Ghost Stories · Chapter
The Terror by Night explained
The narrator reflects on the phenomenon of transferred emotions, comparing it to wireless telegraphy, and recounts a shared experience of inexplicable fear with his friend Jack Lorimer after returning from Davos.
What happens
The narrator reflects on the phenomenon of transferred emotions, comparing it to wireless telegraphy, and recounts a shared experience of inexplicable fear with his friend Jack Lorimer after returning from Davos. The two men, living together in Chelsea, are both struck by a profound sense of dread, which culminates in a strange sensory event involving a sudden, intense cold and a feeling of something 'coming through'.
Themes in this chapter
Fear and Terror
The central theme of the chapter, as the narrator and Jack Lorimer are overwhelmed by a shared, inexplicable sense of dread and foreboding.
Psychology of Dreams and Perception
The chapter explores the transference of emotion and the idea that minds can receive 'messages' from unseen sources, akin to wireless signals.
Supernatural and Occult
The narrator discusses ghosts and occult phenomena as manifestations of transferred emotions, and the story involves a mysterious, shared sensory experience.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator experiences a shared, inexplicable fear with Jack Lorimer, and later feels a sudden, intense cold and internal vibration.
- Jack Stone
Jack Lorimer, the narrator's old friend, first experiences the sense of fear and later shares the strange cold sensation in the drawing-room.
- Julia Stone
Jack's wife, who is in Davos for treatment of consumption; her health is improving, and she urges Jack to stay in London.
- Ida Soulsby
Julia's sister, who accompanies her to Davos and is present at the station when Jack and the narrator leave.
- Philip
An old friend and doctor, invited to dinner and the theatre by the narrator.
- My Servant
The narrator's manservant, who appears scared when called to bring hot water.
Key passages
“The transference of emotion is a phenomenon so common, so constantly witnessed, that mankind in general have long ceased to be conscious of its existence, as a thing worth our wonder or consideration, regarding it as being as natural and commonplace as the transference of things that act by the ascertained laws of matter.”
People take emotional contagion for granted, seeing it as ordinary as physical changes like air moving through an open window.
The narrator introduces the concept of emotional transference as a natural, often overlooked phenomenon.
“Some people call them ghosts, some conjuring tricks, and some nonsense. It seems simpler to group them under the head of transferred emotions, and they may appeal to any of the senses.”
What some dismiss as ghosts or tricks, the narrator prefers to explain as emotions transferred between people, affecting any sense.
The narrator reframes supernatural experiences as psychological phenomena.
“We are all of us probably 'receivers' to some extent, and catch now and then a message or part of a message that the eternal waves of emotion are ceaselessly shouting aloud to those who have ears to hear, and materializing themselves for those who have eyes to see.”
Everyone can occasionally pick up fragments of emotional signals that are constantly broadcast, like a wireless receiver.
The narrator uses the analogy of wireless telegraphy to explain how people perceive emotional messages.
“There is nothing in the world to fear except fear.”
The only thing truly worth fearing is the feeling of fear itself.
The narrator tries to rally Jack by dismissing their dread as baseless.
“It had grown suddenly and bitterly cold, not with the dampness of English frost, but with the clear and stinging exhilaration of such days as we had recently spent in Switzerland.”
The room became intensely cold, reminiscent of the dry, sharp cold of the Swiss Alps rather than a typical English chill.
The narrator experiences a sudden, unnatural cold that recalls their time in Davos.
