Previous
Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Misery, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Addiction, Compulsion, and Obsession
Fiction, Reality, and Coping
Suffering, Justice, and the Human Condition
Control and Entrapment
Summary
Analysis
A man (Paul) floats in a haze of darkness and pain. He hears incoherent speech, his only evidence of an outer reality. Time passes, and he notices the pain comes in cycles. It reminds him of a beach his mother and father took him to as a child, where he watched the tide go in and out, covering and revealing a jagged piling. He feels his pain is like the tide, coming and going. He recalls how, as a child, he thought the piling caused the tide. The man remembers his name is Paul.
Starting the novel with disorientation places the reader firmly in Paul’s perspective. By comparing his pain to the tide, Paul emphasizes his own lack of control over his body’s sensations. The image of the jagged piling provides a visual for the pain he is experiencing, and imagining it controls the tides highlights how powerful and central this pain is for Paul.
Themes
At some point, Paul is unable to breathe, and he thinks he is dying. A mouth with terrible breath covers his, blowing into his lungs in an attempt to resuscitate him. He hears someone screaming at him to breathe. Disgusted, Paul feels he is being assaulted. At last, he begins to breathe on his own again. Dreaming, Paul realizes his pain stems from the piling, not the tide: it’s always present, but it’s occasionally obscured. Gradually, he understands there are two pilings: his own shattered legs. He wakes in a bed, where a woman informs him he is in Sidewinder, Colorado. She introduces herself as Annie Wilkes. Paul calls her his “number-one fan,” realizing the sounds he heard in the haze were her words.
Paul’s experience of resuscitation is itself traumatic. Describing the experience as an assault foreshadows the horrors to come as Paul remains in Annie’s care. That Paul mentally revises the metaphor for his pain points to his tendency to treat reality like fiction. In determining that his pain is always existent (like the piling), Paul emphasizes that his awareness of pain is what changes with cyclical regularity. The metaphor takes concrete shape when Paul notices his broken legs. Annie’s assertion that she is Paul’s “number-one fan,” even while he was unconscious, suggests she is somewhat in awe of him.
Themes
Paul descends into the haze once again. Eventually, he becomes conscious that the woman who breathed life back into him regularly feeds him pills. Paul associates their bitter taste with the high tide which covers the pilings of his pain. He begins to remember his life. He is an author of two kinds of novels: “good ones and best-sellers.” He cannot remember what bad thing happened to land him in Annie’s bed. Annie reminds Paul of a stone idol worshipped by African tribes in H. Rider Haggard novels. He senses she is completely solid, with no internal organs, and speculates her eyes are painted on. Annie’s presence fills him with deepening unease.
Paul discovers that the pills Annie gives him numb his pain, metaphorically summoning the tide of unawareness over his ever-present agony. This makes him dependent on the pills—and Annie—for a pain-free existence. Furthermore, Paul’s partial amnesia means he must rely even more on Annie, who alone knows how he ended up in her house. H. Rider Haggard was an author of adventure fiction set in “exotic” locations, such as Africa, who lived in the late 19th century. Paul’s perception of Annie as an idol made of solid stone suggest he already fears her as the powerful and unknowable being in control of his fate.
Themes
Annie brings Paul’s pills, and he compares her to the moon pulling the tide in over his pain. The drug is a heavy pain-killer called Novril. He suspects that Annie’s mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was the result of an accidental overdose. Paul quickly learns that Annie has a large amount of Novril on hand, that he is addicted to the drug, and that Annie is “dangerously crazy.” She loves his Misery novels, but she becomes offended when Paul asks after his wallet. Seeing how a dark mood overtakes Annie like a “crevasse,” he quickly apologizes for the unintended slight. This appeases her.
Comparing Annie to the moon which brings the tide of relief reasserts Paul’s perception that she is in control of his experiences. That she has seemingly unlimited access to the Novril is suspicious, suggesting criminal activity of some sort. Noting Annie’s strange mental state alongside the drugs she provides, Paul seems to conclude that she has intentionally gotten him addicted to the Novril. At this point, he does not speculate as to why Annie has done this. Here, the novel highlights Annie’s instability by showing how quickly she shifts from adoring Paul’s writing to taking offense at his questions.
Themes
Get the entire Misery LitChart as a printable PDF.
Annie brings Paul soup and tells him what happened to him. Hearing this account, Paul feels like a fictional character. Annie had gone shopping in town, and she had actually hoped to pick up Paul’s latest novel: Misery’s Child. A snowstorm was coming, but it had veered south. Paul wonders why Annie did not take him to the hospital. Mid-conversation, Annie goes blank, reminding Paul of catatonic patients in a mental asylum. Gradually, she returns and resumes her story. The storm had shifted, prompting Annie to race home to her farm animals, including a pig named Misery. She came upon Paul’s overturned car on the road and stopped to help. Her strange maternal grin frightens Paul.
