64 pages • 2 hours read
Valerie BauerleinThe Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Courthouses
The two main courthouses that appear in the text are the Hampton County courthouse and the Colleton County courthouse. Both courthouses represent the Murdaughs’ power and their family legacy at the apex of the law. Bauerlein repeatedly references the irony involved in the fact that Alex was brought to justice in the Colleton County courthouse, given that his family used that very building to convict so many others. The Murdaugh name is so enmeshed with the power of the courthouse that Alex’s grandfather stood among the “portraits of stern-faced court officials” (3) that covered the walls. Bauerlein emphasizes this connection when she shares that Judge Newman had to take this portrait down during Alex’s trial so that the jury wouldn’t “feel the old man’s eyes upon them as they decided his grandson’s fate” (4).
The Hampton County courthouse, being located in the Murdaughs’ home county, also represents the Murdaughs’ prosperity. Bauerlein first describes the courthouse as the finest building in the county, stating, “Hampton’s most impressive building, its bedrock and its beacon, was the courthouse” (24). The grandness of the courthouse indicates the importance of justice in Hampton, not as an abstract principle but as an industry. During their heyday, the Murdaughs sued corporations for millions of dollars on behalf of their clients, bringing in the kind of money that simply could not be generated by the town’s few other industries. However, Bauerlein argues that behind this beneficent veneer, the only people who truly prospered were the Murdaughs themselves. Throughout her narrative, Bauerlein uses the physical infrastructure of the town to draw out this hidden symbolic meaning, emphasizing that compared to the beautifully upkept courthouse, Hampton had “shamefully dangerous roads” (24), and “most of the storefronts were boarded up” (25). Through the symbol of the courthouse, Bauerlein argues that the Murdaughs didn’t use their power to give back to the community; instead, they used the constructed appearance of goodwill to exploit the vulnerable population.
Royalty
Throughout the text, Bauerlein employs descriptive language that refers to royalty, invoking this motif to reflect the Murdaughs’ feelings of superiority and entitlement. Bauerlein calls the Murdaughs “rulers” and labels Alex the “prince of Hampton County” (21) to denote the family’s self-appointed position above the common people of the region. Alex and his family see themselves not only as above the law, but as the law itself. As the county’s leaders, they believed that they could act in any way they chose without fear of repercussion. Bauerlein’s use of these descriptors also alludes to the divine right of kings, and she applies the logic of royal lineage and successorship to the Murdaughs’ uncontested solicitor’s seat, as when she asserts, “The family ruled on until Alex grew old enough to assume his rightful place in the succession” (11). These strategic descriptions indicate the Murdaughs’ collective belief that it was their birthright to inherit the solicitor’s seat, and this is also why Alex’s rejection of the seat was so shocking to the family and to the town. However, Alex still demanded the power and untouchability that the seat commanded.
Bauerlein also depicts Hampton as the Murdaughs’ “empire” or “kingdom,” further demonstrating their power over the local people. Hampton County once fortified its borders with a fence, and although the fence no longer exists, Bauerlein argues that the Murdaughs maintained the county’s insular border through their immense legal influence, and Bauerlein indicates that the county itself became a fortress of sorts for the Murdaughs. This metaphor is heightened when she describes the family’s feelings during Alex’s criminal cases as “being under siege” (253). The family felt as though the very foundations of their empire were under attack, especially since the attacks came from so many sources. Outside viewers of the trial saw the Murdaughs as “entitled noblemen running a manor” (253), and this widespread and unfavorable perception inevitably shifted public opinion against them.
Moselle
Moselle begins as a representation of the peak of Alex’s wealth and influence, but by the end, the property comes to represent his ruin. One of Alex’s main goals in his life was to buy Moselle, which was the place where the first Murdaugh immigrants homesteaded in America. For Alex, the property would be “the centerpiece of his claim to the family legacy” (56) and the “crown jewel of his ambitions” (58). Moselle became the family’s party house, “a high-end playground” (86) where both the parents and their underage children indulged in hedonistic drinking and hunting habits. The property even had an airplane runway that allowed Alex to fly in drugs. Bauerlein depicts Moselle as a grand, sprawling property that was isolated by the surrounding wilderness. Moselle was both luxurious and “feral,” and its isolation symbolized Alex’s seeming invincibility at the summit of Hampton society.
After the murders, however, Moselle shed this image of wealth and superiority due to its inextricable connection to Maggie and Paul’s gruesome deaths. When Alex was forced to leave Moselle, the property soon withered into an overgrown “no-man’s-land” (285) that contained only hints of the family who once lived there. For visitors such as the jurors, Moselle exuded the “heaviness” of the crimes. Notably, investigators saw small plants growing where Paul and Maggie had both died, as if their souls “haunted” Moselle in order to remind people of what had happened there.
