Misery

by

Stephen King

Misery: Part 2, Chapters 18-20 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
On his way through the parlor, Paul picks up Annie’s “MEMORY LANE” book out of curiosity. On the first page is a news article announcing the marriage of her parents, Carl and Crysilda. Birth announcements for her older brother—also named Paul—and herself follow. Annie has just turned 44 years old. The next clipping is an article about an apartment fire that killed five people, including three children from the Krenmitz family. Annie’s mother was interviewed, as the Krenmitzes were their neighbors. Alarmed, Paul recalls Annie talking about having to babysit the “Krenmitzes’ four brats,” whom she hated. Though she was only 11 at the time of the fire, Paul is certain Annie started it.
The inclusion of Annie’s birth announcement initially makes the scrapbook seem normal, recalling Annie’s focus on “keeping up appearances.” But the strangeness of the article about the Krenmitzes leads Paul to the conclusion that Annie caused their deaths, and has kept the clipping as a grisly souvenir. Annie has apparently been “keeping up appearances” for as long as she’s been mentally unwell and taking her anguish out on other innocent people.
Themes
Addiction, Compulsion, and Obsession Theme Icon
Fiction, Reality, and Coping Theme Icon
Turning the pages, Paul finds two similar articles from five years apart. The first details Carl Wilkes’ death, which occurred after he tripped over a pile of clothing on the stairs. In the second, a young nursing student (Andrea Saint James) meets a similar fate, tripping over the corpse of their dorm cat, who had been accidentally poisoned. Annie was Andrea’s roommate. Thinking it likely that Annie poisoned the cat herself, Paul realizes the Annie he knows—who now lives in his imagination—would have killed her roommate for any number of trivial reasons. That no one connected these two similar incidents speaks to Annie’s cleverness.
The similarities between Carl’s and Andrea’s death suggest that Annie is experiencing a repetitive compulsion to kill, if indeed she is their murderer. That a semblance of Annie now lives in Paul’s head shows that she has trapped him both physically and mentally. That Paul believes Annie needs to no logical reason to kill people speaks to her insanity, which—combined with her cleverness—makes her extremely dangerous.
Themes
Addiction, Compulsion, and Obsession Theme Icon
Control and Entrapment Theme Icon
Continuing through the book, Paul sees Annie’s graduation announcement in her hometown’s newspaper. The next clipping is a New Hampshire obituary for an elderly man who died after a “long illness.” Paul concludes that Annie must have killed him, since this seems to be her “Book of the Dead.” Several more obituaries follow this one, all of their subjects dying at Saint Joseph’s Hospital. Paul is certain Annie’s name is on their nurses’ register. Horrified by the size of the book, Paul cannot stop himself from reading more. After several more death notices, there is an article about new staff at a Pennsylvania hospital. Annie is pictured. From there, the obituaries begin again.
Annie’s collected obituaries are like trophies, indicating that she is obsessed with and takes pride in her murderous behavior. Most of her victims are ill or elderly, making it easier for her to remain undetected. The fact that she follows a predictable pattern—getting hired at a hospital, killing a few people, then moving on—echoes the cyclic repetition of an addict who returns again and again to their drug of choice.
Themes
Addiction, Compulsion, and Obsession Theme Icon
Paul remembers the dream he had about Annie in a nurse’s uniform, killing patients one by one. He imagines she thinks of the people she kills like the rat: “poor poor things.” Her life, as told in the newspaper clippings, follows a predictable pattern. She moves gradually westward from hospital to hospital, kills some people, and moves on. When she reaches Denver, the obituaries stop. Instead, Paul sees a wedding announcement for Annie and Ralph Dugan. Paul anticipates seeing his obituary next. Instead, he finds a realtor’s one-sheet picturing the house he is currently trapped inside. Annie has carved curse words into the next page, which shows that Ralph divorced her on grounds of “mental cruelty” one year into their marriage.
In light of the scrapbook’s evidence, Paul’s dream takes the tone of a premonition, perhaps alluding to his powerful imagination. Again, Annie’s adherence to a pattern can be compared to the recurring behavior of addicts. That Annie takes a break from her crimes while married suggests Ralphs companionship dulled her compulsion to kill. In other words, Ralph satisfied Annie’s needs sufficiently, so she no longer needed to murder people. The wording of the divorce clipping suggests that Ralph ultimately saw and could not accept the real Annie, with all her cruelty and her psychosis.
Themes
Addiction, Compulsion, and Obsession Theme Icon
Suffering, Justice, and the Human Condition Theme Icon
Control and Entrapment Theme Icon
Quotes
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After the divorce, Annie began working at a hospital in Boulder. More obituaries follow, indicating she had killed over 30 people by 1981. In 1982, an article names Annie as the new head maternity ward nurse in January. Two weeks after her appointment, infants begin to die. After five nursery deaths, the authorities launch an investigation and question Annie. The clippings depict her release and return to work, followed by three more infant deaths. At last, in July, the newspapers report Annie’s arrest. She has chronicled her own trial and saved letters to the editor, in which townsfolk condemn her, calling her the Dragon Lady.
