Analytical Essay Prompts for Blood on Her Tongue

These twelve prompts are designed to support close reading and argumentative writing about Johanna van Veen’s gothic horror novel. Each question zeroes in on a specific aspect of the text—character change, causality, relationships, contrasting scenes, themes, symbols, structure, foreshadowing, or the ending—and provides a defensible thesis direction plus direct evidence leads from the novel. Use the linked theme and character pages for deeper analysis.

1. How does Lucy transform from a passive observer into a murderer, and what does this change reveal about her character?

Why this prompt matters: Lucy begins as Mrs. van Dijk’s companion, a woman who has spent her life in Sarah’s shadow. Tracing her psychological and moral descent to the point where she kills two men illuminates the novel’s central argument about the cost of loyalty.

Sample thesis direction: Lucy’s transition from passive twin to murderer is driven not by madness but by a fierce, survival‑based loyalty that overrides every social and moral constraint. The murders are acts of protective love, not insanity.

Evidence leads:

Lucy’s first violent impulse toward Michael arises when he threatens to commit Not‑Sarah (Chapter 24); she thinks “I shall kill you first” with cold clarity.
She gouges Michael’s eyes and stabs his throat with her fountain pen (Chapter 24), executing a plan she has rehearsed mentally.
When Arthur tries to manipulate her into abandoning Sarah, Lucy slits his throat with a scalpel (Chapter 25), then steps over both bodies without remorse.
Compare her earlier passivity: on the train (Chapter 1) she feels like a “weaker copy”; during Sarah’s first illness she can only watch (Chapter 2).
After the murders, she feels “glory and horror” (Chapter 25), suggesting a new identity forged through violence.

2. What is the causal mechanism by which the bog body’s possession of Sarah begins, and what does that mechanism imply about the novel’s worldview?

Why this prompt matters: Understanding how the parasite transfers from Marianne to Sarah grounds the supernatural horror in a concrete event. The cause matters because it connects physical contact, curiosity, and vulnerability.

Sample thesis direction: The possession is triggered by Sarah cutting her hand on the bog woman’s teeth, an act of morbid fascination that opens a bodily portal. Van Veen suggests that the uncanny enters not through supernatural invitation but through the smallest wound—curiosity made flesh.

Evidence leads:

Sarah’s letter (Chapter 1) describes cutting her hand while trying to remove the stone from the bog woman’s mouth.
Not‑Sarah later confirms (Chapter 17): “I inhabited her after she cut her hand on my teeth.”
The marginalia in Sarah’s tick book (Chapter 5) connects the bog woman to parasitic control: “like the BOG WOMAN” scrawled with increasing fear.
The novel links blood contact with knowledge: the same hand that touched the bog body also touches Lucy, Katje, and eventually commits violence.

3. How does the twin bond between Lucy and Sarah/Not‑Sarah function as both salvation and self‑destruction?

Why this prompt matters: Codependency is a central theme, and the relationship morphs as Sarah becomes Not‑Sarah. This prompt asks students to track how the bond shapes every decision Lucy makes.

Sample thesis direction: Lucy’s love for her twin is so absolute that it erases the boundary between self and other, leading her to sacrifice her own moral identity. The bond saves Not‑Sarah but destroys Lucy’s former self.

Evidence leads:

Lucy swallows a piece of Sarah’s sloughed skin (Chapter 8), physically incorporating her sister.
She promises “I won’t ever let them take you away” (Chapter 5) and later murders to keep that promise.
Not‑Sarah explicitly echoes the twin rhetoric: “you are my twin, my half, my more” (Chapter 18).
Lucy refuses Arthur’s proposal (Chapter 10) and later kills him when he tries to “remove” Sarah (Chapter 25).
The ambiguity of the ending (Chapter 27)—Lucy, Not‑Sarah, and Katje disappearing together—suggests the bond persists even after murder.

4. Contrast the scientific autopsy of the bog body in Chapter 3 with Lucy’s emotional “autopsy” of Sarah’s mind in Chapter 5. What does this contrast reveal about the limits of rational inquiry?

Why this prompt matters: The novel juxtaposes medical/scientific procedures with personal, intimate knowledge. This contrast is central to the theme of madness and social control.

Sample thesis direction: While the autopsy reduces Marianne to a collection of missing organs and a walnut‑sized brain, Lucy’s reading of Sarah’s marginalia reveals a mind in crisis. Van Veen argues that the scientific gaze cannot capture the truth of possession or madness.

