Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Death by Lightning’ follows the story of James Garfield, who became President of the United States in a very unexpected turn of events, and his assassination by Charles Guiteau, who had his own ideas about the country and what its president should be like. Over the course of four episodes, we follow Garfield and Guiteau on their individual paths, which eventually collide with the force that leads to Garfield’s death. At the same time, we also meet Garfield’s wife, Lucretia, who is his support system through the turbulent final few months of his life. One of the most impactful scenes in the show comes at the end, when Lucretia comes face-to-face with Guiteau, giving him a piece of her mind. The meeting serves as a crucial point in the story, but it didn’t exactly go down as shown in the Netflix series. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Charles Guiteau and Lucretia Garfield’s Meeting is a Fictional Aspect of the Show
Death by Lightning’ is inspired by the true events surrounding the presidency of James Garfield, leading up to his assassination. However, in doing so, the show’s creators have taken creative liberties in presenting certain events, which include the meeting between Charles Guiteau and Lucretia Garfield. In the show, the meeting takes place on the eve of Guiteau’s execution. She confronts him about his actions, how he killed her husband, and robbed not just her and her family of him, but also the country of all the things he could have done for them. In real life, there is no record of any such meeting between the duo.
In fact, Lucretia Garfield preferred not to speak about her husband’s assassination publicly and never acknowledged Guiteau and his actions either. Reportedly, she was neither at his trial nor his execution. After Garfield was shot, she stayed by his side the entire time, and after he passed away, she stepped out of the limelight and focused on her family and social work, never chasing any attention. The scene between Lucretia and Guiteau was created by the show’s writer and creator, Mike Makowsky. The decision to include this scene in the story was made with the intention of addressing the significant loss that the country suffered with Garfield’s death, and the potential it was robbed of by losing one of its more promising Presidents.
Charles Guiteau and Lucretia Garfield’s Meeting Serves an Important Purpose
In the meeting, Lucretia discusses how Guiteau’s actions prevented her husband from reaching his full potential as President. He’d been in the post for only three months when he was shot, confined to bed, and eventually died. During this time, he continued to battle political forces, such as Roscoe Conkling, who worked tirelessly against him and his policies to further their own interests. Finally, when he won the battle against them and had the reins to do what he really wanted, he was shot. Lucretia’s speech touches upon this “what if” scenario for the country and its people had Garfield survived and served his entire term. Instead, she laments that due to such a short span of his presidency, he will be reduced to a footnote, and people will soon forget about him.
What gives her comfort, though, is that the same would happen for Guiteau. She tells him that after his death, she will ensure that his book is not published and his name becomes as obscure as, if not more so, than her husband’s. This is a massive loss for Guiteau, as he’d been living in a delusion, believing it was his mission to kill Garfield. He thought he could be celebrated for it, and he did lap up the limelight that came with it by selling his pictures and his interviews, cashing in on royalties, which he hoped to expand with the publication of his book.
However, no such thing happened for him, because, as Lucretia promised him, he was forgotten and abandoned in the annals of history as an insignificant man. It is a major slap in the face for the assassin, who made himself feel important through Garfield’s death. His sense of grandeur prevented him from accepting his horrendous actions, let alone feeling guilty about them. With her words, Lucretia smashes his false sense of self-importance, showing him that even now, he remains unimportant and forgettable, and that is the thought he will die with. This gives a fitting end to Guiteau’s tale, as his illusions about himself are finally broken, and he realizes that his death will be just as unexceptional as his life.
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