67 pages • 2 hours read
Ruth WareIn A Dark Dark Wood
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary
When Nora goes downstairs, the other guests are dancing. Nora notices that Flo and Clare are wearing the exact same outfit. Flo is preparing food in the kitchen and asks Nora for help when she realizes she has burned pita bread in the oven. Nora takes the bread out and tries to open the door to let out the smoke. However, the locked door is tricky to open.
Nina comes in, looking for tequila so that they can start drinking. Flo thinks it’s better to start with cocktails, but Nina mutters to Nora, “I need something as strong as possible to get me through this” (74). Clare starts off with tequila shots, and Tom suggests adding some cocaine to their party. Melanie does not approve of this, and Clare suggests they wait till later. Flo opens champagne and makes a sentimental toast to Clare. Despite her participation, Clare’s engagement to James continues to unsettle Nora.
Everyone begins to casually eat and chat, but the conversation becomes tense when Nina criticizes Clare for wanting to lose weight before the wedding. Flo becomes angry and insists that Nina stop trying to pick a fight. Clare tries to defuse the tension, telling Flo that this is just Nina’s sense of humor. Tom joins in, encouraging Nora to have a tequila shot. Then he offers her his bag of cocaine. Clare nudges Nora, telling her to go ahead. Nina agrees to partake, while Flo and Melanie pointedly leave to clean up the kitchen. Nora feels awkward, remembering how she once did cocaine in school: “I’d gone along with Clare only because I was too weak-willed to say no” (83). Nora wonders what James, who was opposed to cocaine use due to its benefit to drug barons, would think of this. She wonders if he has become the kind of person he once criticized. To cover up her feelings of hurt and sadness, Nora has another drink.
Chapter 10 Summary
The party guests play a game of “Never Have I Ever,” while Melanie preoccupies herself with the lack of phone reception. Tom finds himself having to drink more than anyone else since he has done all the wild things mentioned.
When it is Nora’s turn, she feels ill. All she can think about is James: “I never found out why he did it. I never forgave him. I never got over him” (86). Clare goads Nora on, calling her “Lee.” Nora wonders again how James could want to marry Clare. Finally, Nora says that she has never had a tattoo, allowing the game to continue.
It is Nina’s turn, and she suddenly looks at Nora intently. Nora is fearful since she knows Nina can be a mean drunk. Nina provokingly says, “I have never fucked James Cooper” (88). Clare drinks, Tom and Flo laugh with uncertainty, and then Clare and Nina stare at Nora. Quietly swearing at Nina, Nora downs a drink and walks out of the room.
Nora hears Melanie on the landline, giving her husband instructions about the baby. Furious at Nina, Nora locks herself in the bathroom. She realizes she is very drunk and vomits repeatedly. Nora feels hatred for everyone at the party, even those that are blameless.
Clare knocks on the door, and Nora stammers that she needs a minute. Nora has not stammered since she moved away from her hometown, and this development stresses her. Nora hates that she is reverting to how she was in the past and again thinks coming to the party was a terrible mistake. Nina comes to the door as well and apologizes. Nora coldly replies that she just wants to go to bed. Clare pleads with her while Nina tries to convince Nora to return to the party, rationalizing that Nora has no reason to take offense. Nora thinks of firing back, but wearily repeats that she is tired and wants to sleep.
When Nina and Clare finally leave her, Nora feels immense relief and wonders why she lets her friends hold so much power over her. Nora goes to her bedroom and lies down, but a knock on the door interrupts her. Flo is there, enraged that Nora is going to bed. Flo accuses Nora of sabotaging the whole weekend, calling her a “selfish bitch” (93). Nora, unable to take any more, shuts the door in Flo’s face.
Nora is still awake when Nina finally comes to bed. Nina apologizes again, explaining that she was unaware of Nora’s feelings. Nina asks what happened during Nora’s breakup with James, but Nora says simply that James dumped her. Nina refutes this, citing that she heard Nora dumped James. Nora vaguely explains that James broke up with her via text message. Undeterred, Nina continues, insinuating that something dramatic occurred because Nora left town so abruptly. Nora insists that nothing happened and ends the conversation.
Chapter 11 Summary
Nora wakes in the hospital, in the present day. She hears voices through her morphine haze. For a moment, she thinks she is still in the Glass House: “Clare and Flo are whispering outside my door, their shaking hands holding the gun” (96). Nora opens her eyes and realizes where she is. Then she looks for her phone, but it is not by her and the locker next to the bed is empty. Through the doorway, she sees the police officer speaking to someone, and Nora hears her say, “Oh Jesus, so now we’re looking at murder?” (97).