Evidence leads:

The autopsy (Chapter 3) notes the bog body has no internal organs, no tongue, and a walnut‑sized object where the brain should be—a clinical, dehumanizing catalogue.
In contrast, Sarah’s marginalia (Chapter 5) shows deteriorating handwriting, frantic comparisons between ticks and the bog woman, and a cry of terror: “like the BOG WOMAN.”
Lucy physically reacts: she flings the book away, then retrieves it, torn between rational dismissal and dread.
Arthur and Dr. Rosenthaler later diagnose Sarah with “fever of the brain” and “Cotard’s delusion” (Chapters 2, 23), yet these labels fail to explain the blood‑drinking or the possession.

5. How does the novel critique Victorian medicine as a tool for controlling women, using the fates of Sarah, Aunt Adelheid, and Lucy?

Why this prompt matters: The theme of madness and social control runs throughout. This prompt asks students to connect three characters’ experiences with medical authority.

Sample thesis direction: Through the asylum death of Aunt Adelheid, the rest‑cure threat to Sarah, and Arthur’s manipulative marriage proposal, van Veen exposes nineteenth‑century medicine as a patriarchal instrument that punishes female deviance rather than healing it.

Evidence leads:

Aunt Adelheid was incarcerated for hysteria after Vera left (Chapter 19); she died under suspicious circumstances in an abusive asylum.
Michael threatens to commit Sarah permanently (Chapter 24), and Dr. Rosenthaler’s letter recommends lifetime confinement (Chapter 23).
Arthur proposes a rest cure (Chapter 22), then uses chloroform to subdue Lucy (Chapter 22), revealing the coercive power of medical authority.
Lucy’s violent refusal—killing both Michael and Arthur—is the only way she can keep Sarah out of the asylum.

6. In what ways does the bog woman Marianne function as a symbol for the twins’ own identity crises and silenced selves?

Why this prompt matters: Symbols in gothic fiction often carry multiple meanings. The bog body is not just a plot device but a mirror for the sisters’ own fragmentation.

Sample thesis direction: Marianne’s staked body, missing tongue, and stone‑filled mouth represent the silenced, monstrous female self that both Lucy and Sarah fear becoming—and that Lucy eventually embraces through violence.

Evidence leads:

The bog body was staked down with a stone wedged in her mouth (Chapter 1), a literal silencing.
Sarah’s own eye‑gouging (Chapter 7) mirrors the bodily mutilation of the bog woman.
Lucy, after killing Michael and Arthur, sees her own swollen, blood‑covered face in a window (Chapter 25) and feels a “glory and horror” that aligns her with the monstrous.
The posy ring inscribed “He shall rule over you” (Chapter 13) further ties Marianne to patriarchal control—a control both sisters reject.

7. How does van Veen use documents—letters, diary entries, court records, and newspaper articles—to structure the revelation of truth and the reader’s experience of horror?

Why this prompt matters: The novel’s structure is epistolary in part, and the insertion of “found” documents forces the reader to become a detective alongside Lucy.

Sample thesis direction: The documents create a forensic reading experience in which the reader pieces together the supernatural explanation from fragments, mirroring Lucy’s own slow, reluctant acceptance of possession.

Evidence leads:

Sarah’s first letter (Chapter 1) sets up the bog body mystery and the cut hand.
The court document from 1559 (Chapter 14) provides the historical parallel of a husband killing his wife as a changeling.
Sarah’s hidden diary pages (Chapter 9) reveal a sleepwalking sexual dream with the bog woman, hinting at possession before it is confirmed.
Dr. Rosenthaler’s psychiatric letter (Chapter 23) misdiagnoses Sarah, contrasting with what the reader knows.
The final newspaper article (Chapter 27) reports the women’s disappearance, leaving the ending ambiguous.

8. Examine the parasitic imagery that foreshadows Not‑Sarah’s true nature, focusing on Sarah’s book about ticks in Chapter 5.

Why this prompt matters: Foreshadowing in gothic horror often uses naturalistic detail to prepare the reader for supernatural revelations. The tick book is a key piece of evidence.

Sample thesis direction: Sarah’s marginalia comparing ticks to the bog woman functions as a textual parasite—the words invade the book’s margins just as the creature later invades Sarah’s mind. The imagery of blood‑sucking and survival without a host prefigures Not‑Sarah’s entire biology.

Evidence leads:

The book’s margins deteriorate from neat notes to frantic, illegible scrawls; the final note “like the BOG WOMAN” is written with such force it tears the paper (Chapter 5).
The text notes that ticks can survive years without blood—a trait Not‑Sarah explicitly confirms (Chapter 17).
Sarah’s obsession with “a PARASITE auntadelheid told me about” directly connects her aunt’s fate to the bog woman.
When Lucy later calls Not‑Sarah a “tick” (Chapter 17), the creature laughs but does not deny it, confirming the foreshadowing.

