Chapter 27: Summary, Analysis, and Key Themes

⚠️ 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

The chapter opens with Roos's question hanging in the air, and Agnes finally answers it: she killed her husband Thomas. What follows is a full confession, delivered in fragments as Agnes struggles to hold herself together.

Agnes explains that after their baby died, Willemijn contracted puerperal fever and required months of intensive care. The doctor had to remove her womb, which explains the scar Roos noticed on Willemijn's belly. While Agnes was absorbed in nursing Willemijn and sleeping whenever she could, Thomas's mental state deteriorated. One night he summoned Agnes to his room and, sitting by the open window, told her he wanted a divorce. The baby's death and Willemijn's illness had made him feel the fragility of life; he needed an heir, and since Agnes could not give him one, he intended to find another wife.

Agnes refused. She told him the Rozentuin was her home as much as his, and she had nowhere to go and almost no money. Thomas was ruthless: he told her she had no claim to the house outside marriage, and that a wife only belongs when she breeds. When she still refused to consent to a divorce, he threatened to have her committed to an asylum. He had spent months telling friends and acquaintances that she had taken the baby's death badly and feared for her sanity, building a case that she was unhinged. He smiled and told her he could have her put away anytime he liked.

Agnes knew he was right. Once people believe you're mad, anything you do confirms it. But institutionalization would destroy her: they would force pills down her throat, and Peter would disappear again. Being alone again was the one thing she could not bear. So, in a moment of passion—perhaps of madness—she got up, shoved him, and watched him fall from the window. She remembers the surprise on his face, the eternity before the thud of his body, the crack of his skull, and his brain splattered on the terrace.

The police ruled it an accident, though Agnes suspects they privately thought it might have been suicide. Willemijn, however, suspects the truth and has never said anything. Agnes believes Willemijn orchestrated the reburial of Thomas to frighten her, and warns that Willemijn might use the situation against her—possibly even trying to have Agnes declared insane, as her brother once did.

Roos confirms she buried Thomas well in the bog and that no one will find him. Agnes apologizes for leaving Roos alone so much, explaining that her absences were spent talking to banks and lawyers, trying to keep the Rozentuin from collapsing. Her widow's income is not enough, and she cannot sell any land without permission from multiple parties. She reveals she sold her wedding ring to pay Roos's mother for the séances, and that she has been using credit and her family name to buy Roos's clothes. She has also been working with a detective for over a decade, trying to track down her family's kris and any surviving relatives on her mother's side—both without success.

Agnes admits she is still not free of Thomas. She still hears his voice, still strives for his approval, and sometimes thinks all she is is what he made her. Roos kneels at her feet, kisses her hands, and insists she is kind, funny, smart, and stronger than what Thomas did to her. They declare their love for each other and become intimate, a scene of tenderness and passion that ends with Agnes's cry of release, Roos hushing her so Willemijn won't hear, and rain beginning to fall.

Key Events

Agnes confesses to Roos that she killed Thomas by shoving him from a window.
She explains the backstory: the baby's death, Willemijn's puerperal fever and hysterectomy, and Thomas's demand for a divorce so he could have an heir.
Thomas threatened to have Agnes committed to an asylum, having spent months convincing others she was unstable.
Agnes killed Thomas in a moment of passion; police ruled it an accident.
Willemijn suspects the truth but has never spoken of it; Agnes fears she may use it against her.
Roos confirms she buried Thomas well and no one will find him.
Agnes reveals she sold her wedding ring to pay Roos's mother and has been trying to find her family's kris and maternal relatives.
Agnes confesses she still hears Thomas's voice and feels defined by him.
Roos and Agnes declare their love and become intimate.

Character Development

Agnes is fully unmasked in this chapter. Her confession reframes everything the reader knows about her: the widow who seemed fragile and mysterious is revealed as a woman who killed to avoid being erased. Her account of Thomas's coercive control—the months of gaslighting, the threat of the asylum, the cruelty of his words—explains her guardedness, her fear of being alone, and her desperate attachment to the Rozentuin. Yet she also shows vulnerability: she admits she still hears Thomas's voice, still seeks his approval, and fears she is only what he made her. Her confession is not triumphant; it is raw and painful, and it makes her more human.

