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Chapter 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Graveyard Book, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Community, Identity, and Coming of Age
Parents and Guardians
Life and Death
Good, Evil, and Assumptions
Summary
Analysis
Bod knows something is happening when Mrs. Owens kicks him out into the winter night so she can hem her dress and dust. As Bod turns to go, Mrs. Owens sings a couplet: “Rich man, poor man, come away. / Come to dance the Macabray.” She refuses to explain what it means. Bod then finds Mother Slaughter squinting at a climbing plant. She asks Bod to tell her if the flowers are blooming and scolds him for saying that nothing blooms in winter. Mother Slaughter says that everything blooms in its time and recites a couplet that mentions the Macabray. When Bod asks what the Macabray is, Mother Slaughter disappears. Bod then asks his friend Fortinbras to play, but Fortinbras is busy getting ready for “tomorrow night.” Fortinbras’s grandmother sends Bod away and recites another couplet.
As all the ghosts talk about something called the Macabray, Bod feels out of the loop and as though he’s not a real part of the community. And in some ways, Bod isn’t—he’s the only living person in the graveyard and is therefore fundamentally different from his parents and peers. But Bod still doesn’t see himself as being all that different from the ghosts in the graveyard. The ghosts are Bod’s playmates and guardians, and Bod is so used to being in the graveyard that he may not even notice that he’s different. The Macabray, then, throws Bod’s mortality into sharp relief.
Themes
Confused, Bod heads for the church to wait for Silas. Early in the morning, Silas arrives with a bag of clothes for Bod. He explains that Bod is 10 now and old enough to dress like a living person. Once Bod learns to tie his shoelaces, he asks Silas what the Macabray is. Silas says that it’s a dance, but he can’t tell Bod anything more. Silas notes that one needs to be dead or alive to dance the Macabray—and he is neither. Bod wants to hug and comfort Silas, but Silas isn’t the affectionate type. Silas compliments Bod’s new outfit and observes that he looks like he grew up outside the graveyard. When Bod asks if he can stay in the graveyard forever with Silas, Silas says simply, “Everything in its season.”
Allowing Bod to graduate from wearing a sheet to modern street clothes reinforces that Bod is different from everyone else in the graveyard. While his gray sheet may have made him look more ghostly, now it’s more obvious that Bod is alive. It’s possible that Silas brought Bod clothes in preparation for the Macabray, since Bod, as a living person, can dance it. Silas’s inability to participate (as a vampire, he’s neither alive nor dead) again suggests that Silas may be Bod’s beloved guardian, but that doesn’t mean that Silas is truly at home here.
Themes
The next day, Bod smells something floral and follows his nose to vines that are covered in clusters of white flowers. When Bod hears footsteps, he Fades into the ivy. Three living men and a woman arrive, carrying baskets and scissors. The men instruct the woman—the town mayor, Mrs. Caraway—to fill the baskets with blossoms. Mrs. Caraway thinks this is ridiculous, but one of the men says it’s a tradition. Later, he explains, they’ll distribute a flower to every person in the Old Town. Another man says that the winter blossoms haven’t bloomed in 80 years, and the third says, haltingly, “One to leave and one to stay and all to dance the Macabray.” None of them believes in ghosts, but they feel like someone is watching them.
It’s telling that Mrs. Caraway and her associates seem to have only a cursory understanding of what they’re doing and why. This suggests that what’s happening is beyond their understanding or their control—it may be happening “in its season,” as Silas and Mother Slaughter said. The 80 years that have passed between this Macabray and the last seems to point to the average lifespan of a person in England—so the Macabray may have to do with life and death. This is also supported by the fact that now, Bod has heard both ghosts and living people talking about it.
Themes
Darkness comes early that evening. Bod can’t find any ghosts to play with, and he starts to panic when he can’t find Silas either. From the graveyard’s front gates, he can hear music. It sounds like a prelude or an overture. Bod walks into the Old Town and passes Mrs. Caraway, who’s pinning flowers to people’s lapels. Everyone Bod sees has a flower. The music seems to be coming from “the edge of perception.” Bod realizes with a start that everyone is walking in time with the music. He asks one of Mrs. Caraway’s associates for a flower. The associate explains that it’s an old tradition to give away the winter flowers to everyone.
