Mexican Gothic: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

Noemí is allowed to visit Catalina without supervision, now that she knows the family’s secrets. Catalina seems much more lucid than normal—probably the work of Marta’s tincture. In the middle of their conversation Catalina freezes. “He knows something is wrong,” she says, then lies down and refuses to say anything else. 

Francis takes Noemí to try on her wedding dress. Though the dress is clearly old and has yellowed, that’s not what repulses Noemí. To her, the dress represents the youthful fancies of another girl—a dead girl. Perhaps two. It reminds her of a dead snake’s skin and of an ouroboros. Florence forces her to put on the dress so that alterations can be made before the ceremony.

Noemí tries on the shoes and veil, too, but they don’t suit her well. Florence tells her so. Noemí mocks her: if Noemí looks displeasing, perhaps they should call off the wedding? It’s much too late, Florence responds. Howard’s appetite has been whetted. She says that all this talk of fitness and blood is nothing more than a disguise for the common lust of all men. Howard simply wants Noemí, like a little butterfly in his collection. One more pretty girl.

Florence leaves and Noemí changes back into her clothes. Francis comes by a while later with her dinner and a razor wrapped in a handkerchief. A groan resounds throughout the house. Francis tells Noemí that the transmigration must take place soon. Howard’s body is falling apart; it’s never healed right since Ruth shot him. Then Francis reveals that he can’t escape with Noemí. The fungus connects him too strongly to his family, so they would be able to track him down wherever he went. Besides, this is the only world he’s ever known. He was grown like an orchid: carefully reared for a certain climate. He belongs with his family.

Noemí is angry with Francis—he’s not an orchid. He can choose to leave. He doesn’t belong here. But Francis chuckles, doesn’t she get it? The tincture can sever her and Catalina’s link with the fungus, but it won’t work on Francis. His connection is much too strong. Unfortunately, what he’s saying makes sense to Noemí. But she’s not giving up yet.

That night, Noemí tries to enter the gloom on her own for the first time. She lies down to sleep and continuously thinks about Ruth. Eventually she dreams. Noemí and Ruth sit in the cemetery, beneath the statue of Agnes. Ruth tells Noemí that this is a statue of mother, and she sleeps. But Noemí knows that Alice is Ruth’s mother. Then Ruth says that her father is a monster who comes at night. Noemí tells her that her father can’t hurt her anymore. Ruth’s a ghost, and you can’t hurt a ghost. “He can always hurt us,” Ruth responds. “He never stops hurting us. He will never stop.”

Noemí asks Ruth if she knows a way for a Doyle to leave High Place and never return. Is that possible? Ruth tells her that Howard is strong. When she tried to escape, he knew something was wrong, and he sent mother, and the rest, to stop her. Perhaps someone could run away, but the compulsion to stay is in the blood. Noemí assures herself that she’ll carry Francis out if she needs to, and her resolve grows firmer.