The Bee Sting

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

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Part 4

Part 5

Character Analysis

Themes

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Themes

The Difficulties of Open Communication

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses the novel’s treatment of death and grief, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and gun violence.

The novel portrays the dangers of self-isolation and withdrawal from others. While open communication is difficult because characters are unwilling to confront their worst fears about themselves, it also promotes important systems of support.

Dickie is a prime example of this theme. Dickie represses his sexuality even to himself. Dickie is attracted to men and the great love of his life was a man, but he stops himself from living authentically by keeping his relationship with Willie a secret and even preventing himself from thinking about it because he doesn’t believe he deserves to be happy.

As a young man, Dickie mistrusts his family, which has not provided him with a safe environment. Even when he faces physical danger, he cannot be honest about what has happened. Rather than telling the truth about how he got so badly injured in Dublin—that a man he had sex with physically assaulted him, nearly killing him—Dickie lies about being hit by a bus. Likewise, Dickie is not honest with his father about not wanting to take over the dealership. Having internalized this approach to hiding his truth, Dickie continues his secret-keeping into adulthood. His refusal to be open with Imelda about Ryszard’s extortion is toxic: His self-repression makes him pull away from familial closeness, cutting off his children and retreating into paranoid fantasies of survivalist projects in the woods. Had Dickie been clear and honest with what he wanted out of life, he would not feel forced into the uncharacteristic decision to kill Ryszard rather than confess what has happened—a plan that puts Cass and PJ in danger of potentially being accidentally killed by their own father.

Cass also struggles with open communication. She is passionately in love with Elaine, and her obsession prevents Cass from being herself. Cass takes on Elaine’s interests and perspective; rather than explain to her parents how she feels about her future and Elaine, Cass lashes out, turning PJ away, picking fights with her mother, and accusing her father of failing the family. Cass is unable to be open about her feelings for Elaine because, at first, she can’t even be honest with herself about those feelings. Yet even when she admits the truth to herself and resolves to tell Elaine that she loves her, Cass can’t bring herself to do it. Cass, like Dickie, decides to hide her true feelings; however, the confused tension with which she hovers near Elaine only pushes Elaine further away. However, it is not too late for Cass to face up to reality: Once she commits to being honest with herself, she realizes that Elaine is not a good friend and returns to being PJ’s protective big sister just in time to rescue him from Ethan.

In this novel, family secrets hinder family happiness—the more characters lie to themselves or suppress their true emotions, the worse their external conflicts.

The Complexity of Family Dynamics

The Bee Sting is about the importance of solid family dynamics built on honesty, unconditional love, and mutual support. Families that live up to this ideal are a source of joy, while dysfunctional families offer only misery for their members.

Imelda and Dickie both grow up in families that complicate and challenge their senses of self. Imelda’s family of origin is chaotic and violent. She is protected from her father’s physical abuse by her beauty, but she nevertheless experiences the emotional abuse of witnessing him beating her brothers and lives in constant fear of being assaulted by his father’s rivals in retribution. Imelda’s family expects little of her: They see her as purely ornamental because of her beauty and do not encourage her education. Only the maternal Rose intervenes to protect Imelda; otherwise, all Imelda learns from her family is how to manipulate men with her sexuality. Small glimpses of real familial love, such as Imelda’s special connection with her brother Lar, whom she loves even when they become estranged, make the situation all the more poignant.

Dickie’s family is less outwardly chaotic; their financial success makes his home environment respectable and stable. However, his father’s status comes with certain expectations for Dickie and his brother Frank: Dickie will inherit the family business whether he wants to or not. This pressure devastates Dickie, who is happily in love with Willie and does not want to leave Dublin; however, having been browbeaten all his life by people who valorized his younger brother, by his overbearing father, by school bullies, and by the man who assaults him in Dublin, Dickie cannot help but acquiesce to the expectations of his family. This capitulation and self-repression lead to a lifetime of unhappiness and unfulfilled potential. Thus, Murray portrays family units that don’t care about individual desire and ambition as dangerous to the development of individual autonomy.