Chapter 12 Summary
Nora wakes early the next morning at the Glass House and sees that she still has no phone reception. Nina is still asleep. Looking out the window, Nora sees that it snowed overnight and feels a strong urge to go for a run. When she returns, Nora feels better until she sees unknown footprints in the snow leading to the garage and back.
Nora goes into the house and sees Melanie in the kitchen. Nora desperately wants coffee but remembers that Flo only brought tea. Nora goes to shower and then comes back down. Melanie is uncomfortable that there is still no phone reception, as it is hard for her to be away from her baby. She shows Nora pictures of the baby and then goes to use to landline to call home. Nora asks Melanie if she has been out to the garage since she saw footprints, but Melanie says she hasn’t. Nora feels vaguely uneasy but suggests that Flo went out earlier.
Melanie returns in a moment, upset that the landline is down. Melanie confesses that she being away from the baby is challenging and that she has not been enjoying herself at all. She begins to cry and then suddenly says that she is going to leave the weekend party. Melanie thinks that Clare won’t mind: “I don’t think she gave a toss about having a hen in the first place; it was all Flo’s weird obsession with being the world’s best friend” (105). Nora thinks Melanie should wait to see if the phone line comes back up, but Melanie has made up her mind. Melanie thanks Nora for listening and goes up to pack.
Nora thinks about what Melanie said and realizes that she had hoped Melanie would not leave. Melanie’s absence would increase Nora’s pressure to stay, even though she urgently wanted to leave herself. Because she does not allow herself to leave, Nora recognizes that she still cares about what Clare thinks of her.
Chapters 9-12 Analysis
The theme of obsession emerges in these chapters, as demonstrated in Flo’s behavior towards Clare and Flo’s extreme reactions to anything that may interfere with the “perfect” hen weekend. When Nina makes instigating comments to Clare, Flo immediately jumps in and demands that Nina stop it: “I don’t know what your problem is, but leave it, okay? This is Clare’s night, and I will not have you picking a fight” (79). Flo’s inability to allow for playful ribbing highlights her latent instability.
Nora and Nina are surprised by the vehemence with which Flo “defends” Clare in several other situations as well. This comes to a head when Nora, upset over the party games they are playing and how they are dredging up her past, wants to go to bed. Flo is enraged by Nora’s deviation from the party itinerary and her perceived slight to Clare: “I’ve gone to loads of effort to make this a perfect weekend for Clare—I’ll kill you if you ruin it on the very first night!” (92). Flo’s intense feelings for Clare startle Nora and the other guests, who find their host’s behavior decidedly abnormal. Melanie previously disclosed that Clare helped Flo through a difficult time at university, but the guests do not accept this as justification for the level of obsessive devotion Flo shows Clare.
The theme of truth comes to the forefront when Nora recognizes her own self-deception. She acknowledges that her feelings for James still consume her and her attempts to pretend otherwise for the past decade have been futile. Nora struggles to accept that the James she knew would want to be with Clare. Although Nora tries to bury her feelings and go along with the party, her obscured past jarringly resurfaces: Nina mockingly brings up James and Nora’s prior intimate relationship during the “Never Have I Ever” game. Overwhelmed and angry, Nora feels like hitting Nina: “She knew full well what that question meant to me, and she’d deliberately brought James up in the one place and at the one time I couldn’t dodge it, or smooth it over” (91). Nora becomes physically sick over the incident and the feelings that it produces. Despite her attempts to suppress the “Lee” part of her life, Nora can no longer avoid her former self.
Nora feels trapped by her situation, both physically and metaphorically. The house in the woods, a transparent glass box, both exposes and oppresses Nora. Because she has no way to leave, Nora turns to running as an escape. Once Melanie decides to return home, Nora feels even more trapped, since unlike Melanie, she lacks the valid excuse of having baby at home. The idea of Clare and James, the “ghosts” of her past, also traps Nora. Her encounter with Clare, which excavates so many memories of their past together, emotionally upends her. At the same time, Nora’s interactions with Clare dredge up thoughts, feelings, and memories of James. Although the narrative does not detail what transpired between Nora and James to cause their breakup, it’s evident that Nora still feels the trauma of the experience.
Chapter 11 resumes in the present, and Nora overhears the police talking about a murder. Cliff employs Nora’s fractured memory to propel the plot, with both readers and Nora unsure of the weekend’s troubling events. The acknowledgement of murder elevates the narrative tension, casting further doubt on Nora’s motivations and actions. Cliff sets up Nora as an unreliable narrator, drawing on Nora’s emotional instability to suggest that she may be capable of committing murder.
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