The Life She Was Given

Julia is one of the novel’s two protagonists. A young woman who flees her emotionally abusive home in the 1950s only to return and uncover the many secrets of the Blackwood family, Julia becomes the detective of the novel’s Gothic mysteries. Her quest to unearth the truth relates to the theme of Family Secrets and Their Impact on Identity. She is characterized by her connections to Lilly, her mother.

As a child, Julia is made to feel like the people she thinks are her parents do not want her. Mr. Blackwood has alcohol use disorder, locking himself in his study to cry each night, while Coralline accuses Julia of being the cause of his behavior. When Coralline claims that Julia is also responsible for Mr. Blackwood’s death in a car crash caused by his drinking, the blame is so damaging that Julia runs away, choosing a difficult life of poverty over Blackwood Manor.

When Julia returns to Blackwood Manor three years later, she has grown into a more authentic version of herself. However, all of her decisions are still made with the Blackwood history in mind. She hated living at Blackwood Manor but feels a pull to return there. She wears tight, bright clothing “in defiance of her dead mother” (61). She mourns her new orphanhood but also grieves for “something else even more—a loving family. But how could you miss something you never had?” (37). Blackwood Manor becomes the physical representation of Julia’s unhappy past; the house is full of “bad memories and closely guarded secrets” (38).

As a form of self-determination, Julia decides to reimagine the home and property. She takes on challenges around the farm, hoping to keep things profitable and sustainable for her future. At the same time, she sets out to discover the truth about her family. The revelation that the Blackwoods had a daughter named Lilly helps Julia make peace with Coralline’s harmful accusation: Julia realizes that Mr. Blackwood’s neglect was about their treatment of Lilly—“maybe that was why her father drank, to bury his guilt” (291). After Blackwood Manor burns down, symbolically destroying the secrecy the Blackwoods maintained about Lilly, Julia comes fully into her own. Knowing her real mother’s story frees Julia to remake the Blackwood farm according to her own values.

Julia is often characterized by qualities that mirror those of Lilly. Most importantly, Lilly and Julia share a strong connection to and affinity for animals: Just as Lilly bonds with the circus elephants, so too does Julia deeply empathize with the horses being raised on the farm. Both women undertake the protection of these large mammals, feeling a kinship with them that transcends species.

Merrick is the main antagonist of the novel. In charge of the circus’s sideshow acts, he is a controlling figure who dominates performers. Merrick physically, sexually, professionally, and financially abuses circus workers like Glory and Lilly, who have no recourse to stop him.

Because Merrick views the performers of the sideshow as lesser humans, and because he considers them enslaved possessions, he feels free to treat them as abusively as he likes. Some of this mistreatment is physical abuse: He beats Glory and repeatedly whips Lilly to get her to comply with his demands. Merrick also keeps control over Lilly financially, withholding her earnings even when she becomes a star attraction and often reminding her that he owns her; fearing losing Lilly’s lucrative act, Merrick asserts his ownership of her to persuade Mr. Barlow not to let Lilly move to the elephant show. Finally, Merrick degrades Lilly sexually, forcing her to perform in the circus’s striptease act, threatening to force her into sex work, and then attempting to rape her. The fact that Merrick acts with impunity demonstrates how widespread The Mistreatment of People With Physical Differences was and how little power circus performers—especially women performers—had.

Lilly escapes Merrick’s control through marriage, the only way for a woman in the early to mid-1900s to leave her guardian’s charge. It is significant and fitting that Merrick is killed by an elephant he mistreats—symbolically, this death is revenge for his villainy.