Paul’s sense that he is a fictional character listening to his own story again emphasizes his disorienting lack of control and his perception that Annie has taken ownership over his life and his story. That Annie has not taken Paul to a hospital is ominous, suggesting she means to keep his presence at her house a secret. Her sudden blankness corroborates Paul’s suspicions that she is mentally unstable. Annie’s pig, Misery, points to her obsession with Paul’s novels. The maternal quality of her smile suggests she views him as a child in need of her care—which is disturbing, given that Paul himself is an adult.
Themes
Paul’s awareness splits between Annie’s story and his own recollection of the storm. He had finished a new novel in his room at the Boulderado Hotel. There would be no more Misery novels, as he gleefully killed off their hated titular character at the end of Misery’s Child. Pleased with his new contemporary book—Fast Cars—he ordered champagne before impulsively deciding to drive west instead of returning to New York. Meanwhile, Annie recounts pulling Paul from his car’s wreckage, noting his crushed legs and—in disbelief—the name on his license.
Paul’s perspective reveals his deep-seated disdain for Misery, despite the fact that he created her. That he killed her off with so much enthusiasm suggests he felt trapped by the readers’ demand for her stories, wanting instead to write more contemporary novels like Fast Cars. Annie’s obsession with the Misery novels makes her discovery and rescue of Paul a surprising coincidence.
Themes
Still in the flashback, Paul remembers driving drunkenly into the worsening storm. Rather than stop for shelter, he drove on into a fateful skid, flipping his car. In the present, Annie tells Paul she knew he would live when he started screaming. She resolved to “make” him live, feeding him painkillers and antibiotics. Paul begs her for more Novril, but Annie insists on waiting another hour. According to Annie, Paul has been unconscious for nearly two weeks, during which she fed him intravenously. With ominous emphasis, she reminds Paul that he owes her his life.
Driving drunkenly into the storm highlights Paul’s lack of control. That is, Paul’s choice to drink and drive into a natural disaster implies his accident is his own fault, and his subsequent lack of control over his circumstances is—by this logic—earned. That it is Annie who decides to “make” Paul live reiterates this idea that he has either lost or given up agency over his life. Begging Annie for the Novril indicates that Paul has begun to recognize the control she holds over him.
Themes
Annie returns in an hour, during which Paul’s pain increases exponentially. Still, she delays giving him the medication, telling him how she is finally reading Misery’s Child, which she loves. She also wheedles him about the Fast Cars manuscript she found in his bag. Paul gives her permission to read it, desperate for the painkillers. Annie declares her love for Paul, then insists she only loves his creative mind, seeming bashful. At last, she places the Novril in Paul’s mouth. She says the two of them will “be very happy here,” and Paul is horrified.
This is the first instance of Annie withholding Paul’s medication in order to manipulate him, knowing that his addiction will motivate him to submit to her will. Still, she pretends to want and need his permission to read his new manuscript, concealing her power over him for some reason. The love she confesses for Paul seems to go beyond the love of his writing, though she denies it. The implication behind Annie’s assertion of her and Paul’s shared happiness is that he will stay with her for a long time—even against his will.
Themes
Paul contemplates Annie’s madness and his own dependence on her. The next morning, she feeds him soup, and he realizes she must have trained as a nurse. She does not like Fast Cars, finding it uses too much profanity. When Paul explains his character’s diction, Annie grows angry. Imagining a world in which she and everyone else cusses at one another, Annie mentions being “on the stand” in Denver, but she spills Paul’s soup before explaining. Furious, she shatters the bowl against the wall before descending into another fugue state. When Annie comes back to herself, Paul apologizes and tells her not to read Fast Cars if it upsets her. Annie reminds Paul that he depends on her.
Annie’s lack of employment suggests there is something making it difficult for her to keep a job. Her objections to Fast Cars are perhaps unsurprising, given her obsession with the Misery series’ drama and overblown characters. Her brief remark about being “on the stand” implies that she has stood trial for some crime, though the lack of elaboration intentionally keeps the reader in the dark. Annie’s sudden outburst demonstrates that her mental instability can manifest as physical violence and loss of control over her own actions. Paul’s attempt to appease Annie points to his own fear that her anger will focus on him.
Themes
Annie returns to give Paul his medication, but she insists on cleaning the mess he made before giving him the pills. Slowly, she cleans the soup off the wall with a rag and bucket, and Paul knows she is punishing him. Annie refills the bucket and rinses the soap off the wall, ignoring Paul’s pleas and threats to scream. He feels the “tide” of medicinal numbness is the farthest out it has ever been. Finally, Annie gives Paul three pills but forces him to use the dirty rinse-water to swallow them. Paul assures Annie he will not make her mad again, and she again pronounces her love for him. Paul falls asleep.
