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Part 2, Chapters 18-20
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Misery, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Addiction, Compulsion, and Obsession
Fiction, Reality, and Coping
Suffering, Justice, and the Human Condition
Control and Entrapment
Summary
Analysis
Paul hears Annie’s voice, and he realizes she has injected him with something. Whatever it is dulls the panic he feels at her return. Feeling calm, he assumes she means to kill him now. Annie sits on the bed, setting down something heavy out of sight. She asks if Paul wants the good or bad news first. He is sure the bad news is that his life is about to end, which is too bad because he was starting to enjoy writing Annie’s book. But she intends for him to finish the novel—in fact, she refuses to read any more until he is finished. Paul’s apprehension grows, sure she has something worse than death in store.
Annie’s drugs numb Paul to the possibility of his own demise, exerting even more control over him. On the other hand, Paul’s calm demeanor suggests that death is preferable to the suffering he has endured. That Annie intends to let Paul finish the book speaks to her obsession with Misery’s story, which compels her to let Paul live long enough to finish writing it.
Themes
Annie’s good news is that Paul’s car is gone. Offhandedly, she remarks that the spring run-off got rid of “that Pomeroy dirty bird” but a car is much heavier than a man. Alarmed, Paul remembers the name Andrew Pomeroy from Annie’s book of victims. Annie delivers the bad news: she knows Paul has been out of his room, and that he read her book. She placed strands of hair across its pages and found them broken, indicating he had been snooping. After God answered her prayers at her Laughing Place, she made her way to the scene of Paul’s crash, knowing (she implies) that she would need to kill herself and Paul if it was still there.
The spring run-off is another natural phenomenon that alters Paul’s fate. With his car gone, it is less likely anyone will think to question Annie about Paul’s disappearance, meaning he has more time to write (and live). By referencing Andrew Pomeroy (who was similarly swept away in the spring run-off), Annie confirms Paul’s suspicions that she killed the man and reveals she knows about his illicit wanderings in her house. Her calm and controlled demeanor in this scene juxtapose the ominous feeling that punishment is coming for Paul.
Themes
Annie initially decided to rescue Paul because it seemed like providence that he wrecked his car in the exact spot she dumped Pomeroy’s body. Paul hears Annie bump against the hidden object at her feet. She tells Paul that Andrew Pomeroy claimed to be an artist, hired to draw sketches of the ruins of the Overlook Hotel. Annie picked him up hitchhiking and took him as a lover. Later, she discovered he lied about the job and was a terrible artist. Pomeroy laughed at Annie when confronted, and the next thing she remembers, he was dead in her bathtub. Assuming the police were still “out to get” her, Annie dumped Pomeroy’s body where she knew the spring melt would carry him downstream.
Annie’s claims that divine intervention brought Paul to her recalls Paul’s perception of Annie herself as godlike in the way she controls his life. The hidden object that Paul hears but cannot see increases the scene’s tension. The Overlook Hotel is the setting of another novel by Stephen King—The Shining (1977)—which also deals with themes of addiction and psychosis. Annie’s inability to recall Pomeroy’s murder indicates her own psychosis is so extreme that she occasionally blacks out and commits violent acts. By implying the police are biased against her, Annie reveals she is still living in a fictional world where she sees herself as a victim rather than a killer.
Themes
Having discovered the storm has washed Paul’s car away, Annie is pleased that he can finish her book. Driving home, she contemplated her options. She loves all of Paul, not just the part that writes such wonderful books. But she knows he does not stay with her out of his own free will, because he snuck out of his room. Annie explains how she suspected the pill boxes had been moved around, but she wasn’t sure Paul had escaped until she found the broken bobby-pin in the lock. Still high, Paul laughs at the absurdity of his worry, when Annie had known all along he’d been out of the room. The heavy thump sounds from the edge of the bed again.
