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Part 2, Chapters 1-6
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
Paul is still writing when Annie comes in, having finished reading his second attempt. Annie admits that Paul’s solution is fair, but she says it is very different from the other Misery books. Paul thinks his creative spark intimidates her. He will allow Annie to read as he continues, as long as she fills in the ns for him. Annie timidly suggests that, perhaps, Misery was allergic to bee venom. Annie encountered many such patients who became comatose during her time as a nurse. While Paul mentally rejects her suggestion, he is reluctant to hurt Annie’s feelings. As she leaves, he notices marks on the doorframe left behind from his wheelchair. He is too frightened she will notice to do any more work.
Although she forced Paul to write the book, Annie seems in awe of the way Paul harnesses his creativity. Though she manages to manipulate every other part of Paul’s life, Annie is out of her depth when it comes to fiction, though she still insists it must “play fair.” It is worth noting that Paul deliberately chooses to spare Annie’s feelings by not shooting down her editorial suggestion, as this indicates he feels some amount of genuine pity or sympathy for her. The wheelchair marks amplify tension, as Paul is reminded that Annie might discover that he has left his room.
Themes
The next morning, Annie rushes into Paul’s room in a panic. She handcuffs him to the bed and gags him with an old cleaning rag. A car is pulling up to the house. Annie tells Paul if he makes a sound, she will kill whoever it is, then him, then herself. Paul watches through the window as Annie intercepts the man, who Paul nicknames Mr. Rancho Grande. She shouts at him, and he hands her a piece of paper, presumably town business. Paul tries not to vomit from the smell of the rag. The man clearly thinks Annie is crazy. Annie shouts and kicks his car, and the man drives away. Paul feels his entrapment acutely.
Mr. Rancho Grande’s appearance drives Annie to the brink because he is someone outside her control. Here, she reveals the lengths to which she will go to maintain control, up to and including killing Paul and herself. It is possible to understand the outsider’s arrival as reality intruding on Annie’s carefully constructed fiction. Stripped of that artifice, she is honest with Paul about her intentions. Her erratic behavior clearly demonstrates why she is so isolated from other townsfolk.
Themes
Annie returns to Paul’s room with the paper from Mr. Rancho Grande, which says she owes 506 dollars in overdue tax payments. She ungags Paul and asks him what it means that there is a lien on her house. In pain, Paul asks her to uncuff him, and she does, impatiently. He tells her the lien just means she cannot sell the house. His dismissive tone irritates Annie. She insists she pays her bills, but it is obvious she forgot this time. Paul takes this as a sign that her psychosis is getting worse. Annie blames Paul’s presence for her forgetfulness.
That Annie has forgotten her tax payment suggests she is becoming even more mentally unstable. Her confusion regarding the lien points to how infrequently she interacts with the outside world, doing only as much as is required to keep up appearances.
Themes
Feigning sincerity, Paul tells Annie he owes her his life, and offers her the 400 dollars that are in his wallet. She protests, but Paul charms her by saying she saved both him and Misery from death. She lets him look over the paper, and Paul realizes Mr. Rancho Grande did Annie a favor by visiting, since the money is due today. He tells her the threat seems like overkill for one missed payment, suggesting that what Annie says is true: the townspeople hate her and are trying to drive her out. Paul advises she pay the bill this afternoon, planning to clean the scuff marks off the doorframe while she is gone.
Paul is becoming craftier, using his charm and Annie’s love for Misery to manipulate her shifting moods. In a way, what he says is true: both he and Misery would likely be dead if it weren’t for Annie. Like the addictive behavior she represents, Annie is capable of both causing suffering and alleviating it. Realizing that there is some truth to Annie’s claims of persecution makes Paul more sympathetic to her as a mentally ill woman whose community has ostracized her. Even so, he exploits her mental illness to his own advantage.
