Can Such Things Be? · Chapter
A Fruitless Assignment explained
Henry Saylor, a reporter for the Cincinnati Commercial, is assigned to spend a night alone in the supposedly haunted Roscoe house on Vine Street.
What happens
Henry Saylor, a reporter for the Cincinnati Commercial, is assigned to spend a night alone in the supposedly haunted Roscoe house on Vine Street. Despite the eerie reputation and the crowd outside, Saylor experiences a series of bizarre and terrifying events, including finding a severed head and being surrounded by a laughing, grotesque crowd. When he returns to the office, the city editor is shocked to see him, implying that something inexplicable has occurred.
Themes in this chapter
The Uncanny and the Grotesque
The chapter is filled with grotesque imagery, such as the severed head being kicked around like a ball by a laughing crowd, and the uncanny nature of the ghostly figures that appear and disappear without explanation.
Isolation and Terror
Saylor is alone in the haunted house, cut off from the outside world, and experiences profound terror as he encounters supernatural phenomena and a hostile crowd of ghostly figures.
Characters to notice
- Henry Saylor
A reporter for the Cincinnati Commercial who is assigned to spend the night in the haunted Roscoe house.
Key passages
“He raised his eyes from the ghastly object of his attention and saw himself the center of a crowd of men and women dimly seen; the room was thronged with them.”
Looking up from the horrifying thing he was holding, he found himself surrounded by a dimly visible crowd of men and women who had filled the room.
This moment marks the climax of Saylor's haunting, where the supernatural crowd appears.
“They danced about it with gestures grotesque and attitudes obscene and indescribable.”
The crowd moved around the head with grotesque and obscene gestures that were impossible to describe.
Highlights the grotesque and chaotic nature of the ghostly figures.