Heart-Shaped Box

Heart-Shaped Box’s focal characters all suffer from trauma: Jude experienced physical abuse by his father, Martin; Marybeth experienced a sexual assault; and Anna was killed after years of sexual abuse by Craddock. While all three characters have learned to cope with trauma through suppression, in Anna’s case, Craddock’s supernatural suppression played a part in his abuse, “but he couldn’t completely wipe out the memories of what he’d done” (263). This incomplete suppression is a literalization of how Jude and Marybeth cope with their respective trauma. In the beginning, both have distanced themselves from their pasts physically and emotionally: Both have moved north and crafted new identities for themselves, and neither has fully shared their trauma with the other. Thus, their journey toward healing is built on opening up and trusting each other. As mentioned in the Background, ghosts in Gothic fiction represent the intrusion of past trauma on the present. Craddock’s ghost disrupts Jude’s life because he embodies many of his and Marybeth’s traumas. The ghost directly ties to Jude’s newfound trauma regarding Anna’s “suicide” but also evokes his own abusive father. Craddock’s sexual abuse also ties into Marybeth’s sexual assault, reinforced by his forced masturbation and placement of a phallic gun in her mouth.