Daphne Chapel Character Analysis: The Fourth Chapel Sister's Secret Love and Disappearance in The Cherry Rob
Overview
Daphne Chapel, born in 1935, is the fourth of the six Chapel sisters in Sarai Walker's The Cherry Robbers. She is an artist, a secret lover of Veronica Cream, and the sister who disappears after swimming into Long Island Sound. Her story, filtered through the memory of her sister Iris, reveals a young woman caught between the family's fatalistic belief in a curse and her own desperate desire to escape it. Unlike her sisters who marry and die, Daphne tries to break the pattern—but her attempt ends in a disappearance that the family treats as death.
Plot Role
Daphne is present during the novel's central tragedies. She witnesses the deaths of Aster, Rosalind, and Calla, and her reactions intensify as each sister dies. After Calla's funeral, she packs a knapsack and leaves home, telling Iris and Zelie, “I have to go. I can't die here.” She goes to the Hotel Cream, where Veronica and her family take her in. That night, after drinking heavily, she runs onto the beach and swims out into the Sound. Veronica reports that Daphne screamed for help and was pulled under. A search finds no body, but a grave is later placed beside those of her sisters, implying she is presumed dead. Her disappearance is a key turning point in the narrative, deepening the family's sense of doom.
Motivations and Traits
Daphne is defined by her artistic sensitivity and her emotional volatility. She carries a sketch pad and draws constantly; her painting “The White Iris” transforms a sketch of Veronica's body into a flower, showing how she channels her desire into art. She is also rebellious: she drinks heavily, steals scotch from her father's den, and drives drunk with Iris and Zelie in search of Calla. Her grief is raw and physical—she wails, bangs her head against a car window, and throws a chair at a wall. Yet she also shows tenderness, patting her sisters' heads as she leaves and hugging Calla's body in the casket.
Her central motivation is fear of the family curse. She repeats “I'm next” and believes that the pattern of deaths will claim her. She tells Iris, “You know what Calla said—Briar Rose, the sleeping beauty, remember? It's in our blood, our legacy.” This fatalism drives her to flee, but also makes her reckless. She is also motivated by love for Veronica, though she keeps that relationship hidden. Her secret life—the sketching, the kissing, the intimacy—contrasts with the public tragedy of her sisters' marriages.
Chronological Arc
Daphne's arc moves from a relatively carefree adolescence to a desperate flight. In the spring of 1950, she spends her days with Veronica, drawing her in a cherry orchard and kissing her. After Aster's death, she continues to see Veronica. After Rosalind's wedding and death, she and Calla, Iris, and Zelie sink into a two-day binge of drinking and self-harm. When Calla dies a week later, Daphne's grief becomes overwhelming. She packs her knapsack, leaves the house, and goes to the Hotel Cream. There, she sleeps, eats dinner with Veronica, drinks, and then runs to the beach. She swims out, screams for help, and disappears. The next morning, Iris and Zelie find her knapsack behind a bureau in her hotel room, but no sign of her. Later, Iris sees a fresh grave beside Daphne's, confirming that the family has accepted her death.
Relationships
Veronica Cream: Daphne's secret love is the most significant relationship in her life. The text shows them together in the cherry orchard, where Daphne draws Veronica's nearly naked form and then kisses her. Daphne transforms a sketch of Veronica's body into the painting “The White Iris,” which Iris finds and hides. Veronica is the one who reports Daphne's disappearance, and she is devastated. Their relationship is hidden from the family, and Daphne never openly acknowledges it to her sisters.
Calla: Daphne and Calla are described as “an odd pair, but they were a pair nonetheless.” Daphne's grief after Calla's death is more intense than after her other sisters' deaths. She wails, throws a chair, and hugs Calla's body in the casket. Calla's fatalistic talk about the curse influences Daphne's belief that she is next.
Iris and Zelie: Daphne interacts with her younger sisters, but they often fail to understand her. Iris spies on Daphne and Veronica and feels jealousy. When Daphne leaves, Iris says, “She'll be back,” but Zelie doubts it. After Daphne's disappearance, Iris and Zelie search for her and find her knapsack. Iris later hides Daphne's painting, preserving a piece of her secret.
