Characters Blood on Her Tongue Johanna van Veen

Lucy Goedhart: The Submissive Twin and Her Descent into Complicity

Overview

Lucy Goedhart arrives at the gloomy estate of Zwartwater intending only to nurse her gravely ill twin sister, Sarah. She is Sarah’s submissive counterpart, a woman who has long defined herself in relation to her more brilliant and assertive sibling. Over the course of the novel, Lucy transforms from a passive observer into an active accomplice, ultimately killing to preserve a parasitic entity that has consumed her sister’s identity. Her arc probes the limits of love, the erosion of moral boundaries, and the desperate lengths one will go to avoid being left alone.

Plot Role

From the first chapter, Lucy serves as the reader’s entry point into the mystery of Sarah’s illness. She travels to Zwartwater after receiving a letter about a bog body discovered on the estate, and her anxious reflections establish the gothic tone. As Sarah deteriorates, Lucy pieces together clues—Sarah’s obsessive marginalia about ticks and a “bog woman,” her violent self-harm, and her strange recovery after a blood transfusion. The midpoint revelation that the entity now wears Sarah’s body forces Lucy to choose: reject the creature and lose her twin, or embrace it and enable its hunger. She chooses the latter, and by the novel’s end she murders Michael and Arthur to protect Not-Sarah, then disappears with her sister (now the parasite) and the maid Katje into an ambiguous future.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Lucy’s primary motivation is preserving the twin bond at any cost. She has always seen herself as Sarah’s shadow—a “weaker copy,” as she recalls in Chapter 1. This self-perception drives her to accept increasingly monstrous acts.

  • Loyalty bordering on codependency: When she finds Sarah’s frantic notes linking the bog woman to a parasitic fungus, she flings the book away but retrieves it, trying to rationalize the words as “fever-induced.” Her instinct is to protect Sarah from being taken away, echoing her whispered promise: “I won’t ever let them take you away.”
  • Suppressed desire and jealousy: Lucy carries on a secret affair with Michael, Sarah’s husband. She first felt attraction when she saw him at the botanical gardens, but he quickly became enamored with Sarah. This jealousy festers, and later she admits that being Michael’s mistress was part of her entanglement.
  • Pragmatic amorality: In the conversation with Not-Sarah about feeding, Lucy initially balks at murder, calling it “horrible, and a sin, and unnatural.” Yet she soon proposes body snatching and eventually commits murder herself. The ease with which she shifts from horror to action reveals a flexible conscience when her sister’s survival is at stake.
  • Violence as a last resort: When Magda tries to stop her from escaping to save Sarah, Lucy bludgeons the maid with a chamber pot, thinking “Should’ve hit her harder.” This marks the moment her capacity for violence fully awakens.

Chronological Arc

  • Arrival and denial (Chapters 1–6): Lucy arrives skeptical of Sarah’s delusions. She reads Sarah’s deteriorating marginalia but dismisses the supernatural implications. She also fantasizes about Michael, signaling hidden guilt.
  • Horror and complicity (Chapters 7–19): After Sarah drives a silver pen into her own eye, Lucy nurses the mutilated body. When Not-Sarah confesses her nature and her need for human meat, Lucy promises to help. She discovers Sarah and Katje in a sexual/feeding encounter and, instead of recoiling, reads the court document that confirms the bog woman’s parasitic history.
  • Descent into murder (Chapters 20–26): Lucy participates in planning how to obtain fresh human flesh. She kills Michael to prevent him from harming Not-Sarah, then kills Arthur when he tries to manipulate the situation. After these murders, she calmly helps Not-Sarah consume Michael’s body and sink Arthur in the bog.
  • Disappearance (Chapter 26 epilogue): A newspaper reports the three women missing, speculation that the bog claimed them. Lucy’s final fate is left open; the author imagines them traveling Europe.

