Ruth's Jaw Symbol Analysis in My Darling Dreadful Thing
The Jaw as a Physical Anchor of Ruth's Presence and Bond with Roos in My Darling Dreadful Thing
In Johanna van Veen's Gothic novel, Ruth's jaw is far more than a bodily flaw. It is a recurring, tactile symbol that grounds Ruth's otherwise spectral existence in the physical world, marks the origin of her bond with Roos, and evolves from a sign of injury to a tool of protection and violence. The jaw appears at pivotal moments—first when Roos's blood resets it, later as a broken ridge that Roos traces, and finally as the instrument through which Ruth attacks a threat. By tracing the jaw's appearances, we see how it encodes the novel's central tensions: the ambiguity between madness and the supernatural, the sacrificial nature of love, and the haunting legacy of trauma.
What Is Ruth's Jaw?
Ruth is a spirit who inhabits the space beneath the floorboards of Mama's séance room. She is described as a bog body—her skin dyed brown, her hair red, her eyes sometimes missing, and her jaw dislocated. In the novel's earliest memory, Roos, a five-year-old, is hiding under the floorboards and weeping. Ruth, who wants to drink her blood, is present. When Roos accidentally splashes blood onto Ruth's face, Ruth licks it, then pushes her palm against her jaw, and with a horrifying jolt, it slips back into its socket. This resetting allows Ruth to speak for the first time, declaring, “You have named me and let me drink from you. We are wedded to each other now.” The jaw, then, is the physical site where blood, naming, and speech converge, forging the bond between the two.
Later, the jaw is described as broken. In a scene where Roos spends a last night with Ruth before Agnes plans to drug her, Roos traces “the ridge of bone protruding from her jaw where she had broken the bone” and listens to the “little grinding click it made when she swallowed.” This brokenness is not a new injury but a permanent feature of Ruth's form, a scar from her violent death. The jaw's dislocation and breakage are never fully explained, but they align with Ruth's own fragmented memories of dying—darkness, pressure, the smell of peat, and a pain in her throat.
Recurrence and Evolution of the Jaw Motif
The jaw appears at three key moments, each shifting its meaning.
First: The Reset and the Vow
In the floorboards, the jaw's resetting is the catalyst for Ruth's first words and the declaration of their wedded state. The act is intimate and bloody: Roos's blood splashes on Ruth's face, Ruth licks it, and then the jaw clicks into place. This moment establishes the jaw as a threshold—once broken, it allows speech, and speech creates the bond. The jaw is also a marker of Ruth's dependence on Roos: without Roos's blood, Ruth remains mute and dislocated.
Second: The Broken Ridge and the Comfort of Sound
In the later scene, the jaw is no longer dislocated but broken, with a protruding ridge and a grinding click when Ruth swallows. Roos finds this sound comforting, thinking, “such a sound would always be a comfort to me, because it would remind me of her.” Here, the jaw becomes a mnemonic—a physical reminder of Ruth's presence that Roos can hold onto, even as Agnes plans to sever their connection. The grinding click is a sensory anchor, a way for Roos to feel Ruth's reality in the face of doubt.
Third: The Jaw as Weapon
When Mr. Mesman attacks Roos, Ruth takes control of Roos's body and uses her jaw to bite his throat. The narrative describes Ruth clenching Roos's jaw shut, crunching cartilage, and drawing blood. This is a violent inversion of the earlier reset: the jaw that once received blood now spills it. Ruth's use of Roos's jaw blurs the boundary between their bodies—Ruth acts through Roos, and the jaw becomes a shared instrument of defense. The act also echoes the initial blood bond, but now the blood is the enemy's, not Roos's.
How the Jaw's Meaning Changes
The jaw's meaning shifts from a site of healing and covenant to a site of comfort and finally to a site of violence. Initially, the reset jaw signifies the beginning of Ruth's agency and the formation of a sacred pact. The blood that fixes it is a sacrificial offering, echoing the theme of the sacrificial nature of love. Later, the broken jaw and its grinding sound become a source of solace for Roos, a tangible proof of Ruth's existence in a world where Roos's sanity is questioned. The jaw's brokenness also mirrors the trauma both characters carry—Ruth's violent death and Roos's abusive childhood. Finally, the jaw as a weapon transforms it into a tool of protection, but also of horror, as Roos realizes she is capable of violence when Ruth acts through her. This evolution reflects the novel's exploration of how love can become entangled with destruction.
Character Connections
Roos: The jaw is intimately tied to Roos's body. When Ruth possesses her, Roos's jaw becomes Ruth's instrument. Roos also physically traces Ruth's jaw, feeling the ridge and hearing the click. This tactile connection grounds Roos's belief in Ruth's reality, even when Doctor Montague suggests Ruth is a figment of her imagination. The jaw is a point of contact that blurs the line between self and other.
