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Chapter 23
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mexican Gothic, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sexism, Female Independence, and Power
Nature vs. Love
Colonialism
Life, Death, and Rebirth
Summary
Analysis
Noemí and Francis’s wedding occurs in reverse: first comes the banquet, then comes the ceremony. All but Howard and Dr. Cummins gather in the dining room for the meal. The Doyles have laid out their oldest silver—pieces that the family must have used 400 years ago, when they reigned like masters in this part of the world. The rule of silence has been reinstated, and all but Noemí eats in silence. The scene reminds her of a picture in one of her childhood fairy tale books, when the wedding banquet is in place and an evil fairy walks into the room.
Just like Noemí’s dream that depicted Howard’s perverse version of a Catholic Eucharist, this wedding is equally abnormal. The banquet comes before the ceremony, and merrymaking is disallowed in favor of silence. Howard enforces convention, and the ceremonies that he insists upon are often oppressive or degrading.
Themes
After dinner, the group proceeds to Howard’s bedroom for the ceremony. The old man is covered in pustules, and the room smells rotten. Francis and Noemí stand before Howard’s bed. Howard begins the ceremony, but he speaks in Latin and Noemí cannot understand what he’s saying. Francis kneels, and Noemí follows his lead. She thinks that this choreographed obeisance to the father has meaning: repetition, tracing the same path over and over again. Circles.
Howard has lived for centuries, performing the same ceremonies over and over again. Noemí doesn’t speak Latin, so the content of the ceremony is meaningless (a consequence of its age and Howard’s refusal to change anything). Instead Noemí understands that meaning comes from the fact that Howard leads the ceremony, and everyone obeys him—this adherence to old ceremonies reinforces the old, sexist power structure that exists in High Place.
Themes
Howard hands them both a mushroom and tells them to eat. They do, and then they sip some wine. Francis asks Noemí if he can kiss her, and she nods. After a quick kiss, the ceremony ends. Howard commands the others to “instruct the young people that they may be bountiful.” Francis is led away by Virgil, and Noemí follows Florence back to her bedroom. Florence tells Noemí that the Doyle brides are proper girls, chaste and modest—they typically need instruction before the consummation. Noemí dismisses Florence, telling her that she can manage alone.
As opposed to Virgil and Howard, who forcefully kissed Noemí, Francis asks for her permission, demonstrating his respect for her. Howard’s pronouncement at the end of the ceremony demonstrates what he thinks the only point of a union between a man and a woman is: reproduction.
Themes
Noemí feels a little lightheaded, so she lies down to wait for Francis. After a few minutes, she turns her head and sees Virgil standing next to her bed, leering at her. He grabs her arm and tells her that they know about her and Francis’s plan. Noemí has Francis’s razor hidden under her mattress, but she feels drunk. She asks Virgil if they poisoned her. No, Virgil sneers, but they did give her a little wedding present: the mushroom was an aphrodisiac. Francis is being reprimanded and everyone else is busy, but Virgil claims to know what Noemí wants. Life bores her—at home they’re too protective. She likes a little danger, a little scandal.
Catalina’s earlier warning that Howard “knows something is wrong” turns out to be accurate; they’ve known about the planned escape for quite some time. Now that Francis is absent, Virgil comes to the bedroom with the intention to rape Noemí. It’s just as she predicted; Francis will not always be there to stop Virgil—she has to rely on herself.
Themes
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Noemí knows that Virgil is right—she likes to flirt and tease and dance. All the boys are so careful around her because she is a Taboada, and once in a while she feels a desire to strike. But she also knows that this is just a part of her—it isn’t all of her. Virgil persists. He knows that she fantasizes about him, he says, underneath all those layers of decorum. She slaps him, and in response he grabs her neck. The feeling of his fingers on her throat makes her gasp in ruinous delight. The mold in the corner of the room shifts and blurs; streaks of gold are visible in its center.
Noemí recognizes that she likes to flirt. She’s had a sheltered, repressed upbringing as a wealthy socialite, and flirting is just another way of being unconventional—of pushing boundaries and exercising power. But just because she’s flirtatious doesn’t mean that she’s promiscuous or immoral, as Virgil implies.
Themes
Noemí shouts for Virgil to wait. She doesn’t want to ruin the dress. He’d better help her take it off. This seems to improve his mood, and Noemí manages to buy herself some time. The mold spot on the wall is dripping onto the floor, whirling with gold. Noemí feels as if something is smothering her. She’s never going to get out of this house. Wanting to leave was a mistake. She now wants to be one with Virgil.
Virgil is using the gloom to manipulate Noemí’s desires, coercing her to have sex with him. This must be the way that Howard controls people, too.
Themes
The dripping mold forms a puddle on the floor, and it reminds Noemí of the black bile that Howard spit down her throat. A wave of disgust overtakes her body, and she thinks of Catalina and Ruth and Agnes and the terrible things the family has done to them—things they will now do to her. She shoves Virgil with all her might, sending him crashing down against the floor. He hits his head and lies there unconscious. Noemí grabs Francis’s razor and runs to fetch Catalina.
While fighting against a powerful male figure, it’s the memory of the women who’ve been wronged that empowers Noemí to fight back. Virgil and Howard are repositories of old, colonial ideas (like eugenics). This scene implies that even when combating discriminatory ideologies of the past, it’s important not to totally disregard history, but rather to use it as the basis for change in the present.
Themes
