The Night Gardener

Constance’s collapse provides the catalyst that accelerates the rising action toward the climactic sequence. Chapter 33 in particular represents a turning point in which the tree’s influences shift from a subtle undercurrent of potential threat to an active and immediate danger. Constance’s observation that the Windsors would be unmoored without the tree is a sign of The Link Between Desire and Dependency. She wants to believe that the tree will fix everything, and despite her obvious physical and spiritual decline, she still clings to the hope that the tree’s gifts can return her life to how it was before. Similarly, Molly clings to the letters in the hopes that her parents will somehow return, even though she realizes that the letters are but a creation of the tree—a lie to keep her tethered to the Windsor house so that the tree can keep feeding off her soul as well. Despite this knowledge, she still cannot bring herself to burn them, and thus her actions demonstrate the power that desperation can wield, even in the face of logical proof. In this, more than in any other action, her own private grief about her parents’ deaths becomes manifest, for in carrying the grief alone, she has never quite managed to progress beyond the “denial” stage of the grieving process. Now, by denying her own grief and the reality of her parents’ deaths, she is putting what remains of her family in mortal danger.

Molly and Constance are not the only characters driven by desperation. Mr. Windsor’s own desperation in Chapter 38 builds considerably, for although he begs the tree for a cure for Constance, it continues to give him money even as he rejects the gift. More than any other interaction with the tree, this particular scene emphasizes the deadly nature of the tree and the futility of accepting its gifts, for just as each gift saps further spiritual energy from the recipient, the gift of money carries an irony that is especially sharp. In an almost literal manifestation of the old adage that “money cannot buy happiness,” Mr. Windsor’s anger and despair at receiving money instead of a cure for his wife reveal just how misguided his dependence upon the tree has always been. Even when money was his sole desire, it was never enough to fix his problems. Now that his wife is dying and the lives of all the family are at stake, it is abundantly clear that Mr. Windsor’s preternatural relationship with the tree will bring nothing but harm.

Thus, the final chapters of Part 2 mark the first real confrontation with the tree and the Night Man. When Molly enlists Dr. Crouch’s help, believing that a man with his talents and knowledge should be able to rid the house of the Night Man easily, she takes the first active steps to threaten the tree’s well-being, and consequently, the Night Man is able to manifest himself more powerfully in the physical world, for his ultimate goal is to protect the tree from harm. Yet Molly’s faith in the good doctor proves to be misplaced, for despite his high-and-mighty attitude about spirits and superstitions, Dr. Crouch is in truth a coward who is only interested in things that further his position and enhance his own sense of importance. Molly clearly knows this about the doctor and attempts to use it to her advantage, weaving a tale of fame and fortune that convinces Dr. Crouch to investigate the Night Man. However, once the Night Man appears and disproves the doctor’s assumption that there are no such things as malevolent spirits, Dr. Crouch’s confidence vanishes and he flees in terror, leaving the others to their fate. While his death marks the Night Man’s most drastic act of violence yet, Dr. Crouch’s cowardly behavior renders the other characters less than sympathetic for his plight and far more concerned about their own.

The trap Kip and Molly set in Chapter 37 is also ironic because it ends up trapping them rather than the Night Man. The trap also serves several different purposes. Firstly, it symbolizes Dr. Crouch’s cowardice. Rather than confronting the creature on even footing, he plots to trap it so that he can gain the upper hand and not feel threatened by whatever he captures. The trap is also the plot device that brings the full threat of the Night Man upon those in the house. By breaking off a limb of the tree, the group has directly injured the tree itself, and the tree will now exact a much more direct form of vengeance. The relationship between the Night Man and the tree is also made abundantly clear; if the tree is injured, so is the Night Man, and therefore the breaking of the branch compels him to view Molly and the others as threats to be exterminated. This dynamic is shown when he attacks Hester, the person in the net that caused the branch to break, and the doctor, who came up with the trap in the first place.

The breaking of the tree branch also injures the Night Man, and this foreshadows Molly’s climactic decision in later chapters to use fire against the tree in an attempt to also destroy the Night Man. The dark sap that oozes from where the branch broke is more like blood than sap, suggesting that the tree has changed as a result of all the human energy it has absorbed. This section outlines additional weaknesses and limitations of the tree, for the Night Man cannot pursue the group beyond the edge of the bridge, and as Kip later discovers, this is because the tree’s roots end here. Thus, the Night Man’s influence only extends as far as the tree itself. (It may also be that the tree and the Night Man, which both function as demons, cannot cross running water, a commonly accepted limitation of demonic beings.)