Henry Chapel (father): The father is unable to deal with Daphne. He asks Iris to check on her, and he doesn't notice she has left the house. When Sidney Cream calls about Daphne, the father says, “It's not possible. Not today.” He refuses to accept her disappearance at first.
Key Decisions and Consequences
Daphne's decision to leave home after Calla's death is the pivotal choice. She packs a knapsack with clothes and her sketch pad, tells her sisters goodbye, and walks out. This decision leads her to the Hotel Cream, where she is taken in by the Creams. Her decision to drink heavily that night, and then to run into the sea, results in her disappearance. The text does not explicitly state whether she intended to die or simply to escape; Veronica reports that Daphne said she “couldn't live at home anymore” and that she “couldn't live without Calla, without Aster and Rosalind.” Daphne's earlier decision to drive drunk with Iris and Zelie causes a car accident, but she takes the blame, and Iris and Zelie flee the scene. That decision shows her recklessness and her willingness to protect her sisters.
Theme and Symbol Connections
Daphne embodies the novel's themes of fatalistic family curse and the attempt to escape it. Her repeated “I'm next” echoes the belief that the sisters are doomed. Her disappearance, like her sisters' deaths, reinforces the curse's power. The theme of marriage as a death sentence is subverted in Daphne's case: she does not marry, yet she still dies, suggesting that the curse is not tied to marriage alone. Her secret love for Veronica connects to the theme of artistic ambition as escape—her art is a way to express what she cannot say openly. The painting “The White Iris” symbolizes her hidden desire and her transformation of that desire into something beautiful. The theme of institutional silencing of women is present in the way Daphne's voice is lost: she is not heard when she says she is next, and her disappearance is treated as a tragedy but not investigated deeply. The epigraph from H.D.'s “Eurydice” about hell opening like a red rose resonates with Daphne's fate—she passes into the sea, a kind of underworld.
Questions and Answers
1. Why does Daphne leave home after Calla's death?
Daphne leaves because she believes she is next in the family curse. She tells Iris, “I'm next, right? That's how it goes. Aster, Roz, Calla, and now me.” She also says she can't live at home anymore and can't die there. Her grief over Calla, combined with her fatalistic belief, drives her to flee.
2. What is the significance of Daphne's painting “The White Iris”?
The painting, found by Iris on Daphne's bureau, is a small canvas titled “THE WHITE IRIS, MARCH 1951.” It depicts a creamy white flower with pink and blue shading. Iris realizes that the flower is actually a transformed sketch of the space between Veronica's legs—Daphne has turned her intimate drawing of Veronica into a flower. The painting symbolizes Daphne's hidden love and her artistic way of expressing it.
3. How does Daphne react to Calla's death?
Daphne's reaction is extreme. She wails and carries on for days, bangs her head against the car window on the way to the funeral home, throws a chair against a wall, and hugs Calla's body in the casket, refusing to let go. Iris describes it as “the brutal pain of being cleaved from her beloved.” Daphne also places a crown of daisies on Calla's head.
4. What happens to Daphne at the Hotel Cream?
Daphne arrives at the Hotel Cream after leaving home. The Creams check her into a room. She sleeps, then shares a roast chicken dinner with Veronica, and they drink alcohol. Daphne becomes drunk and tells Veronica she can't live without her dead sisters. She runs out onto the beach, wades into the water, and swims out. Veronica shouts for her to stop, but Daphne continues until she is out of sight. Daphne then screams for help, saying she is being pulled under. A search is conducted, but she is not found.
5. How does Daphne's relationship with Veronica affect her fate?
Daphne's secret relationship with Veronica is a source of joy and also of isolation. She cannot openly express her love, and she keeps it hidden from her family. This secrecy may contribute to her sense of being trapped. However, the text does not explicitly state that the relationship causes her death. It is more accurate to say that her love for Veronica is part of her private life, and her fear of the curse, not her sexuality, drives her to flee. Her disappearance leaves Veronica devastated, and the painting Iris hides preserves the memory of their bond.
For a deeper look at how Daphne's disappearance fits into the novel's larger pattern, see the ending explained and the questions and answers sections.