52 pages • 1 hour read
T. KingfisherWhat Moves the Dead
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Setting
As a work of Gothic fiction, What Moves the Dead remains highly dependent upon strategic descriptions of the setting. Details that appear early in the text set the tone and emphasize the Gothic elements of the story. For example, Easton describes the inside of the house in highly visceral and gruesome terms that implicitly equate the edifice to a moldering corpse. As Easton observes, “[The] wallpaper had peeled back from the walls, hanging in rags, leaving the exposed flesh of the building behind it” (30). T. Kingfisher’s provocative diction is designed to personify the house itself in a distinctly unflattering fashion, for the use of the words “rags” and “exposed flesh” elevate the building to the status of a sullen and borderline malevolent character. Ultimately, the narrative suggests that the house itself is infected, just as the hares and humans are.
Along with the physical setting, the time frame of the text is a crucial aspect of Kingfisher’s focus on The Reinterpretation of Classic Literature. The story takes place in 1890, and this choice impacts several elements, including the characterization of and references to the medical science of the time. Easton, who is nonbinary, is accepted by the characters in the novella but often alludes to other instances in which ka has endured discrimination because of kan gender. Miss Potter is also constrained by the gender norms of the time; she wants to be a mycologist and join the Royal Mycology Society but remains excluded because she is a woman. Similarly, she is disbelieved by the authorities when she approaches them for help after fleeing the Usher house. The novella also accurately portrays state of medical science in the 1890s, during which time women were often misdiagnosed with “hysteria” and scientists were just beginning to understand the nature of pathogens.
Personification and Anthropomorphism
Personification, or the attribution of human-like qualities to non-human objects or elements, is another prominent literary device found in the text. As mentioned above, the house is personified, and it is portrayed as suffering from a fungal infection just as severe as Madeline and Roderick’s. This victimization of the house emphasizes the pervasive danger of the sentient fungus, which has arisen from the tarn to take over the hares. Additionally, its ability to commandeer the minds and bodies of Madeline, Alice, and Roderick allows it to literally take on human form and behave in human-like ways. Thus, Kingfisher employs figurative anthropomorphism and whimsically makes it a literal process as well, thereby both employing and transcending traditional literary definitions to craft a uniquely creative narrative.
More mundane forms of anthropomorphism exist in the narrative, particularly in Easton’s instinct to describe Hob in human terms. Ka describes Hob’s perspective multiple times in the story, attributing human emotions and attitudes to the horse. For example, ka states, “Hob, my horse, was grateful for the rest, but seemed annoyed by the surroundings” (1). Similarly, ka asserts, “Hob greeted me more eagerly than usual, possibly because Denton’s horse in the next stall was a terrible conversationalist, or perhaps because the stable was so gloomy” (42). These instances of personification illuminate Easton’s qualities more than Hob’s, implying that Easton has a close relationship with Hob and is a compassionate animal lover.
Allusion
Several allusions are made throughout the text, purposely referring to a real-world person, place, or event, or to aspects of an alternate work of literature. Ultimately, the entire novella is itself an allusion, for it directly reimagines the plot and underlying details of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Additionally, within the text, Miss Eugenia Potter makes a direct reference to her niece, Beatrix Potter, who was a real-world naturalist, illustrator, and author who was so skilled at painting fungi that she created illustrations of hundreds of different fungal species (“Beatrix Potter.” The Linnean Society of London). Two other allusions to external individuals include a short sarcastic remark about the poet Lord Byron—“How many works on the life of Lord Byron does the world really need, anyway?” (82)—and references to microbiologist Robert Koch, which are made in tandem with allusions to the medical diagnosis of “hysteria” and to tuberculosis. These allusions enhance the realism of the text and reinforce the relevance of the story’s 19th-century time frame.
Kingfisher also incorporates allusions to the United States, most of which are couched in negative terms. Miss Potter uses an annoyed tone when talking about an American who claims to have discovered an underwater mushroom. Likewise, Easton’s narration includes an allusion to rivers burning in the United States, for ka says, “I know there was a river in America that caught fire once, and had made the papers as an amusing footnote about how the Yanks could even make water burn, but I vaguely recall there had been some kind of chemicals involved” (33). This remark likely refers to the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, which has caught fire multiple times because of severe pollution. The river first caught fire in 1868, which is about 22 years before the time frame in which the novella is set. These scornful, sarcastic remarks reference the common modern stereotype of Americans as arrogant and destructive.
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