Annie’s return to killing after her divorce implies that loneliness is a primary cause in the depressive psychosis that compels her to violence. It can be assumed that the nursery deaths, unlike those of elderly patients, are unexpected—here, Annie has gone too far and can no longer keep up her pretense of normalcy. That she has saved hateful letters from townsfolk illustrates her obsessive narcissism, and at last explains the reason she has been ostracized from her community.
Themes
Addiction, Compulsion, and Obsession Theme Icon
Fiction, Reality, and Coping Theme Icon
The articles reveal the prosecution’s case against Annie is weak. That the state willfully took Annie to court on mostly circumstantial evidence suggests her initial interrogation—whose transcript was not admitted in court, thanks to Annie’s lawyer—was damning. The transcript of Annie’s testimony at her preliminary hearing suggests an alarming lack of empathy for the dead infants. Paul is startled to see a picture of Annie in her holding cell, reading Misery’s Quest while awaiting the jury’s verdict. Astonishingly, Annie is acquitted of her crimes based on lack of evidence. 
Despite her avowed dedication to “keeping up appearances” of normalcy, the reality of Annie’s mental instability is undeniable when she is closely scrutinized. Seeing Annie reading Paul’s novel while on trial seems to foreshadow her imprisonment of him, even though Annie’s book chronicles her real life and not a fictional reality.
Themes
Fiction, Reality, and Coping Theme Icon
Suffering, Justice, and the Human Condition Theme Icon
Control and Entrapment Theme Icon
From interviews with the jurors, it is clear to Paul that everyone knew Annie had committed the murders, but they could not prove it. The next article reports the discovery of the mutilated corpse of a young man named Andrew Pomeroy. He had been killed with an axe. The very last clipping in Annie’s book stops Paul in his tracks. It is a two-week old article about Paul’s own disappearance, reported by his agent, Bryce Bell. Paul feels this is a precursor to his own obituary, and he returns to his room in a state of shock and horror.
The lack of justice in Annie’s trial contrasts sharply with her insistence on fictional fairness in Paul’s novels. Deprived of her regular pool of victims, Annie’s brutal murder of Andrew Pomeroy communicates her rage at being judged and ostracized by people she feels are biased against her. The article about Paul’s disappearance makes it clear that he is her next intended victim, emphasizing the direness of his situation.
Themes
Addiction, Compulsion, and Obsession Theme Icon
Suffering, Justice, and the Human Condition Theme Icon
Control and Entrapment Theme Icon
After drugging himself, Paul contemplates the improbability of escaping Annie. With no one coming to help, Paul realizes he will need to kill Annie to get away from her. A storm comes, followed by a frost that freezes the yard. Paul can hear Annie’s neglected pig and cows bellowing in the barn. He is angry at Annie for leaving them alone. During the day, Paul continues his work on the book, which, amazingly, is the best Misery novel yet. The second half of the story will be set in Africa, among a violent tribe called the Bourkas. The Bourkas, also called the Bee-People, worship a stone idol behind whose face are rumored to be caves filled with giant bees.
Paul turns to the Novril to escape the terror of his circumstances. The storm’s arrival, as with other natural phenomena, suggests a shift in Paul’s situation, though it is not clear whether this change is good or bad. Annie’s disregard for her animals illustrates her deep-seated lack of empathy. Paul’s preoccupation with Africa as a symbol of the “real world” makes its way into his novel, but here it becomes foreign, perhaps alluding to how distant Paul feels from the once-familiar outside world. The Bourkas’ stone idol recalls Paul’s initial perception of Annie’s powerful, godlike presence and control.
Themes
Addiction, Compulsion, and Obsession Theme Icon
Fiction, Reality, and Coping Theme Icon
Control and Entrapment Theme Icon
Paul spends his evenings puzzling how to kill Annie. Unlike the imaginary games of Can You?, the real-life version does not allow for outlandish ideas. All his ideas—drugging her, knocking her out with the typewriter—are too improbable. One of the cows outside falls silent, and Paul pictures it lying there dead. His problem, he tells himself, is that he does not want to get his hands dirty, but in this case, he must. He takes a butcher knife from the kitchen and hides it under his mattress, planning to stab Annie as soon as she returns. But when she does, Paul is asleep. He does not notice Annie is back until he feels her slide a needle into his arm.
Unable to imagine a scenario in which help comes for him, Paul resolves to enact justice on Annie himself. He struggles with the apparent need to physically fight Annie for control, which is far more visceral than the scenarios he imagines for his novels. Here, the novel juxtaposes fiction’s improbability with reality’s limitations. Annie’s reappearance at the end of this section immediately puts Paul at a disadvantage, as he does not wake until she has already drugged him, thereby taking control.
Themes
Fiction, Reality, and Coping Theme Icon
Suffering, Justice, and the Human Condition Theme Icon
Control and Entrapment Theme Icon