Themes
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Annie brings Paul his wallet, wanting him to hand her the money himself. At the memory of withdrawing the cash when he was free, Paul begins to cry. He asks Annie to move him to his wheelchair so he can write while she is in town. Once she leaves, Paul picks the door’s lock with another stolen bobby pin. He has regained some strength from lifting the typewriter when Annie is out of the room. He cleans the scuff marks from the doorframe, then locks himself back in. Paul thinks of how the African bird in the zoo must have eventually forgotten its true home. Despite his melancholy, he is able to lose himself in writing.
Paul cries for the distance between his current reality and the freedom he used to have in the outside world. He revisits the idea of the imprisoned bird, assuming it must eventually have forgotten Africa just as he is forgetting what his life was like before Annie. Not only does the typewriter provide a way for Paul to build physical strength, it also gives him an outlet from his suffering by way of fiction—even fiction he disdains. That his entrapment cannot keep Paul from the impulse to write speaks to the addictive power of making art.
Themes
For three weeks, Paul writes an average of 12 pages a day. He credits his straight-laced lifestyle and isolation for this unprecedented productivity. His days follow a predictable routine, his addiction to Novril his only bad habit. Annie’s suggestion of Misery’s bee allergy takes root in Paul’s mind as he considers the rest of the novel’s plot. One day, he has a stroke of inspiration and shouts for Annie. Once in his chair, Paul handwrites his epiphany: Misery and Miss Evelyn-Hyde are long-lost sisters with the same allergy. Annie seems in awe of Paul’s creative process. Paul feels more excited about this Misery book than any of the others. But things change when the rain comes.
Despite Annie’s abuse, she has apparently created the perfect conditions for productivity. Paul is addicted to both the Novril and his work, and reading the two as aligned highlights how harmful substances can sometimes increase focus (as was the case with Stephen King’s own cocaine addiction). Because of such benefits, it is possible to overlook or dismiss the harm done by addictive substances, which here and elsewhere throughout the novel are likened to controlling abusers whose moods shift between good and bad. Annie herself inspires a breakthrough in the novel’s plot. The arrival of seasonal rain signals some ominous and unavoidable shift in the atmosphere, which is reminiscent of Annie’s unpredictable nature.
Themes
At the beginning of April, they enjoy some days of good weather. Annie wheels Paul out onto the back porch to enjoy the sunshine. They watch TV together, and Annie sings. Mid-month, the weather turns cloudy, as does Annie. The first rainy day, she is late with Paul’s medication, and her clothing is covered in stains. Paul asks if she is all right. Annie replies that she is not, before squeezing her lip hard enough that it bleeds. Afterward, Paul hears the distinctive sound of Annie slapping herself hard in the parlor. Believing she is entering a major depressive period, Paul is frightened.
Here, Annie and Paul silently agree to disregard the real strangeness of their dynamic and pretend to be normal people living together. Engaging in this mutual delusion is comforting, to the point that it almost seems like Paul is not really Annie’s prisoner. The shifting weather mirrors Annie’s change in demeanor, highlighting that both are cyclic and inevitable.
Themes
When Annie does not return to move Paul into his chair, he decides to do it himself. He views writing as another “fix” that he needs to stave off the horrors of real life. Annie catches him in the chair, and she declares he can “fill in [his] own fucking ns” since he is so capable. Later, Paul hurts himself getting into bed and dips into his stash of Novril. When he wakes, Annie is sitting on the bed, covered in food stains, clutching a live rat in a trap. Eerily blank, she tells Paul everyone is like the trapped rat. She squeezes the animal’s flailing body until her fingers puncture its gut, killing it.
Paul has grown obsessed with his writing in the same way he is addicted to the Novril. That he moves himself to the chair, even though it means risking Annie discovering his regained strength, demonstrates how alluring the creative act has become. In this case, giving into compulsion does come with consequences: Annie refuses to fill in the ns in Paul’s manuscript, and he hurts himself. Annie’s comparison of everyone in the world to the trapped rat draws attention to the way all humans, in some way, lack control over their fates, which frequently leads to suffering and injustice.