Ruth: Ruth's jaw is her most distinctive physical feature, a sign of her death and her otherness. It is also the means by which she speaks and bites, linking her voice and her violence. The jaw's brokenness suggests a history of suffering that Ruth cannot fully remember, but that Roos can perceive.
Agnes Knoop: Agnes, who becomes Roos's lover, is initially skeptical but eventually accepts Ruth's existence. In one scene, Agnes reaches out to stroke Ruth's cheek, but Ruth shies away, baring her teeth. The jaw here is a defensive barrier, showing Ruth's distrust of Agnes and her protectiveness over Roos.
Doctor Montague: The doctor's transcripts frame the narrative, and he repeatedly tries to explain Ruth as a psychological construct. The jaw, as a physical detail, becomes a point of contention: Roos insists on its reality, while Montague sees it as a hallucination. The jaw thus embodies the novel's central ambiguity—is it a real supernatural feature or a symptom of madness?
Theme Connections
The Ambiguity Between Madness and the Supernatural: The jaw is a physical detail that could be interpreted either way. If Ruth is real, the jaw is a supernatural deformity; if she is a hallucination, the jaw is a projection of Roos's trauma. The narrative never resolves this, and the jaw remains a symbol of that uncertainty.
The Sacrificial Nature of Love: Roos's blood heals Ruth's jaw, and this act of sacrifice binds them. Later, Roos is willing to give up her own memories and senses to keep Ruth, and the jaw's grinding sound becomes a comfort that she fears losing.
The Haunting Legacy of Trauma: Ruth's jaw is a scar from her violent death, and Roos's own trauma is written on her body (the scarred hand from biting herself). The jaw, like the scarred hand, is a physical reminder of past pain that persists into the present.
The Power of Naming and Binding: Ruth speaks only after her jaw is reset, and her first words are a naming and a binding: “You have named me.” The jaw enables speech, and speech creates the wedded bond.
The Unreliability of Memory and Identity: Roos's memories of the jaw are filtered through her unreliable narration. She admits she cannot separate fiction from reality, and the jaw's shifting appearance—dislocated, broken, grinding—reflects the instability of her perceptions.
Study Questions with Answers
1. How does the jaw's resetting in the floorboards scene establish the terms of Roos and Ruth's relationship?
The resetting is triggered by Roos's blood, which Ruth licks. This act of consuming blood creates a covenant: Ruth speaks for the first time and declares them wedded. The jaw's repair is thus a physical manifestation of the bond—Roos's sacrifice (her blood) gives Ruth voice, and Ruth promises protection. The scene establishes that their relationship is built on blood, sacrifice, and mutual dependence.
2. In what ways does the jaw's later description as broken and grinding complicate its earlier symbolism?
The broken jaw suggests that the initial reset did not fully heal Ruth; she remains damaged. The grinding click becomes a comfort to Roos, but it also signals ongoing pain. This complicates the earlier symbolism of healing and covenant by introducing the idea that trauma persists despite moments of connection. The jaw is not a fixed symbol but one that evolves with the characters' experiences.
3. How does Ruth's use of Roos's jaw to bite Mr. Mesman invert the original blood bond?
In the original scene, Roos's blood enters Ruth, healing her jaw and enabling speech. In the attack, Ruth uses Roos's jaw to draw blood from an enemy, spilling it outward. This inversion transforms the jaw from a site of receiving blood to a site of shedding it. It also shows Ruth's protective violence, but it blurs the boundary between Roos's agency and Ruth's, raising questions about consent and identity.
4. What does the jaw reveal about the novel's treatment of the supernatural versus madness?
The jaw is a concrete, physical detail that Roos experiences through touch and sound. If Ruth is real, the jaw is evidence of the supernatural. If Ruth is a hallucination, the jaw is a sensory delusion. The novel deliberately leaves this ambiguous, and the jaw serves as a focal point for that ambiguity. Roos's insistence on the jaw's reality—she can trace it, hear it—contrasts with Doctor Montague's psychological explanations, leaving the reader to decide what is real.
Conclusion
Ruth's jaw is a masterful symbol that weaves together the novel's core concerns. It begins as a wound that blood heals, becomes a scar that Roos cherishes, and ends as a weapon that blurs the line between love and violence. Through its recurrences, the jaw grounds Ruth's spectral presence, challenges the boundary between madness and the supernatural, and embodies the sacrificial, traumatic, and binding forces that define Roos and Ruth's relationship. In a novel where memory is unreliable and identity is fluid, the jaw remains a stubbornly physical anchor—a reminder that even the most intangible bonds can leave a mark on the body.