losing patience with Merricat, and urges her to drop the matter. Frustrated, Merricat decides to ask Charles to leave their home. He refuses, and Merricat runs inside and shatters the dresser mirror in their father’s room.

Uncle Julian is requiring more help now than ever. Charles watches with disgust and disdain as Uncle Julian struggles to feed himself at dinner, and encourages Constance not to run to him every time he needs her. Merricat follows Charles to the village one day and watches as he sits with the gossiping men outside the general store. When she returns home, Constance expresses regret for the ways she has failed Merricat and Uncle Julian by retreating from the world the way she has. She says Uncle Julian should be in a hospital, and Merricat should have a life of her own.

Charles says one day he’d like to go through the papers in their father’s study, and Uncle Julian becomes disturbed by the idea of Charles going through his papers, including his notes for the book he’s writing. He commands Constance not to let him, after he’s passed. In the evening, Constance plays the harp while Charles examines their belongings and wonders about their value. When Uncle Julian asks her to play more, Charles cuts him off and says he and Constance have plans to make.

Analysis: Chapter 6

Charles is attempting to reshape the home and family structure into one that revolves around him. He wants Constance to prioritize him over Merricat and Uncle Julian, and in his ideal world, they would not factor into her daily routine at all. When Uncle Julian has difficulty feeding himself, a sight Charles that finds repulsive, he demands that Constance help. However, when Uncle Julian calls to her, Charles insists she need not go to him. This suggests Charles wishes to be the dominant force in her life, that it should be her job to relieve his discomfort and his alone.  

It’s evident he is the one putting ideas in Constance’s head about Uncle Julian going to live in a hospital and Merricat detaching herself from Constance. Notably, Charles’s attempts to get rid of Merricat include a boyfriend who may one day become her husband, erasing her identity as a Blackwood altogether. He pushes not for her to gain independence but to transfer her affection to someone else, perhaps because Charles can think of nothing else that might occupy a woman’s time besides a man for her to serve.

In his attempts to impose his will on the household, Charles struggles to make Merricat and Constance see the value of money. He is flabbergasted that they keep all their money in a safe right there in the home, and further disturbed when he discovers both sisters are indifferent toward objects of great monetary value. Neither Merricat nor Constance has ever wanted for anything, but they are also frugal, seemingly only taking money to purchase necessities in the village. Charles, in contrast, can’t understand why neither seems to care about the broken watch chain. Uncle Julian notes he thought John Blackwood was buried with the chain, suggesting again that Charles is an echo of John come back to life. 

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