The family Imelda and Dickie form offers their children more support than the ones they grew up in, highlighting the resilience of familial love. Dickie and Imelda may not be in love with one another, but they love their children. Dickie and PJ have a tight-knit bond because Dickie is a present and devoted father. While Dickie and Cass are now in the throes of Cass’s adolescent rejection of her father’s influence, they were also once close, sharing intellectual interests and a passion for environmentalism. If Dickie were able to be more open about his sexual identity, he and Cass could potentially bond over their LGBTQ+ identities. Despite his general dissatisfaction with his life, Dickie is committed to fatherhood. Even when he pulls away from his family while burdened by his own internal and external conflicts, he holds on to the love he has for his children. Imelda, though less emotionally engaged with her children throughout the novel, also loves them and wants to take care of them. She is horrified to discover how neglectful she has been when she sees PJ’s blisters in his way too small sneakers. At the end of the novel, she decides not to embark on an affair with Big Mike without first telling Dickie; remembering being pregnant reminds her that even though she and Dickie may not be in love, their family is a core positive influence on her life.

The novel suggests that each new generation of the Barnes family improves its understanding of family dynamics and stands an increasingly better chance of getting things right. PJ works hardest to keep his family together, becoming the glue that brings Cass back from Dublin and reconnects to Dickie and Imelda. Cass too reclaims her unconditional love for her family, rejecting the toxic Elaine.

Personal Tragedy and Resilience

Internal conflict in this novel is challenged by personal tragedy, but shown to be resolvable through resilience.

Imelda finally finds hope and meaning in her love for Frank; their engagement seemingly confirms the authenticity of their connection. When he dies, her grief is similarly deep, as she mourns both for Frank and for the life they would have had. Imelda’s devastation is so profound that she can’t leave the Barneses’ house or return to her old life. Instead, she searches for an outlet for her grief, finding physical comfort in Dickie because he shares her despair. This personal tragedy colors every decision Imelda makes in its aftermath: She doesn’t have an abortion when she gets pregnant and marries Dickie despite not loving him. This reaction to her trauma is maladaptive, and the marriage is dysfunctional despite Imelda and Dickie’s love for their children. However, Imelda does show signs of resilience when she is jolted out of her material comfort by the economic downturn. Her friendship with Big Mike allows her to see a different future for herself—one in which she can have a partner who finds her sexually appealing and understands her background and history. Moreover, Imelda’s changed perspective about Dickie, whose loving parenting she finally acknowledges to herself, allows her to avoid falling in the trap of having an affair and keeping yet more secrets—instead, she resolves to be more forthright about the kinds of things their marriage can and cannot provide.

Dickie is also traumatized by the tragedy of Frank’s death, for which Dickie partially blames himself. Dickie’s resilience is manifested through his determination to make the situation right however he can. Dickie’s strong sense of duty leads him to marry Imelda and take over Maurice’s car dealership—decisions that curtail Dickie’s life but honor Frank’s death. Dickie’s resilience often takes on the form of capitulation; he handles setbacks like being bullied and ostracized by relying on his ability to commit to personal sacrifice—a maladaptive strategy that defines his life. The other core personal tragedy of Dickie’s life is breaking up with Willie and thus foregoing his chance at adult happiness for the perceived wellbeing of his family. Willie and Dickie’s breakup haunts Dickie for the rest of his life; resilience becomes the mask he wears.

Other characters also face personal tragedy. PJ is abandoned by his friends, bullied at school, and betrayed by the predator Ethan. PJ fights through these betrayals by trying to hold on to his family—his resilience is in never giving up the idea that the Barnes family could be reunited. Similarly, Cass’s heartbreak over Elaine is a personal tragedy that Cass overcomes by choosing family over herself—her resilience is adopting PJ’s optimism, which is undercut by the novel’s ambiguous ending.