This is the first time since Bod was an infant that he’s found himself totally alone, so it’s understandably unsettling for him. However, it’s telling that in this moment, Bod runs toward the living rather than waiting for the dead or Silas to appear. This reinforces that even though Bod is part of the graveyard family, he’s still part of the living, too. And in times like this, when the supernatural realm seems to cross over into the world of the living, Bod is reminded of this fact.
Themes
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The music gets louder. Bod wonders if he can hear it better thanks to his flower and feels like dancing. Instead, he jogs down to the municipal garden in front of the Old Town Hall. People are gathered there, listening to the music. It’s the most living people Bod has ever seen at once. Bod knows that whatever’s happening, this is unusual. He tries to ask a young woman with a baby what’s going on, but she just sways. Suddenly, the music stops. The clock strikes midnight and then, the ghosts walk down the hill from the graveyard. They walk five in a row and step in time. When the dead reach the square, Josiah Worthington asks Mrs. Caraway to dance. As their hands touch, the music begins in earnest.
Even though Bod doesn’t know what’s going on, he doesn’t seem as afraid at this point. This may be because the supernatural music feels familiar and makes this seem less worrying. Seeing the ghosts walk down the hill and begin the dance reinforces that the Macabray is a version of the danse macabre, or the dance of death: an artistic allegory from the Late Middle Ages. The living dance with the dead, and it’s a reminder for the living that death can come for them at any time—so it’s important to live life and enjoy it while it lasts.
Themes
Liza grabs Bod’s hand and leads him into the dance. Bod feels a “fierce joy” and his feet seem to know the steps. After Liza, Bod dances with Fortinbras. He sees Abanazer Bolger dancing with Miss Borrows. The dancing couples form long lines and Bod finds himself next to Liza. She can’t answer where the music comes from but says that the ghosts always remember. Then, she points excitedly to a horse carrying a beautiful woman. The Lady on the Grey dismounts, curtseys to the dancers, and then joins them. The dance gets faster and Bod marvels that everyone is dancing. But then he notices Silas standing alone. Bod calls to Silas to join them, but Silas disappears.
Though Bod seems to think he’s just dancing with his friends, it’s telling that he dances as one of the living, not as one of the dead (the couples seem to be made up of one live person and one ghost, which is why Bod is paired with ghosts). Silas, however, can’t join the dance because as a vampire, he’s not living or dead. The whole town and graveyard seems to be here and be participating; that Silas is set apart reinforces his feelings of unbelonging.
Themes
Someone announces the last dance and Bod finds himself dancing with the Lady on the Grey. Bod compliments her horse and asks if he can ride it. The Lady says that someday, Bod will—everyone does. As the dance ends, Bod bows to the Lady and feels suddenly exhausted. The clock chimes 12 times and Bod doesn’t know how long he’s been dancing. He realizes the dead are gone, but the ground is covered in the white flowers.
As the person who carries everyone to their death, the Lady on the Grey knows that Bod will die someday, just like everyone else. It’s possible to read Bod’s request to ride the horse as an innocent one, but Bod may also ask because he doesn’t see anything wrong with being dead. He doesn’t entirely understand that he’s different from the ghosts.
Themes
When Bod wakes up the next day, he’s eager to talk about the Macabray. But Mrs. Owens snorts and reminds Bod he’s not allowed out of the graveyard. Bod finds Josiah Worthington and says that Josiah started the dance. Josiah says that “the dead and the living do not mingle,” and points out that if they danced the danse macabre, they wouldn’t talk about it—especially not to the living. Bod realizes he danced with the living, not with the ghosts. He leaves Josiah and races down the hill, looking for Silas. Bod tells Silas not to lie to him: he saw Silas watching the dance last night. He asks why nobody will talk about it. Silas says that people can’t talk about some things and others don’t remember. Bod is afraid and confused, but it starts to snow and Bod forgets all about the Macabray.
Silas essentially proposes that some things are too fantastical to talk about—and for the living, some things are too strange to remember. But because Bod toes the line between the living and the dead, he can remember. In this sense, Bod may understand the symbolism of the Macabray better than anyone. He knows what it’s like to be dead, since all of his friends and parents are ghosts. On some level, Bod knows that he’ll join them one day. But because Bod knows what a ghost’s existence is like, he may understand better than others why he should endeavor to live and enjoy it.
Themes
