Chapter XI explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Appearance vs. Reality

  The newspaper theory explicitly compares the Avenger to Jekyll and Hyde, suggesting a quiet, pleasant-looking gentleman who is secretly a murderer. Mrs. Bunting's own life with Mr. Sleuth embodies this theme.

• Fear and Suspicion

  Mrs. Bunting's terror at the mention of bloodhounds, her defensive posture at the door, and the household's constant talk of the Avenger reflect pervasive fear and suspicion.

• Complicity and Moral Ambiguity

  Mrs. Bunting's secret knowledge about Mr. Sleuth and her efforts to deflect suspicion (e.g., insisting the killer is a sailor from the Docks) place her in a morally ambiguous position.

Characters to notice

• Mrs. Bunting

  Opens the door cautiously, feels her house is a citadel to defend; resents the newspaper theories, especially the West End gentleman theory; hears Mr. Sleuth moving overhead and thinks of his supper.

• Mr. Sleuth

  Heard moving overhead; his presence is a constant undercurrent in Mrs. Bunting's thoughts.

• Daisy

  Reads newspaper letters aloud with evident delight; blushes when Joe Chandler enters; wears a blue-and-white check silk dress.

• Joe Chandler

  Visits the Buntings; feels the house is an 'enchanted isle of dreams'; tired of his job and agrees the Avenger is nearly impossible to find; resents Mrs. Bunting's tart tone toward Daisy.

• Mr. Bunting

  Listens to Daisy's reading with his hand to his ear, showing signs of age; comments on the newspaper letters and the possibility that the Avenger is a gentleman.

Key passages

• “To her sharpened, suffering senses her house had become a citadel which must be defended; aye, even if the besiegers were a mighty horde with right on their side.”

  Mrs. Bunting feels her home is under siege and she must guard it against any intruders, even if they are justified in their suspicions.

  Highlights Mrs. Bunting's paranoid state and her sense of being under threat.

• “The little house in the Marylebone Road had become to him an enchanted isle of dreams, to which his thoughts were ever turning when he had a moment to spare from what had grown to be a wearisome, because an unsatisfactory, job.”

  Joe Chandler sees the Bunting home as a perfect escape from his frustrating and tiring police work.

  Shows Joe's romantic idealization of the household and his growing attachment to Daisy.

• “The culprit, according to my point of view, is a quiet, pleasant-looking gentleman who lives somewhere in the West End of London. He has, however, a tragedy in his past life. He is the husband of a dipsomaniac wife.”

  A letter to the newspaper proposes that the Avenger is a respectable West End gentleman with a troubled past, including a wife who is an alcoholic.

  This theory closely mirrors Mr. Sleuth's own situation and foreshadows the truth.