Roos steps into the role Ruth predicted for her: the person Agnes can lean on. She listens without judgment, confirms the burial, and offers reassurance that Agnes is more than Thomas's creation. Her declaration of love and the physical intimacy that follows mark a turning point in her relationship with Agnes—from séance partner and companion to lover.

Willemijn, though absent from the scene, looms over it. Agnes's fear that Willemijn might use the reburial or the truth of Thomas's death against her establishes Willemijn as a quiet threat, one who knows more than she says.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Coercive control and gaslighting: Thomas's campaign to convince everyone Agnes was mad is a textbook case of coercive control. He isolated her, undermined her credibility, and used the threat of institutionalization as a weapon. Agnes's observation that once people believe you're mad, anything you do confirms it, captures the trap he built.

Institutionalization as threat: The asylum is not just a place in this novel; it is a weapon. Agnes's fear of being committed—of having pills forced down her throat, of losing Peter—is what drives her to kill. The threat of being locked away and erased is worse than death for her.

Identity shaped by the abuser: Agnes's admission that she still hears Thomas's voice and strives for his approval shows how abuse outlives the abuser. Even dead, Thomas continues to shape her sense of self. Roos's counter-argument—that Agnes is kind, funny, smart, and stronger than what was done to her—offers a path toward reclaiming identity.

Financial precarity: Agnes's poverty is laid bare: the sold wedding ring, the credit purchases, the widow's income that isn't enough, the inability to sell land. Her wealth is an illusion maintained by name and appearances.

The kris as family legacy: Agnes's decade-long search for her family's kris represents her attempt to reclaim a heritage that Thomas and her circumstances stripped from her. It is a symbol of identity and belonging that she cannot recover.

Intimacy as connection and healing: The love scene between Roos and Agnes is not just passion; it is a declaration of mutual trust after a confession of murder. Roos's acceptance of Agnes's past makes the intimacy possible.

Why This Chapter Matters

This is the chapter that redefines the novel's central relationship and its central mystery. Agnes's confession answers the question that has hovered over the story since Thomas's death was first mentioned, and it does so in a way that complicates rather than simplifies her character. She is not a villain or a victim; she is a woman who made a terrible choice under unbearable pressure.

The chapter also deepens the romance between Roos and Agnes, moving it from unspoken longing to physical and emotional consummation. And it raises the stakes for the rest of the novel: Willemijn's suspicion, the possibility that she might act on it, and Agnes's ongoing struggle to free herself from Thomas's influence all point toward conflicts still to come.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Agnes say she killed Thomas, and what does her reasoning reveal about her character?

Agnes killed Thomas because he threatened to have her committed to an asylum. She knew he had spent months convincing everyone she was unstable, and she believed institutionalization would destroy her—they would force pills down her throat, and she would lose Peter and be alone again. Her reasoning reveals that she acted not out of malice but out of desperation; the threat of being erased and isolated was worse than the act of killing. It also shows her capacity for decisive, even violent, action when cornered.

2. How does Agnes's confession complicate the reader's understanding of her relationship with Thomas?

The confession reveals that Thomas was not merely a dead husband but an abuser who used coercive control, gaslighting, and the threat of institutionalization to dominate Agnes. His demand for a divorce because she couldn't give him an heir, his months of telling others she was mad, and his cruel smile as he told her he could have her put away anytime—all of this reframes Agnes's earlier behavior. Her guardedness, her fear of being alone, and her attachment to the Rozentuin all make sense in light of what she endured. The confession also shows that even after his death, Thomas continues to shape her identity.

3. What role does Willemijn play in this chapter, and why is her suspicion significant?

Willemijn is absent from the scene but central to Agnes's fears. Agnes believes Willemijn suspects the truth about Thomas's death and may have orchestrated the reburial to frighten her. She worries Willemijn might call the police, tell them about Roos's involvement, or even try to have Agnes declared insane, as Thomas once threatened. Willemijn's silent knowledge represents an ongoing threat: the past is not buried, and someone who knows the truth could use it at any moment. This raises the stakes for the remainder of the novel.