This time, Annie makes Paul wait for his medication to punish him rather than to manipulate him. Her deliberate slowness while cleaning the wall is purposefully cruel, and effectively communicates to Paul the consequences of upsetting her. Though she brings relief of Paul’s pain, she is also willing to exacerbate it. In this situation, even when Annie gives in, she highlights Paul’s dependence on her by forcing him to drink the rinse-water. It is no coincidence that Annie’s profession of love coincides with Paul’s submission, as she deliberately teaches him to associate making her happy with physical relief.
Themes
Paul wakes to the sound of Annie heading to the barn to do chores. Still medicated, Paul considers his situation. He feels ashamed for drinking from the rinse bucket, and unexpectedly irritated at Annie’s dislike of Fast Cars. He is accustomed to women readers preferring his Misery stories, though he thinks of his other novels as more serious works. Like others, Annie’s preference for Misery proves to Paul she is too simple to understand his other books. Angry and humiliated at Annie for coercing him into letting her read the unpublished manuscript, Paul realizes the copy in her possession is the only copy in existence. Recalling his willingness to sacrifice the book for his pills, Paul is even more ashamed.
Paul is ashamed that his addiction to Novril led him to compromise his dignity, as well as his authorial integrity. His judgment of Annie and other readers is somewhat misogynistic, as he characterizes the women who enjoy Misery’s stories as less intelligent. Paul’s harsh reaction illuminates his injured pride and his lack of gratitude for the novels that made him famous. As Annie’s judgment is the only criticism Fast Cars has yet received, it hurts him particularly badly. The lack of other copies raises the stakes, as Paul’s work—in addition to his person—is now at risk.
Themes
Paul wonders why Annie no longer works as a nurse, and he concludes that her colleagues must have noticed her mental illness. He remembers an exotic African bird he once saw in the Boston zoo, and he thinks of himself as a caged animal. To ignore the pain, Paul uses what his mother called his remarkably vivid imagination to picture Annie “up on the stand” in Denver. Despite his attempts, he cannot get this imagined Annie to say more than her name in the courtroom. Instead, he cycles through things Annie and his mother have said about him until he falls asleep.
Paul reflects on Annie’s lack of contact with the outside world, which contributes to his own disconnection. Imagining himself as a caged, exotic bird, Paul begins to think of the world outside Annie’s house as “Africa,” his inaccessible homeland. Even though his attempts to visualize Annie standing trial are unsuccessful, Paul demonstrates how writers are uniquely suited for imagining real-world scenarios as a method of discovery and problem-solving.
Themes
Paul dreams he is in a long hospital ward populated by identical copies of himself. Annie appears in Misery’s nurse uniform and throws sand in the other Pauls’ faces. He wakes to see Annie is almost finished reading Misery’s Child, and he tells her he dreamt of Africa. The next morning, Annie enters Paul’s room in a rage, having finished reading Misery’s Child. She knows that Misery died giving birth to Geoffrey’s child, which she passed off as Ian’s. Furious, Annie calls Paul a “dirty bird” and dumps a pitcher of water on him. Paul imagines Annie bashing his head with the pitcher, as she clearly wants to, but she throws it against the door instead.
Paul’s dream amplifies the novel’s sense of foreboding, especially as it associates Annie with Misery (who, the reader knows, dies at the end of the book Annie is reading). Saying he dreamt of Africa, Paul refers, in a kind of personal code, to freedom. The rage Annie feels over Misery’s fictional death suggests that her personal attachment to the character is so strong that Misery feels like a real person to her. Again, Annie’s anger makes her prone to violent impulses, endangering the recipient of that anger, whether or not it is reasonable.
Themes
Paul tries to justify Misery’s death to Annie. Despite his joy over her death, Paul maintains that he did not kill Misery, and was actually surprised by the ending. While Annie has seen hundreds of people die in her profession, she maintains that book characters do not slip away like people—their God, the writer (who, in this case, is in her house) takes them. Annie goes blank, and Paul looks around for something sharp with which to kill her before she kills him. When she comes back to herself, Annie tells Paul she has to go away before she does “something unwise.” Ignoring Paul’s requests for medication, Annie drives off, leaving him locked in the room as his pain, once again, worsens.
Annie’s extreme reaction to Misery’s death forces Paul to explain himself to defuse her anger. His insistence that her death surprised even him implies that writers are not entirely in control of their stories. Annie does not believe this, comparing writers to gods who have complete control over the characters and their created worlds. That is, her insistence that all writing is intentional places the blame for Misery’s death squarely at Paul’s feet, putting Paul in a dangerous situation given Annie’s instability.
Themes
