Ending explained Blood on Her Tongue Johanna van Veen

The Ending of Blood on Her Tongue Explained

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Literal Account of the Ending

In the climax of Blood on Her Tongue, Lucy Goedhart kills two men in rapid succession. First, she murders Michael Schatteleyn by blinding him with her thumbs and then driving a fountain pen into his jugular. Minutes later, when Arthur Hoefnagel arrives and threatens to commit Not-Sarah to an asylum, Lucy slits his throat with a scalpel taken from his medical bag. After both men are dead, the woman who was once Sarah Schatteleyn—now calling herself Not-Sarah—emerges from a drugged stupor upstairs. She descends to find the corpses, cheerfully drinks Michael’s blood, and proposes that they gut and consume his entire body before sinking Arthur in the bog. Lucy confesses that she was Michael’s mistress; Not-Sarah reveals she already knew and married Michael only out of fear of being left behind. The sisters reconcile, fetch the maid Katje, and stage an elopement to disappear forever.

The final chapter consists of a newspaper article from De Nieuwe Murmerwolderse Courant, dated 15 November 1887. It reports that Lucy Goedhart, Lord Michael Schatteleyn, and Lady Sarah Schatteleyn vanished on the night of 3 November. Police officer van Schouten speculates the three may have drowned in the bog, noting that “three people can’t simply vanish into thin air!” The article also references the earlier discovery of a bog body on the Schatteleyn estate.

The Climax Explained

The ending resolves the central conflict: Michael intends to commit Not-Sarah to an asylum after she attacks Mrs. van Dijk. Lucy realizes she cannot allow this, knowing the asylum would kill her sister. Michael tries to manipulate Lucy with sexual coercion, but she instead blinds him—a method she recalls from a self-defense pamphlet—then kills him with the pen her sister gave her. When Arthur returns and insists on institutionalizing Not-Sarah, Lucy kills him too, recognizing that his “kindness” is a form of control. The murders are impulsive yet calculated, driven by Lucy’s absolute commitment to protecting the entity her sister has become.

Major Character Outcomes

  • Lucy Goedhart survives and escapes with Not-Sarah and Katje. She abandons her former life, her identity as the weaker twin, and any pretense of social respectability. The newspaper implies she is presumed dead or missing.

  • Not-Sarah (the transformed Sarah) survives and gains freedom. She is no longer the sick, fearful woman of earlier chapters; she is assertive, hungry, and unapologetic. Her true nature remains ambiguous—she may be Sarah merged with the bog woman Marianne, or a version of Sarah freed from social constraints.

  • Michael Schatteleyn dies by Lucy’s hand. His death is brutal and deserved within the novel’s moral framework: he was an abusive husband, a manipulative lover, and a threat to Not-Sarah’s survival.

  • Arthur Hoefnagel dies by Lucy’s hand. His death comes from his refusal to accept Lucy’s choice and his attempt to force a marriage and commitment of Not-Sarah. He is not evil, but his “rescue” is another form of patriarchal control.

  • Katje is implied to join the sisters in their escape. Her fate is left open—she may be complicit or coerced, but she is last seen being fetched by Lucy and Not-Sarah.

  • The bog woman (Marianne) is never fully explained. Her body, staked and tongueless, serves as a catalyst. Whether she possesses Sarah or merely represents a parallel is left ambiguous.

Resolved and Unresolved Threads

Resolved:

  • The immediate threat to Not-Sarah’s life (Michael’s asylum plan) is eliminated.
  • Lucy’s guilt and secrecy about her affair with Michael are confessed and forgiven.
  • The question of whether Lucy will choose her sister or her lover is definitively answered: sisterhood wins.

Unresolved:

  • The exact nature of Not-Sarah remains ambiguous. Is she Sarah, the bog woman, a fusion, or a symptom of madness? The novel never confirms.
  • The fate of the three women after the newspaper article is unknown. The bog drowning theory is plausible but not confirmed.
  • What happened to Aunt Adelheid, referenced as a family precedent for madness, is never revealed.
  • Whether Lucy will face legal consequences for the murders is left open—the news article suggests police suspicion but no conclusion.

Theme Resolution

  • Sisterhood and Codependency: The ending affirms that Lucy’s identity is inseparable from her twin. She murders for Not-Sarah, and the sisters plan to remain together forever. This is both a triumph of loyalty and a deepening of their unhealthy codependency.

