The Witch Elm

Toby’s retrospective first-person narration opens with a reflection on luck, setting the foundation for The Witch Elm’s exploration of luck’s relationship with empathy. He acknowledges experiencing a relative amount of luck and privilege. However, in hindsight, he realizes luck can be “smoothly and deliciously deceptive, […] relentlessly twisted and knotted in on its own hidden places, and […] lethal” (2). Toby’s luck and privilege shape his worldview, limiting his ability to develop empathy for others less fortunate than him. He references his blissful ignorance at the story’s start while alluding to his newly acquired, hardened worldview about luck and privilege at the story’s end. As the novel unfolds, his luck and privilege develop into his fatal flaw, provoking the crimes that redefine his identity.

How Luck and Privilege Limit Empathy becomes a central theme, first introduced by the Tiernan/Gouger conflict. Early on, childhood friend Dec points out Toby’s arrogance: “You are a gobshite […] You haven’t got a clue, man” (19). While Toby feels distressed about potentially losing his job, he fails to identify any culpability or guilt for his fired coworker, Tiernan, or the young artists whose art show he risked for personal gain. His dismissal of Dec’s harsh judgment (which comes from a place of empathy, as he has a less privileged background) in lieu of the opinions of his other friend, Sean, demonstrates an inability (or reluctance) to comprehend different backgrounds. Toby’s privileged worldview faces continuous challenges as the novel unfolds.

Toby’s luck changes when he is violently attacked in his apartment. Aspects of his identity (his appearance, career, relationships, etc.) change or disappear, highlighting the theme of How Trauma Influences Identity. Still, he feels grateful when a doctor frames his survival as lucky: “Some vague part of me felt that this was a fairly outrageous thing to say to someone in my situation, but a bigger part seized on the comfort of it—lucky, yes, I was lucky” (41). Toby believes luck is an inherent part of his identity, so much so that he shifts his perspective to find luck in an otherwise terrible situation. He struggles to accept an existence in which he is not incredibly lucky and privileged. As such, his relationship with his mother suffers, as he finds her attempts to comfort him belittling. On the other hand, Toby feels grateful for Detectives Gerry Martin and Colm Bannon, who act like he is “a normal person, not a patient or a victim or someone to be handled with kid gloves in case he fell to pieces” (52). He craves a sense of normalcy, and his comprehension of an ordinary world is one in which he is healthy and independent. He fails (or refuses) to accept any other reality. Toby goes so far as to hide the severity of his physical injuries and PTSD symptoms from family and friends, desperate to maintain the illusion that he is the same Toby as always.

In contrast to Toby, Toby’s girlfriend, Melissa, is an empathetic character who lacks luck. While Toby harbors little empathy for people experiencing disadvantage, manipulating his surroundings and using his privilege to get ahead, Melissa demonstrates a caring “nature towards things that made her and everyone around her happy” (3). He admires Melissa’s empathy without striving to replicate or reciprocate it himself. Moreover, he hides his opportunistic side from Melissa (i.e., the Tiernan/Gouger conflict), knowing she would feel disturbed by it like Dec. Although Toby doesn’t go out of his way to consciously hurt anyone (until he murders Detective Mike Rafferty), he never considers how he could extend help to others with his privilege. He only decides to move to Ivy House and care for his uncle Hugo when he recognizes personal gains: an escape from the apartment where he was attacked and a purpose beyond caring for himself. Comparatively, Melissa gains nothing by moving to Ivy House but does so anyway out of concern for Toby and Hugo.