Deception and Betrayal in Hungerstone: A Web of Lies and Poison

Thematic Claim

Deception and betrayal are the corrosive forces that drive Hungerstone’s plot and shape every major relationship. Kat Dunn argues that betrayal—whether marital, social, or self-directed—is not a single act but a process that slowly erodes identity and trust. Characters in the novel lie to each other, to themselves, and to society, often to preserve power or escape consequences. The story traces how these betrayals escalate: a husband secretly poisons his wife, a friend hides an affair, and a wife becomes a murderer. Ultimately, Dunn suggests that betrayal is never clean; victims often become perpetrators, and the line between truth and deception blurs beyond recognition.

Marital Deception and Poison

The marriage of Lenore and Henry Crowther is built on a foundation of mutual deception. Henry hides his affair with Cora and secretly poisons Lenore with arsenic-laced pastilles, a slow murder disguised as a marital peace offering. Lenore discovers the poison in Henry’s trunk after months of illness and realizes that the tins he gives her are designed to kill her. As she reads a medical dictionary, she learns the symptoms match her own: nausea, weakness, depression. This revelation shatters her belief in the safety of her own home.

Henry’s betrayal is not limited to poison. He also burns Lenore’s letters and hides his financial troubles at Ajax Works, including unpaid compensation to injured workers. He uses charm and sexual attention to manipulate Lenore, as seen when he apologizes for his harshness by kissing her wrist and offering a trip abroad. Lenore reflects, “I am being bought off,” recognizing that his tenderness is a tool of control. Even the intimate act becomes a performance: Henry’s lovemaking is rough and impersonal, and Lenore wonders if he treats Cora the same way.

Lenore herself is not innocent. She has long carried the secret of Henry’s accidental killing of Lord Abney, which she helped cover up. That shared deception once bonded them, but now she sees that Henry has used her loyalty as currency. When she finally confronts him, she attacks him on the moor, killing him with her bare hands—a full-circle betrayal of the marriage vow she once thought sacred.

Hidden Letters and False Accusations

Letters serve as physical evidence of betrayal. Henry burns Lenore’s correspondence early in the novel, symbolizing his erasure of her voice. Later, Lenore receives a letter from Cora but delays replying, sensing something false. Cora, in turn, hides the truth about her secret meetings with Henry, claiming they discuss business—the Ajax Works crisis. Lenore initially believes Cora’s explanation, but when she sees Cora wearing a necklace of diamonds that Henry once promised her, the lie becomes undeniable.

The false accusation cuts both ways: Henry plans to discredit Lenore with the journalist Lacey, threatening to commit her to an asylum if she refuses divorce. He tries to paint her as mad while he is the one systematically poisoning her. Lenore’s own suspicions are dismissed as hysteria, a common gaslighting tactic. The hidden letters and the diamond necklace are material objects that expose the gap between what characters say and what they do.

The Moor as Site of Betrayal

The moorland surrounding Nethershaw becomes the physical space where betrayal reaches its climax. It is a liminal zone, neither fully wild nor fully tamed, where social rules dissolve. Lenore flees to the moor when she discovers Cora and Henry together. There, Cora confronts her, and Lenore’s grip fails, sending Cora to her death over a cliff. Lenore later kills Henry on the moor, chased by her own hunger and rage. The landscape reflects the characters’ moral descent: the heather conceals bodies, the peat swallows blood, and the vast emptiness mirrors Lenore’s isolation. Carmilla, a supernatural predator, appears on the moor in an elegant carriage to claim Lenore as her kin, suggesting that the ultimate betrayal of humanity is to embrace the hunger that denies all bonds.

Complexity and Contradiction

Dunn complicates the theme by refusing to let any character be purely a victim or a villain. Lenore’s betrayal of Cora—letting her fall to her death—is horrifying, yet it arises from years of emotional starvation and Henry’s poisoning. Cora betrays Lenore by sleeping with Henry, but she also tries to help him cover up a labor scandal out of misguided loyalty. Henry poisons his wife but also shows flashes of genuine affection; his cruelty is tied to his own class insecurity and fear of exposure. Even Carmilla, who orchestrates Lenore’s awakening, is a betrayer of sorts: she abandons Lenore at first, then returns to claim her only after Lenore has killed Henry.

The novel’s historical note acknowledges that the “Outrages” of the 1860s steelworkers’ union shaped the labor subplot, adding a socioeconomic dimension to the theme: Deception is not just personal but systemic. The powerful (Henry, the factory owners) betray the powerless (workers, women) as a matter of course. Lenore’s final transformation into a predator is both a liberation and a loss—she gains agency but loses her humanity.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Henry’s use of arsenic pastilles function as both a physical poison and a symbol of marital betrayal?
   Henry gives Lenore pastilles as a “peace offering” after arguments, but they are laced with arsenic. The pastilles represent his hidden intent to kill her slowly while maintaining an appearance of kindness. The sweet taste masks the poison, just as his charming words mask his cruelty. The pastilles also connect to the theme of appetite: Lenore’s hunger for love is poisoned, and the physical hunger she later feels is a distorted echo of that need.

2. Why does Lenore initially believe Cora’s explanation about the secret meetings?
   Lenore wants to trust Cora because she is emotionally isolated and craves friendship. Cora’s story about helping Henry with a labor crisis seems plausible, and Lenore has been conditioned to doubt her own perceptions. She says, “It feels a risk to believe her, but it makes a sick kind of sense.” Her willingness to accept Cora’s lie reveals her desperation for connection and her fear of losing the fragile stability of her marriage.

3. In what way does the hidden diamond necklace represent multiple layers of betrayal?
   The necklace was Henry’s gift to Lenore, then stolen or given to Cora. Lenore finds it on Cora at the cliff, confirming the affair and Henry’s promise to replace her. The diamonds are a tangible symbol of Henry’s infidelity, material greed, and his plan to dispose of Lenore. They also trigger Lenore’s realization that Cora lied to her, leading to Cora’s death. The necklace thus ties together sexual betrayal, theft, and murder.

4. How does the moor function as a setting for betrayal in the novel?
   The moor is where Lenore flees after witnessing Cora and Henry together, where she confronts Cora and lets her fall, and where she kills Henry. It is a space outside social order, where raw instinct and hunger take over. The moor hides bodies and secrets; its wildness mirrors Lenore’s transformation from victim to predator. The scene where Carmilla arrives in a carriage on the moor to claim Lenore reinforces the idea that the moor is a threshold between human rules and monstrous freedom.

5. Does Lenore’s ultimate act of killing Henry represent triumph or a deeper betrayal of herself?
   It is both. She finally reclaims power after years of subjugation, but she does so by becoming the predator she has been trained to fear. She betrays her own moral code and her humanity. The novel’s ending suggests that embracing hunger is a form of liberation, but it also leaves Lenore isolated, bound to Carmilla in a relationship built on predation. The triumph is hollow because it requires her to lose everything she once valued—safety, love, and identity.