Clarisse’s Creative and Professional Life

The Master Butchers Singing Club

Clarisse’s theatrical imagination and funeral work shape a life of skill, independence, and unresolved vulnerability to Hock’s pursuit.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

Theater with Delphine Theater with Delphine from "The Master Butchers Singing Club". Two Girls Make a Stage Shared invention Clarisse Strub and Delphine perform elaborate plays, changing costumes and taking multiple roles.

Theater with Delphine from "The Master Butchers Singing Club". Two Girls Make a Stage Shared invention Clarisse Strub and Delphine perform elaborate plays, changing costumes and taking multiple roles.

Two Girls Make a Stage Shared invention Clarisse Strub and Delphine perform elaborate plays, changing costumes and taking multiple roles. Their creativity distinguishes them from other children. Friendship as refuge The girls’ loyalty helps them endure teasing and small-town scrutiny. Performance gives each a way to be bold and seen.

A Calling in the Funeral Home

Work with the Dead A family profession Clarisse joins Strub’s Funerary and develops expertise in embalming and anatomy. She takes pride in precise work and the comfort it offers families. A life constrained Her professional commitment keeps her in Argus and narrows her choices for romance. She refuses to abandon work simply to make men comfortable.

A Friendship Under Pressure A Friendship Under Pressure from "The Master Butchers Singing Club". Clarisse Faces Hock A rejected pursuit Clarisse tells Delphine that Hock continues to intrude on her life and reinterpret her refusal.

A Friendship Under Pressure from "The Master Butchers Singing Club". Clarisse Faces Hock A rejected pursuit Clarisse tells Delphine that Hock continues to intrude on her life and reinterpret her refusal.

Clarisse Faces Hock A rejected pursuit Clarisse tells Delphine that Hock continues to intrude on her life and reinterpret her refusal. She longs for a way to stop him. Delphine offers solidarity Delphine jokes about killing him, but the women understand that Clarisse’s situation is not simply comic. Their friendship becomes a place to speak openly.

A Murder and an Escape A Murder and an Escape from "The Master Butchers Singing Club". Survival Outside the Law Hock’s final advance Hock invades Clarisse’s house and lunges at her. Clarisse kills him with her carving knife.

A Murder and an Escape from "The Master Butchers Singing Club". Survival Outside the Law Hock’s final advance Hock invades Clarisse’s house and lunges at her. Clarisse kills him with her carving knife.

Survival Outside the Law Hock’s final advance Hock invades Clarisse’s house and lunges at her. Clarisse kills him with her carving knife. Departure She leaves town before authorities can find her. Her professional future and friendship with Delphine are broken apart by the necessity of flight.

A Life Elsewhere A Life Elsewhere from "The Master Butchers Singing Club". Work as a Compass No return to Argus Clarisse vanishes, reportedly saying that she will go where her work is needed and appreciated.

A Life Elsewhere from "The Master Butchers Singing Club". Work as a Compass No return to Argus Clarisse vanishes, reportedly saying that she will go where her work is needed and appreciated.

Work as a Compass No return to Argus Clarisse vanishes, reportedly saying that she will go where her work is needed and appreciated. No confirmed sighting closes her story. An absent friend Delphine continues to miss her. Clarisse’s disappearance leaves a woman-shaped absence that alters Delphine’s sense of friendship and home.

The girls’ school years

After Clarisse finishes school

Summer 1934

Christmas Eve and Christmas morning

After her disappearance