Fuchsia Groan - Fuchsia and Steerpike

Fuchsia and Steerpike

Steerpike takes advantage of Fuchsia's romantic soul by convincing the lonely young woman that he is an adventurer. Fuchsia herself is initially disgusted by Steerpike's grubby appearance, but she is then awed when he tells her of an enigmatic "pavement in the sky." He uses her to quickly find himself work as Dr. Prunesquallor's manservant and dispensary clerk.

Over the course of the novels, Fuchsia falls in love with Steerpike. She is attracted by his swashbuckling persona and by the fact that he is different from anyone else she has ever met. It is feasible that Fuchsia also loves what Steerpike represents: the possibility for change. Since Steerpike himself started out as a lowly kitchen boy and advanced upwards through the society of Gormenghast, perhaps it is also possible for Fuchsia to change her own destiny. Unbeknownst to Fuchsia, Steerpike is responsible for the death of her father, an event that saddens the young woman deeply and adds to her feeling of being utterly alone.

Ultimately, the pair's love affair is doomed to fail. Fuchsia finally realizes that Steerpike is "evil" and untrustworthy, and is frightened by his lust for power. While the television series portrays Steerpike as begging Fuchsia for shelter even after he has been revealed as a criminal (a request for assistance that she rejects), there is no corresponding scene in the novel. Fuchsia's death, in chapter 75, is precipitated by "mounting melancholia" brought on by the revelation that she had loved a murderer. This eventually leads her to a situation in which she finds herself standing perilously on a windowsill above the waters that had flooded the Castle. Disturbed by someone knocking at the door, she slips and, knocked unconscious by her head striking the windowsill, drowns. While nothing indicates Steerpike's involvement as an immediate cause of her death (he indirectly contributed by disturbing her always fragile mental equilibrium), Titus, upon hearing of her death, immediately blames Steerpike for it (chapter 76) and swears to kill him.

Fuchsia was buried on Gormenghast Mountain, at a site overlooking the Castle chosen by her mother, in a ceremony at which neither her brother the Earl, recovering as he was from the severe fever that followed his killing of Steerpike, nor Dr. Prunesquallor, who was caring for the Earl, could attend. It was immediately after a visit to her grave that Titus decided to abandon his hereditary responsibilities and go out into the world.

In Titus Alone, Fuchsia is one of the characters from the earlier novels mocked by Cheeta in the nightmarish scene that she puts on in the Black House (chapter 105).