Mexican Gothic: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

Noemí visits Catalina, but Florence no longer allows them to be alone together. Mary, the maid, chaperones the visit. Catalina asks Noemí to read her some poetry from a collection by Sor Juana. Noemí opens the book to the page Catalina requests, and there she finds a note folded between the pages. She carefully tucks the note into her pocket while Mary’s back is turned. Eventually Florence arrives and tells Noemí that it’s time for Catalina to rest. She hurriedly returns to her bedroom, eager to read the note. 

Noemí unfolds the paper and sees, written in Catalina’s script, “this is proof.” The paper appears to have been torn from Ruth’s diary. She was hearing voices and was preparing to do something dangerous. This place may have been bearable, she wrote, were it not for him—"our lord and master. Our God”. It’s up to Ruth to save everyone. Killing Howard won’t be murder, it’ll be salvation. He mercilessly beat Ruth when he found out about Benito, and she swore then that she would never bear a child or do his will again.  

Noemí is in disbelief; could this really be a page from Ruth’s diary? Where could Catalina have found this? Catalina wrote that this was proof, but proof of what, Noemí wonders. Physicians of old would conclude that this was a case of three hysteric women. But Noemí knew that she was not hysterical. Perhaps there was a rational explanation for all of this—nothing supernatural. She wants to talk to someone about all this, so she goes in search of Francis.

Noemí knocks on Francis’s bedroom door, and he lets her in. The walls in his room are covered in colorful drawings and prints of botanical specimens. Pens, ink, and half-finished drawings cover the table. Noemí asks Francis about his artwork, but he’s embarrassed and quickly changes the subject. He asks her if she plans to be involved with her father’s business. Noemí responds that she sees no reason why she should be involved in the paint business—or worse, marry the heir of another paint company. She wants to do something different. Perhaps she’ll become a top-notch anthropologist.

Noemí feels a desire to lean forward and kiss Francis, but she hesitates. It’s easy to kiss someone when it doesn’t matter, but a kiss with Francis would be meaningful. She asks him if he’s ever thought that High Place might be haunted. He frowns and tells her that there’s no such thing as ghosts. Noemí persists: what if Catalina is perfectly sane and there is a haunting in this house, but one that could be explained logically? People used to think that Victorian hatters were prone to going crazy, but really it was the materials they worked with. Mixing mercury and dye creates a vapor that affects the mind. Perhaps something similar is happening in High Place—chemicals in the paint on the walls that are making people go mad.

Francis stands up suddenly and grips Noemí’s hands. In Spanish he tells her not to say another word. He’s never spoken to her in Spanish while in High Place before, and Noemí can’t remember him ever deliberately touching her either. Francis tells her that she’s clever, too clever. She needs to take his advice and leave High Place. Just because there aren’t ghosts doesn’t mean that the house can’t be haunted. She is like his father, too fearless. And his father paid the price. Noemí knows that Francis’s father fell down a ravine, and she asks if there was more to it. What really happened to him?

A moan interrupts their conversation. Francis grimaces, as if in pain, and tells Noemí that Uncle Howard is having another rough night. She attempts to console Francis, telling him that she’s sorry his uncle is in such pain. “You have no idea,” Francis says, “if only he would die.” Noemí is shocked at the vehemence of Francis’s resentment. Francis whispers that when he was small Howard used to beat him with his cane, telling Francis that he was teaching him how to be strong. In those moments, he would think that Ruth was right to shoot him. Only she couldn’t finish him off. Uncle Howard is a monster, Francis says, don’t trust him, or Florence, or Virgil. He rushes Noemí from the room, telling her that Florence must be on her way to fetch him by now.