Immortality in the novel does not come without a cost. Howard Doyle, for instance, chooses to bury his wife alive and let a powerful fungus slowly grow through her body—all because this will grant him immortality. Thus, his immortality is built from a central act of violence against a woman’s body. And though Agnes’s body is preserved in the chamber underneath the Doyle crypt, the Doyles are instructed never to look at it. Their continued survival requires an ignorance of their family crimes—they persist in their mansion while below them Agnes screams in agony. Furthermore, the Doyles ritually murder and ingest children in order to grow closer to the fungus that keeps them alive. It is not just that their immortality was founded on a horrifying act of violence, then, but also that violence is an inherent part of the cycle of rebirth, in which the old must consume the young in order to stay alive. What’s more, the fact that old people like Howard never die ultimately prevents any change or the introduction of new ideas, and that’s why High Place adheres to outdated and narrow-minded views on gender and race. The novel essentially suggests that change is a necessary part of human evolution, and Howard’s cycle of rebirth prevents that. Though Howard is immortal, his world—High Place—is a crumbling, outdated mansion that lacks modern amenities like electricity and hot baths. His persistence has stunted change and progress, which necessitate the death of old ideas and conventions. In a way, then, the book suggests that change and death are fundamental parts of existence that ultimately make life worth living—after all, what’s the point of having the kind of immortality Howard has, if it means living in such despicable conditions?
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Life, Death, and Rebirth Quotes in Mexican Gothic
“When I was younger, I thought the world outside held such promise and wonders. I even went away for a bit and met a dashing young man. I thought he’d take me away, that he would change everything, change me,” Florence said, her face softened for the briefest moment. “But there’s no denying our natures. I was meant to live and die in High Place. Let Francis be. He’s accepted his lot in this life. It’s easier this way.”
He shook his head and set the pen back on the desk. “She’s no quack. Many people go to Marta for remedies, and she helps them well enough. If I thought she was endangering the health of the townsfolk I wouldn’t allow it.”
Et Verbum caro factum est.
She knew what she had not properly seen in her previous dreams, and she did not wish to see now, but there it was. The knife and the child. Noemí closed her eyes, but even behind her eyelids she saw it all, crimson and black and the child torn apart and they were eating him.
“There’s a cicada fungus. Massospora cicadina. I remember reading a journal article which discussed its appearance: the fungus sprouts along the abdomen of the cicada. It turns it into a mass of yellow powder. The journal said the cicadas, which had been so grossly infected, were still ‘singing,’ as their body was consumed from within. Singing, calling for a mate, half-dead. Can you imagine?” Francis said. “You’re right, I do have a choice. I’m not going to end my life singing a tune, pretending everything is fine.”
It wasn’t ugly. That wasn’t what repulsed her. But it seemed to her it represented the youthful fancies of another girl, of a dead girl. Perhaps two girls. Had Virgil’s first wife worn this too?
It reminded her of an abandoned snake’s skin. Howard would slough off his own skin, would sink into a new body, like a blade entering warm flesh. Ouroboros.
He would die, he would slide into a new body, and Francis would cease to exist. A demented cycle. Children devoured as babes, children devoured as adults. Children are but food. Food for a cruel god.
The future, she thought, could not be predicted, and the shape of things could not be divined. To think otherwise was absurd. But they were young that morning, and they could cling to hope. Hope that the world could be remade, kinder and sweeter. So she kissed him a second time, for luck. When he looked at her again his face was filled with such an extraordinary gladness, and the third time she kissed him it was for love.
