Blue Hand · Chapter
Chapter XI explained
Digby Groat grows increasingly anxious about Eunice Weldon's knowledge of his destroyed legal document and his mother's will.
What happens
Digby Groat grows increasingly anxious about Eunice Weldon's knowledge of his destroyed legal document and his mother's will. He resolves to bring her under his influence to neutralize her potential threat, driven also by his hatred for Jim Steele. At dinner, he tests her discretion, and she feels guilty for having already spoken to Jim. He shows her his laboratory, which she finds clean but unsettling. Later, he brings her chocolates from his club. As she prepares for bed, a thump against her window leads her to discover the print of a blue hand on the glass, a mysterious warning.
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Manipulation
Digby Groat manipulates Eunice by feigning friendliness and testing her loyalty, while she hides her meetings with Jim.
Family Dysfunction and Secrets
The Groat family is rife with secrets: Digby's destruction of the will, his mother's illness, and the hidden cupboard in the laboratory.
Characters to notice
- Digby Groat
Plots to control Eunice, regrets destroying the will, and feels growing fascination with her.
- Eunice Weldon
Feels guilty about speaking to Jim of the will, reluctantly visits the laboratory, and receives a mysterious blue hand warning.
- Jim Steele
Mentioned as the man Digby hates and whom Eunice secretly meets; she compares him to the hero of her book.
- Mrs. Groat
Recovering from her illness; Eunice learns from the nurse she will be normal soon.
- Jackson
Digby's faithful servant who has been trailing Eunice and reporting her meetings with Jim.
Key passages
“It was an axiom of his that great criminals are destroyed by small causes.”
Digby believed that even the most successful criminals can be undone by trivial mistakes.
Reflects Digby's paranoia about his own slip with the will.
“She was, she knew, being despicably insincere.”
Eunice admitted to herself that she was acting dishonestly by agreeing to see the laboratory.
Highlights her internal conflict and guilt.
“The Virginian was rather like Jim, she thought—but then all the heroes of all the books she read were rather like Jim.”
Eunice saw Jim in every fictional hero, showing her deep affection for him.
Reveals her romantic idealization of Jim.