59 pages • 1 hour read
The Cruelest Month
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Symbols & Motifs
The Hadley House
To nearly every character, the Hadley house is a symbol of evil. Even Beauvoir, who prides himself on his skepticism, is tested by it; when Gamache asks, “You think the house is to blame?” Beauvoir replies, “Don’t you?” (56). The other characters seem to agree, except for Gilles Sandon, who believes the house needs their help. Many people, including Gamache, have experienced trauma in connection with the house, and as a result, it has become a repository for negative emotions in Three Pines.
Jeanne claims that the Hadley house balances Three Pines—further, that the happiness of the village would not be possible without it: “Three Pines is a happy place because you let your sorrow go. But it doesn’t go far. Just up the hill [...] To the old Hadley house” (29). As an outsider, Jeanne has a perspective that forces the villagers to reconsider their perspective on the Hadley house.
At the end of the novel, when the villagers decide to renovate the house, Gamache realizes that rather than being evil itself, it may have just been burdened by their negativity. His perspective shifts as he scrapes paint from its walls: “Years of decay, years of neglect, of sorrow, were being scraped away. [...] Had the old house been moaning for pleasure when company finally arrived?” (306). Penny’s use of the house as a symbol shifts from it being evil to being sad and lonely, the result of having to bear the village’s collective sorrows. She then gives the villagers of Three Pines a way to reclaim the Hadley house and bring it into the community, purging it of everything they have burdened it with.
Harsh Spring and Dead Robin
Spring is often seen as a time of rebirth and reawakening, yet Penny consistently reminds readers that it is also a harsh time in nature. This is emphasized even in the title, The Cruelest Month, a reference to the first line of T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”: “April is the cruellest month.” From the beginning, Penny highlights the harsher side of spring, with bears that eat Easter chocolate, hailstorms, and frosts that kill newly sprouted flowers.
Perhaps the most deliberate reminder of spring’s cruelty is the dead baby robin in the Hadley house. When Lacoste, Clara, and Myrna discover it in the center of the séance circle, the dead bird seems an ominous harbinger that their aspirations are doomed. As Gamache notes, “It was a baby robin. A symbol of spring, or rebirth. Dead” (159). Penny uses this shocking symbol to remind the reader that spring is a time for rebirth and of all the violence and disruption bringing new life into the world entails.
The investigation takes place in April, a harsh and unpredictable time in Quebec. As Ruth points out, “Nature’s in turmoil. Anything can happen” (5). This turmoil echoes that which is about to descend on Three Pines as the murder upsets the village. Penny continually reminds the reader of this, even with the hailstorm that descends without warning. The day after the storm, it “smelled wonderful, but looked like a slaughter. All the young tulips and daffodils had been flattened by the storm” (209). Harsh and unpredictable spring weather mirrors how the characters relate to each other throughout the novel until the end, when they surrender to their motives.
When the mystery is solved, and Gamache and Reine-Marie return to Three Pines, “it [is] a sunny spring day, the young leaves in full bloom and turning the trees every shade of fresh green” (306). Penny uses this imagery to contrast with the earlier weather, showing the reader that the village has passed through the trauma and is now experiencing hope, completing the cycle of rebirth that typically characterizes spring.
Ruth’s Ducklings
One minor plot thread concerns Ruth Zardo, who scares a mother duck away from her nest and takes care of the eggs and, eventually, the ducklings. This motif, with its lighthearted tone, fits the conventions of the cozy-mystery genre, which often features a quirky town with eccentric characters. However, Ruth’s small storyline is not just there for entertainment—Penny uses it as another opportunity to explore the danger that overwhelming and intrusive attachment can bring.
Ruth, normally acerbic and harsh, cares for the ducklings tenderly, and they bond with her, following her to the grocery store. It is a sight that makes the villagers smile, and it is not until the coroner comes to town that the gently humorous side plot takes a more serious turn. One of the ducklings is noticeably weaker, and she comments to Gamache that it may be dying.
Later, when Ruth confesses she helped it to crack its shell when it was born, Gabri tells her about the emperor moth, for whom the fight out of the cocoon helps prepare it for the world: “They need to fight their way out of the cocoon. It builds their wings and muscles. It’s the struggle that saves them. Without it they’re crippled. If you help an emperor moth, you kill it” (251). Ruth absorbs the idea that she may have killed the duckling while doing her best to love it. Penny here comments again on the many facets of love and the ways in which it can manifest unintended consequences.
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By Louise Penny
