IX: Peter's Tombstone explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Greed and Moral Corruption

  The siblings' lawsuit over Peter's will exposes their greed and willingness to air family secrets for money, while Peter's cunning ensures his posthumous victory.

• Family Dysfunction and Betrayal

  The Selamb siblings' cold, manipulative interactions and betrayal of each other culminate in a scandalous legal battle over inheritance.

• Money and Power

  Peter's will and fortune become tools of control and revenge, illustrating how money corrupts and defines relationships even after death.

• Death and Mortality

  Peter's death and the subsequent legal 'tombstone' highlight the legacy of a life lived for power, with the masses admiring his cunning even in death.

Characters to notice

• Peter Selamb

  Peter the Boss dies, leaving a cunning will that ensures his posthumous control and sparks a family lawsuit.

• Laura

  Laura visits Peter before his death, anxious about scandal, and later receives the yacht 'Laura' as a mocking bequest.

• Hedvig

  Hedvig is fetched to visit Peter, dressed in moth-eaten clothes, and mutters reproachfully about Peter's past woman.

• Stellan Selamb

  Stellan joins the siblings' visit to Peter, concerned about family name and scandal, and later inherits only Peter's old watch.

• Bernhard

  Bernhard is Peter's unrecognized son and sole heir, seen teasing the watchdog outside; he later drinks himself to death.

• Jacob Levy

  Levy is appointed executor of Peter's will and uses the opportunity for revenge on Laura and Hedvig during the lawsuit.

• Georg Hermansson

  Georg is mentioned as a prominent engineer in Philadelphia at the time of writing, with a hint he may return home.

Key passages

• “This will was the tombstone of Peter the Boss, and his relations celebrated its unveiling by a long and scandalous lawsuit in which nothing of the Selamb nature was hidden from the eyes of the world.”

  Peter's will acted as his final monument, and his family marked its reading with a lengthy, scandalous court case that exposed all their secrets.

  Highlights the will as a symbol of Peter's enduring control and the family's disgrace.

• “The masses in the end always capitulate to a scoundrel of coarser calibre than themselves.”

  Ordinary people ultimately admire a rogue who is more ruthless than they are.

  Reflects the theme of public admiration for cunning and power.

• “You should never have taken up with that woman, Peter.”

  You should never have gotten involved with that woman, Peter.

  Hedvig's repeated reproach underscores her bitterness and the family's judgment of Peter's past.