By showing how natural phenomena like the spring storm help Annie get away with both murder and kidnapping, the novel highlights how powerful she seems to Paul, almost as if she is a deity who controls the weather. Like a jealous god, Annie knows that Paul would leave her if he was not imprisoned, and this angers her. She wants true love and devotion, but she takes Paul’s wanderings as proof of his betrayal (despite the fact that he never freely agreed to their arrangement in the first place). Again, the unseen object amplifies this scene’s suspense.
Themes
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Annie asks Paul how many times he left his room, and he answers honestly: three. He does not tell her about taking the knife on the third trip, claiming he went for water. Annie thinks he is lying. Paul insists that he saw how useless an attempted escape would be, given his condition. Annie gets angrier, demanding Paul tell the truth. Having found her other strands of hair disturbed throughout the house, Annie believes Paul has even been snooping upstairs. When Paul tries to show her how paranoid she sounds, Annie again demands to know how many times he left the room. After Paul reiterates his reasons, she pulls the butcher knife out of her pocket.
In her accusations against Paul, Annie reveals the extent of her obsessive paranoia. She is unable to consider other ways her booby traps may have been disturbed, assuming that Paul—like everyone else in her life—is out to get her. And while it makes logical sense that Paul, on some level, would like to get revenge on Annie, Annie doesn’t see it this way. This is because she doesn’t acknowledge that she’s done anything wrong—so in her mind, Paul is the one at fault.
Themes
Annie looked under Paul’s mattress before his “pre-op shot” and found the knife. She suggests (sarcastically) that it must have floated in from the kitchen. Paul is preoccupied by the implications of the phrase “pre-op shot.” He tells Annie that he will agree to however many times she believes he was out, not bothering to point out that her hair strands could have been disturbed by rats or drafts. Annie says the number of times doesn’t matter, because her response is the same. She tells Paul she is going to hobble him—a practice used to discourage native workers in the Kimberly diamond mines from stealing. Annie pulls back the sheets, exposing Paul’s twisted legs. He is terrified.
The phrase “pre-op shot” implies that Annie intends to operate on Paul, hence his panic. This threat of violence further breaks Paul’s will, and he abandons his convictions in the hopes that Annie will not hurt him. But Annie is determined to maintain strict control of Paul, and she believes she must follow through on the threatened punishment to do so. Likening Paul to a diamond thief implies that he tried to steal something precious from Annie—himself.
Themes
Annie retrieves an axe from the foot of the bed. She also has a propane torch and a bottle of Betadine. Paul screams, begging for mercy. Annie’s face goes strangely blank, and Paul senses she will barely remember whatever she is about to do to him. He pleads with her to no avail. Annie pours the Betadine over his left ankle. She assures him it will be over quickly, and that she shouldn’t worry, because she is a nurse. She swings the axe down into Paul’s leg, just above his ankle. The pain is shocking. Blood spatters Annie’s face as she raises the axe again. Paul tries to pull away, but his foot stays put. The second stroke severs the foot completely.
Annie’s blankness reveals the depth of her psychosis, suggesting she has divorced herself from the reality of her own terrible actions. Remarking that she is a nurse, Annie implies she is still in control of the situation, despite the fact that she seems unable to resist her own violent compulsions.
Themes
Annie tosses the axe away and takes up the propane torch. There is no time to suture, and a tourniquet won’t work—she must cauterize the wound, which is spurting blood. Paul screams as she burns him. The smell of his flesh is like cooked pork. When Annie is finished, she douses the remaining flames with water. Paul is still screaming. Annie tells Paul he will be all right, though she seems frightened. She picks up his still-spasming foot and tells him this punishment is his own fault. Paul loses consciousness and finds himself in the cloudy haze again. In his final thoughts, he threatens to “Kill you! Goddess!”
Even the way Annie closes Paul’s wound is traumatic, illustrating her extreme lack of empathy. That Annie seems afraid of her own actions is telling, suggesting that she is not actually in control, but is instead irresistibly compelled toward violence. Blaming Paul for his own suffering is abusive and reinforces Annie’s delusion that she is never at fault. Paul’s final thoughts after this extreme trauma demonstrates both his rage against Annie and his belief that he cannot defeat her godlike power.
Themes