Relationships

  • Sarah / Not-Sarah: The central relationship. Lucy loves Sarah so deeply that she accepts the creature wearing her body as a valid continuation. She reasons that “having a parasite that had eaten her twin’s consciousness” was better than no sister at all. The author confirms in the interview that Lucy’s identity revolves around being a twin, so losing that core drives her extremes.
  • Michael: Lucy’s affair with Michael is both a source of guilt and a means of proximity to Sarah. She is drawn to him despite his brutishness, but she ultimately kills him without hesitation when he threatens Not-Sarah.
  • Katje: Initially a rival for Sarah’s attention, Katje becomes an ally. Lucy accepts Katje’s role as Sarah’s lover and feeder. The three form a new family unit bound by secrecy and necessity.
  • Mrs. van Dijk: Lucy’s employer, who reminds her of her obligations. Mrs. van Dijk senses something amiss and pressures Lucy to choose between her job and her sister. Lucy chooses her sister, losing her position.

Key Decisions and Consequences

  1. Keeping Sarah’s notes secret: Instead of showing the marginalia to Arthur or Michael, Lucy hides them, allowing Sarah’s condition to remain unexplained. This prevents early intervention.
  2. Promising to help Not-Sarah: In Chapter 18, Lucy swears she will help the parasite survive. This promise sets her on a path of murder and deception.
  3. Killing Michael and Arthur: These murders are irreversible. They eliminate any chance of Lucy returning to normal life and cement her alliance with Not-Sarah.
  4. Abandoning her respectable identity: By vanishing with Not-Sarah and Katje, Lucy forfeits her social standing, income, and family ties. She becomes a fugitive, but one who has preserved her sister.

Themes and Symbol Connections

  • Sisterhood and Codependency: The twin bond is both Lucy’s anchor and her prison. The author notes that Lucy lacks a “fully realized” identity outside of being a twin, making her vulnerable to extreme sacrifices. (See Sisterhood and Codependency.)
  • Madness and Social Control: Lucy fears that Sarah will be taken to an asylum, like their Aunt Adelheid. This fear drives her to hide Sarah’s condition and, later, to embrace the parasite’s story. The novel critiques how “madness” is used to silence women. (See Madness and Social Control.)
  • Parasitism and Identity: Not-Sarah functions as both literal parasite and metaphor for how Lucy’s identity has been consumed by her twin. Lucy’s question “Could she consider Not-Sarah her twin?” mirrors her own crisis of self. (See Parasitism and Identity.)
  • Moral Compromise and Violence: Lucy’s journey from revulsion to active killing illustrates how love can justify atrocity. She admits murder is “a sin” but commits it anyway, raising questions about ethical limits. (See Moral Compromise and Violence.)
  • Female Desire and Agency: Lucy’s affair with Michael and her later acceptance of Sarah’s queer relationship with Katje show her grappling with suppressed desires. Her agency grows as she takes violent action, but it is always in service of Not-Sarah. (See Female Desire and Agency.)

Five Book-Specific Questions and Answers

  1. Why does Lucy agree to help Not-Sarah even after learning she consumed Sarah’s consciousness? Lucy reasons that Not-Sarah retains all of Sarah’s memories and emotions, and she would rather have a corrupted version of her sister than no sister at all. She explicitly thinks that “having a parasite that had eaten her twin’s consciousness was still infinitely better than having no sister at all.”

  2. What draws Lucy to Michael, and why does she eventually kill him? Lucy feels an immediate physical attraction when they meet, admiring his “lack of handsomeness” and the thrill of his touch. She kills him when he threatens to harm Not-Sarah, showing that her loyalty to her twin ultimately outweighs any romantic or sexual attachment.

  3. How does Lucy’s view of herself as a “shadow” influence her choices? She describes herself as Sarah’s weaker copy, a feeling reinforced by childhood memories. This self-image makes her desperate to preserve the twin bond, as losing Sarah would leave her without an identity. The author confirms Lucy is the submissive twin whose entire identity revolves around being a twin.

  4. Is there an ethical way Lucy could have helped Not-Sarah without killing? The novel presents no clear ethical solution. Not-Sarah insists she can only digest fresh human blood and flesh. Lucy briefly considers body snatching, but Not-Sarah rejects rotting meat. The question is left open for readers to debate—see the Reading Group Guide for discussion prompts.

  5. What does Lucy’s final choice to disappear suggest about her future? The epilogue reports the three women missing, with speculation they were claimed by the bog. The author imagines them traveling Europe, balancing safety and curiosity. Lucy’s future is ambiguous: she has become a fugitive and an accomplice to murder, but she has kept her sister (or its semblance) alive. Her fate illustrates the novel’s central tension between love and morality.