9. Does the novel’s ending—Lucy killing Michael and Arthur, then fleeing with Not‑Sarah and Katje—constitute a hopeful escape or a descent into damnation?

Why this prompt matters: The ending is deliberately ambiguous. This prompt pushes students to weigh the moral implications of the sisters’ survival.

Sample thesis direction: The ending subverts the gothic convention of punishment by granting Lucy, Not‑Sarah, and Katje a successful escape, but the murders and cannibalism leave the reader unsettled. Van Veen suggests that for women in a patriarchal world, hope can only be purchased through transgression.

Evidence leads:

Lucy kills Michael to prevent Sarah’s asylum commitment (Chapter 24) and then Arthur when he tries to manipulate her (Chapter 25)—both self‑defensive acts.
Not‑Sarah drinks Michael’s blood and proposes consuming his entire body (Chapter 27), using the parasitic need as a practical solution.
The three women stage an elopement and disappear (Chapter 27); the final newspaper speculates they were “claimed by the bog.”
The author’s conversation (Chapter 29) imagines them on a European tour, balancing safety and curiosity—a fragile hope.
The reader must decide whether Lucy’s moral compromises are justified by the love she preserves.

10. How does Not‑Sarah’s claim to be “as much like Sarah as possible” (Chapter 17) challenge the definition of identity—is she truly a sister, or a monstrous impostor?

Why this prompt matters: The question of identity is central to the novel. Not‑Sarah possesses Sarah’s memories, emotions, and even her love for Lucy, but she also consumed Sarah’s consciousness.

Sample thesis direction: By giving Not‑Sarah all of Sarah’s memories and by having Lucy accept her as a sister, van Veen argues that identity is constituted by memory and relationship, not biology or essence. The creature becomes the twin through love and choice.

Evidence leads:

Not‑Sarah admits “I have all her memories, all her emotions” (Chapter 17) and argues that makes her Sarah.
Lucy struggles internally (Chapter 18): “what is a person if not the sum of all they have ever thought and felt?”
The creature says “you are my twin, my half, my more” (Chapter 18), echoing Sarah’s own words.
Lucy explicitly decides Not‑Sarah is her sister: “having a parasite that wore her corpse was still better than having no sister at all” (Chapter 18).
Her willingness to murder for Not‑Sarah mirrors what she would have done for the real Sarah.

11. Trace Lucy’s moral compromises from small acts (feeding Not‑Sarah her own blood) to murder. What does this progression suggest about the limits of love?

Why this prompt matters: The theme of moral compromise and violence builds throughout the novel. This prompt focuses on the steps that lead to Lucy’s final acts.

Sample thesis direction: Lucy’s moral descent proceeds incrementally: first she offers her own blood, then she agrees to secret feeding, then she murders. Each step is justified by love, revealing that absolute loyalty can erase ethical boundaries.

Evidence leads:

Lucy cuts her own tongue and lets Sarah drink (Chapter 11)—the first physical offering.
She and Katje cut themselves to collect blood for Not‑Sarah (Chapter 18), a shared, secret ritual.
When Not‑Sarah demands a whole human body, Lucy initially refuses (Chapter 19), but after the dog incident and Michael’s threat, she kills without hesitation (Chapter 24).
She reflects on the ease of discussing cannibalism: “it felt both easy and natural” (Chapter 19).
After the murders, she feels “glory and horror” (Chapter 25), suggesting she has accepted her new morality.

12. Analyze the motif of the eye—gouging, staring, unblinking—across the novel. What does the repeated violence to eyes represent?

Why this prompt matters: Eyes and vision recur as symbols of knowledge, power, and violation. This prompt asks students to track a motif and interpret its meaning.

Sample thesis direction: The repeated eye‑gouging and blindness—Sarah’s self‑mutilation, Lucy’s gouging of Michael, her own swollen eye—represent the refusal to see the monstrous truth and the violent rejection of the male gaze. Blinding becomes a way to gain control.

Evidence leads:

Sarah drives a silver pen into her own eye (Chapter 7), an act of desperate self‑harm meant to stop the possession.
Lucy fantasizes about being taken by Michael (Chapter 5), linking his gaze to her desire; later she gouges his eyes (Chapter 24) as an act of revolt.
The bog woman has no eyes; the post‑mortem photograph of Lucille (Chapter 5) has painted eyes, creating a liminal “uncanny” effect.
Lucy sees her own swollen, blood‑filled eye in a window after the murders (Chapter 25), accepting her monstrous reflection.
The motif suggests that seeing too clearly leads to madness, and that violent blinding is a perverse form of self‑protection.

For further analysis, explore the themes page and character studies. Return to the main book page.