Can Such Things Be? · Chapter
One Summer Night explained
Henry Armstrong, buried but not convinced he is dead, lies in his grave with pathological indifference.
What happens
Henry Armstrong, buried but not convinced he is dead, lies in his grave with pathological indifference. During a stormy night, three men—two medical students and a cemetery worker named Jess—dig up his coffin. When they open it, Henry sits up, causing the students to flee in terror. Jess, however, returns later with the body, having killed Henry with a spade, and waits for his pay at the medical college.
Themes in this chapter
Death and the Supernatural
The story blurs the line between death and life as Henry Armstrong, though buried, is not dead, and the supernatural event of his sitting up causes terror.
Violence and Mortality
The violent act of grave robbing and the final blow with a spade that kills Henry underscore the brutal reality of mortality.
Characters to notice
- Henry Armstrong
Buried alive but believes himself only very ill; sits up when his coffin is opened.
- Jess
Gigantic negro cemetery worker who digs up the grave, kills Henry with a spade, and delivers the body for pay.
Key passages
“The fact that Henry Armstrong was buried did not seem to him to prove that he was dead: he had always been a hard man to convince.”
Henry Armstrong's burial did not convince him of his own death; he was stubbornly skeptical.
Establishes Henry's unusual state of mind and the central irony of the story.
“At that instant the air sprang to flame, a cracking shock of thunder shook the stunned world and Henry Armstrong tranquilly sat up.”
A flash of lightning and thunderclap accompanied Henry Armstrong's calm sitting up in his coffin.
Climactic moment blending natural storm with supernatural resurrection.
“Stretched naked on a long table lay the body of Henry Armstrong, the head defiled with blood and clay from a blow with a spade.”
Henry Armstrong's naked body lay on a dissecting table, his head bloody and dirty from a spade blow.
Final revelation of Jess's brutal act and the fate of Henry's body.