King Sorrow Chapter 4 Summary: Three
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Arthur finds Van McBride in Arundel Hall, surrounded by a crowd of students at a cafeteria table. Van is sitting with his twin sister Donna and the strikingly beautiful Allie Shiner. Van and Donna are playing a card-guessing game in which they correctly call each other’s cards—an apparent demonstration of twin telepathy. When asked how they do it, Donna reveals that they were twins in a previous life, executed in Salem for loving the devil. Their claim draws mixed reactions: some students are amused, one leaves in pious discomfort.
Colin Wren, a senior with the bearing of a professor, approaches and questions the pair about their abilities. He offers to test the full extent of their psychic potential under controlled conditions using a Zener deck owned by his grandfather, a psychology professor emeritus. Arthur, standing nearby, asks if he can join the experiment, but Van deflects with a crude joke about a ruler in the locker room, dismissing the idea of God while leaving room for the devil.
Key Events
- Arthur locates Van in the cafeteria, where a dozen students are watching Van and Donna guess each other’s cards.
- Donna correctly names each card Van holds after only a glance, and Van does the same for her, astonishing the onlookers.
- The twins explain their success as a twin thing, adding that they were siblings in Salem and killed for devil worship.
- A religious student leaves in discomfort after warning about Satan’s return.
- Colin Wren introduces himself, asks about twin telepathy, and invites the twins to his home (The Briars) for a formal test with Zener cards.
- Arthur volunteers to join; Van makes a lewd joke about his penis size, implying there is no God.
Character Development
- Arthur: He remains an observer in this chapter, showing curiosity about the twins’ powers and a wariness of Colin’s intellectual intensity. His offer to attend the test hints at a desire to understand the supernatural.
- Van McBride: Confident, playful, and crude. He leans into the rumor of reincarnation without overtly committing to belief, and he uses humor to undercut serious moments. His relationship with Donna is close but not overly sentimental.
- Donna McBride: More straightforward than her twin, she reports the Salem backstory as mere fact. She is comfortable with the attention but lets Van handle the joking.
- Colin Wren: Intelligent, privileged, and obsessed with the paranormal. He lives with his grandfather, a retired psychology professor, on an estate called The Briars. He treats the twins as subjects for scientific inquiry rather than as friends.
- Allie Shiner: Present but silent in this scene, described as dangerously beautiful. She serves as a social magnet that draws the crowd.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Reincarnation and the Occult: Donna’s claim of a previous life in Salem directly introduces the idea of reincarnation and devil worship, tying the novel to historical witch trials. The casual recitation suggests these beliefs are normalized among the twins.
- Belief vs. Skepticism: The crowd’s mixed reactions—some thrilled, one disgusted—mirror broader tensions between faith in the supernatural and modern skepticism. Colin represents the scientific approach, while the leaving student represents religious literalness.
- Twin Telepathy as a Literary Device: The card guessing scene establishes a psychic bond between Van and Donna, hinting at powers that may have larger consequences in the story. The fact that they whisper in what sounds like Creole (but claim is a secret twin language) adds ambiguity.
- Deflection Through Humor: Van’s penis joke immediately after discussing Satan and telepathy shows his tendency to defuse serious subjects with crudity, a motif that recurs in his character.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 4 is pivotal because it introduces the supernatural framework of King Sorrow through the McBride twins and Colin Wren. The Salem reincarnation backstory plants seeds for the novel’s central conflicts—whether evil can be reborn, and whether psychic powers are real or merely tricks. Colin’s invitation to test the twins at The Briars sets up a future setting and possible experiments. The chapter also deepens Arthur’s role as a passive yet curious onlooker, drawing him closer to the central mystery.
Study Questions and Answers
1. How does the card-guessing game function as a plot device in this chapter?
The game establishes twin telepathy as a phenomenon that the other characters (and the reader) must weigh as either genuine or illusion. It also draws the crowd’s interest, leading to Colin Wren’s offer to test the twins—a move that advances the story’s interest in psychic or occult forces.
2. What is the significance of the Salem witch trials reference?
Donna’s claim that the twins were executed in Salem for “loving the devil” connects the present-day narrative to a historical period of mass hysteria about witchcraft. This suggests that the evil or powers they channel are old, perhaps cyclical, and that the novel will explore how past sins echo into the present.
3. Why does Colin Wren want to test the twins with Zener cards?
Colin represents a scientific-materialist approach to the supernatural. His desire to measure “psychic potential” under controlled conditions contrasts with the twins’ mystical explanation. It sets up a tension between empirical investigation and uncanny experience, a likely ongoing theme.