Themes
Annie offers to get her gun and kill them both, ending the suffering. Knowing she’s serious, Paul feels he has never been closer to death. He pleads with Annie to let him finish Misery’s Return. The novel is the only thing Annie still cares about. Absentmindedly sucking blood from her fingers, Annie offers again to kill Paul, assuming he understands she can never let him leave. Paul considers her offer, but he once again asks to finish the book. Understanding, Annie rises, saying she must go to her “Laughing Place” in the hills, where she mostly screams. She leaves Paul some medication but no food. He supposes he could eat the dead rat and laughs hysterically, fearing he is going mad.
While Annie’s good mood let her pretend that Paul was just a housemate days ago, her depression wipes away all pretenses. For the first time, she and Paul discuss the sobering reality: she cannot set him free, even after he finishes the book. Seeing the book as the only thing keeping him alive, Paul—like Scheherazade—uses fiction as a bargaining chip for his life, relying on Annie’s desire to find out what happens at the story’s end. It is worth noting that Paul genuinely considers Annie’s offer to kill him, knowing it will end his suffering sooner, but is himself too compelled to live and write to surrender.
Themes
Two hours after Annie’s departure, Paul sneaks out of his room, intending to escape. While his broken legs were the first things keeping him in Annie’s house, now he finds it more difficult to leave the new book behind. Annie’s parlor is a mess, covered with half-eaten food and dirty plates from her depressive episode. A book labeled “MEMORY LANE” rests on the table. The front door is secured with three strong locks. Paul wonders if her intention is to keep the Roydmans out or him in. Rolling to the kitchen, Paul finds the kitchen door is likewise locked. He begins to panic.
Admitting that he is invested in the new Misery book fills Paul with a sense of shame, as he feels he ought to prioritize survival over his work. But writing satisfies Paul’s urge to create, once again characterizing it as an addiction in its own right. Paul’s exploration of Annie’s empty house depicts it as a prison strewn with the evidence of someone else’s suffering.
Themes
The thought of paying back Annie’s “hospitality” firms up Paul’s resolve. Peering through the door’s windows, he sees the yard is flooded and untraversable. Even if he can get outside, he’d have to crawl out to the road. Another door in the kitchen leads to an attached shed with a woodpile and axe, which is also locked. Finding matches in the pantry, he considers lighting the house on fire and hiding in the dank, rat-infested cellar. Disgusted with this idea and doubtful it would work, Paul resigns himself to pillaging Annie’s food stores. An internal voice tells him he has given up, not momentarily, but forever. He denies this, saying “Africa” aloud.
While Paul’s desire for revenge motivates him, the reality of his circumstances leaves him trapped and desperate. Unable to imagine a scenario in which he escapes and survives, Paul accepts that reality—and internally chides himself for giving up. By invoking “Africa” like a personal mantra, Paul contemplates the distant outside world to sustain his hope of escape.
Themes
Annie’s pantry looks like a survivalist horde, speaking both to her isolation and her paranoia. Paul reminds himself to carefully consider not only what Annie might notice is missing, but also what he can reasonably hide in his room, since her return will be unexpected. He takes some sardines, tinned ham, raisins, and cereal. He decides to return to his room, as his legs are starting to hurt. The idea of spending a quiet evening writing and sleeping alone appeals to him. The voice in his head calls him a “hungry rat.” Paul reminds himself to cover his tracks—every time he leaves his room, he risks his life.
Here, the thought of spending a quiet evening writing alone helps Paul cope with the reality of his continued imprisonment. Again, like a substance addiction, Paul’s addiction to writing softens the blow of his inability to control his situation. Even so, a part of him shames him for seeking such comfort, likening him to the trapped rat, its struggle futile—just as Annie killed the rat, Paul knows Annie will kill him in time.
Themes
