We Have Always Lived in the Castle: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Merricat returns to the kitchen to find Constance making Uncle Julian’s breakfast. She says that he’s feeling much better. Merricat says that today she’s going to carry Constance to the moon, where they’ll eat rose petals. She wants to know whether leaves can be planted, and Constance says some can. Constance takes Uncle Julian his breakfast while Merricat considers putting a feather on the lawn where he’ll sit outside. Uncle Julian says he might begin writing a new chapter of his book today. He also says that he’ll brush his own hair and he requests liver for lunch.

Merricat and Constance are talking about breakfast and planting leaves when Constance says that Charles is still asleep, and suddenly Merricat can’t breathe. She insists that Charles was a ghost or a dream and that he can’t be in the house, but Constance tells her that he slept in their father’s bed. Merricat smashes a glass on the floor to make Charles go away.

Constance insists that Charles is in the house, and he’s their cousin. His father wouldn’t let him help the sisters because he didn’t like them, but as soon as his father died, Charles came to them. Merricat says he can’t help them because they’re already happy, and she feels better because she can drive him away. Constance explains that Uncle Julian hasn’t seen Charles yet, because he wasn’t well the night before.

Constance says they’ll neaten the house after Charles wakes up. She sweeps up the broken glass while Merricat eats breakfast. Constance brings Uncle Julian to his papers in the kitchen, and he says he’s going to begin his next chapter with an exaggeration and proceed into a lie by saying his wife was beautiful. They all hear Charles’s footsteps upstairs. Uncle Julian wants Charles to tell him about his family’s behavior during the trial.

Constance greets Charles in the hall. He and Uncle Julian meet, and Charles reveals that, contrary to Uncle Julian’s expectations, his father left no money when he died. Uncle Julian had expected his brother, Charles’s father, to handle his inheritance better than Julian himself did. He recalls Charles’s mother writing to Constance to break off the family connection during the trial. Uncle Julian requests a cup of tea so that he can discuss matters with Charles.

Merricat can’t see Charles clearly, either because of his size or because he’s a ghost. She hides in a corner of the kitchen, and when he greets her she ignores him. Constance excuses her behavior, seeming almost as though she’s always expected Charles to appear. Charles asks what Jonas’s name is, and Merricat tells him. Charles says they’ll all be friends. He decides he’ll have pancakes for breakfast. When Uncle Julian’s papers fall, Charles picks them up.

Uncle Julian commends Charles’s chivalry and, finding out that he’s thirty-two, remarks that Constance is approximately twenty-eight. He thinks that Charles is brave for eating Constance’s cooking, but when Charles says he’s not afraid of Constance’s food, Uncle Julian says he was referring only to the heaviness of pancakes, not to poison. Even so, Charles hesitates to eat the pancakes. Instead, he offers to Uncle Julian that he could do some work around the house while he stays. Constance points out that he survived eating dinner last night, and Charles finally eats his pancakes.

Uncle Julian decides to return to an earlier chapter in which he discussed Charles’s family. Charles, however, wants everyone to forget about the trial. Uncle Julian feels that Charles is insulting his work, and he’ll have to make things up if Charles refuses to talk to him, which Charles does. Uncle Julian suddenly needs Constance to confirm that the poisoning really did happen. Merricat is angry with Charles for being cruel to Uncle Julian. Constance takes Julian outside into the sun, while Charles seems oblivious to his effect on Julian.

Jonas sits in the doorway. Charles tells Jonas that Merricat doesn’t like him, and asks how he can make her like him. Merricat wonders if holding her breath until a drop of water falls from the sink might make Charles go away. When Constance returns, Charles says he’s trying to get to know Merricat, and Constance says she’ll like him before long. Merricat says it’s the day to neaten the house.

While Merricat and Constance clean the house, Constance often goes to the window to check on Uncle Julian. She says they won’t clean their father’s room, since Charles is staying there, and she considers wearing their mother’s pearls, but then laughs at herself for being silly. Merricat wonders if Charles has moved items in their father’s room. She asks how long it took him to get to the house, and she speculates about how he’ll get home again. She thinks she needs to strengthen her protection around Constance to shut Charles out, and she needs to clean everywhere he’s touched.

Next, the sisters dust the drawing room and Merricat pretends that the ceiling is the floor as she dusts the trim. Constance remarks that she should have already shown Charles this room, and she insists that Merricat will have to sit at the table with him soon. Merricat promises to do so at dinner. She asks where he sat the night before, and Constance says he sat in Father’s chair. Merricat plans how she’ll clean Charles’s touch from the chair and silverware.

The sisters return to the kitchen, where Charles is smoking. When Constance goes outside to get Uncle Julian, Charles tells Jonas that Merricat doesn’t like him and wonders whether she knows how he gets back at people who don’t like him. Merricat and Jonas go eat sandwiches in a tree, and Merricat tells Jonas not to listen to Charles. She considers what magic device she might use to get rid of Charles. She decides that if he’s still there in three days, she’ll smash a mirror.

At dinner, Charles watches Constance helping Uncle Julian eat. Merricat doesn’t eat because Constance put dressing on her salad and because Charles is there. Charles doesn’t see how they stand eating with Uncle Julian. Uncle Julian speaks to Charles as though Charles is his father, Julian’s brother. When Julian begins to talk about the poisoning, Charles stops him. Constance is glad that Merricat has come to the table.

Charles offers to fix the broken back step and go into the village for groceries, and Constance is grateful. Charles, however, is concerned to discover that she keeps their money in the house, in their father’s safe. He says that Merricat will have to find another job, now that he’s going into town. Merricat begins to tell him the details of the poisons found in the Amanita phalloides mushroom. He tells her to stop, but Constance only laughs, saying that she taught Merricat about poisonous mushrooms. Charles doesn’t think it’s funny.