  • Madness and Social Control: The asylum represents the ultimate threat—a tool for men to confine inconvenient women. Lucy’s refusal to let Not-Sarah be institutionalized is a rejection of that system, but the novel does not romanticize madness; Not-Sarah is dangerous and bloodthirsty.

  • Parasitism and Identity: Lucy initially sees herself as a weaker copy of Sarah. By the end, she acts independently, yet she becomes a parasite of sorts—living off Not-Sarah’s needs. Not-Sarah, in turn, consumes blood, her identity parasitically fed by the bog woman.

  • Moral Compromise and Violence: Lucy commits two murders that she considers justified. The novel does not condemn her; instead, it presents violence as the only escape available to women under patriarchal oppression. The moral compromise is central: to save her sister, Lucy must become a killer.

  • Female Desire and Agency: Lucy’s affair with Michael was driven by her own desire, but it also trapped her. In killing him, she reclaims agency. Not-Sarah’s hunger for blood and her proposal to consume Michael’s body invert the theme: female desire becomes monstrous but also liberating.

The Epilogue

The novel closes with a newspaper article rather than a traditional epilogue. This formal report contrasts with the Gothic intimacy of the preceding chapters, providing an objective, public account that leaves the truth hidden. The article’s speculation about the bog drowning mirrors the bog body that started the story, creating a circular structure. It also reinforces the theme of unreliable narrative: the official story may be wrong.

Reasonable Interpretations

  1. Parasitic Possession: Not-Sarah is Sarah possessed by the bog woman Marianne, who survived as a parasitic consciousness. The bog woman’s staking and stone were meant to prevent her return, but Sarah’s blood contact awakened her. This explains Not-Sarah’s hunger, her knowledge of events, and her changed behavior.

  2. Madness as Liberation: Not-Sarah is simply Sarah driven mad by fever, trauma, and the weight of societal expectations. The “bog woman” is a delusion that Sarah uses to justify her desires. The ending represents Sarah embracing madness as freedom from patriarchal control.

  3. Merged Identity: Lucy and Not-Sarah become a single entity—Lucy the body, Not-Sarah the hungering drive. The twins were already “doubled in the womb”; the ending literalizes their symbiosis. Lucy kills and cleans; Not-Sarah consumes. They are two halves of one violent whole.

  4. Ambiguous Horror: The novel refuses to resolve the supernatural vs. psychological question. The bog body’s autopsy details (no organs, walnut-like brain) suggest something unnatural, but Sarah’s pre-existing mental health struggles leave room for doubt. The ending sustains both possibilities.

6 Reader Questions Answered

1. Is Not-Sarah actually the bog woman?
The novel does not confirm this. Evidence includes the bog body’s staking (to prevent revenancy) and Not-Sarah’s emergence after contact with the body. However, Sarah’s history of mental illness and the lack of explicit supernatural confirmation leave the interpretation open.

2. Does Lucy die in the ending?
No. Lucy survives and escapes with Not-Sarah. The newspaper reports her missing, but no body is found. The bog drowning theory is speculation by the press.

3. What happened to Katje?
Lucy and Not-Sarah plan to fetch Katje and run away together. The newspaper does not mention Katje, implying she joined them or was not considered important enough to report. Her fate is ambiguous.

4. Was Sarah always mad?
Not necessarily. Sarah experienced a depressive episode after losing her child, and the novel hints at a family history of madness (Aunt Adelheid). Her fixation on the bog woman could be a rational obsession turned pathological, or a response to genuine supernatural influence.

5. Why did Lucy kill Arthur?
Arthur intended to commit Not-Sarah to an asylum against Lucy’s will and insisted on marrying Lucy, effectively controlling both sisters. Lucy’s decision to kill him is a rejection of his benevolent patriarchy. She chooses her sister over a safe, conventional future.

6. What does the ending mean thematically?
The ending suggests that women under 19th-century patriarchal society have no non-violent escapes. Madness, murder, and disappearance are the only ways to preserve autonomy. Sisterhood becomes both salvation and damnation: Lucy saves Not-Sarah but loses any chance at a normal life. The novel refuses a happy ending, instead offering a dark, ambiguous liberation.