Looking Backward · Chapter
Chapter II: The Mesmeric Trance explained
Julian West describes his insomnia and his reliance on Dr.
What happens
Julian West describes his insomnia and his reliance on Dr. Pillsbury, a mesmerist, to induce sleep in his subterranean chamber. After a Decoration Day dinner with the Bartletts, where labor unrest is discussed, he returns home and is put into a deep trance by Dr. Pillsbury, who then leaves the city.
Themes in this chapter
Social Inequality and Class Division
Julian's frustration with striking workers and the dinner conversation reveal deep class tensions and disdain for labor agitators.
Labor and Dignity of Work
The strikes in the building trades and the characters' negative views of workers highlight the era's labor conflicts.
Technology and Urban Design
Julian's subterranean sleeping chamber is a unique architectural feature designed for silence and security.
Characters to notice
- Julian West
Narrator and protagonist; suffers from insomnia and uses mesmerism to sleep.
- Edith Bartlett
Julian's betrothed; he dines with her family on Decoration Day and tries to persuade her to marry sooner.
- Sawyer
Julian's faithful servant; fetches Dr. Pillsbury and is taught to awaken Julian from the mesmeric sleep.
- Dr. Pillsbury
A quack doctor and mesmerist who puts Julian into a trance; he is leaving Boston for a new opportunity.
- Mrs. Bartlett
Edith's mother; expresses concern about labor unrest and socialism during dinner conversation.
Key passages
“Caligula wished that the Roman people had but one neck that he might cut it off, and as I read this letter I am afraid that for a moment I was capable of wishing the same thing concerning the laboring classes of America.”
Julian momentarily wished he could silence all American workers, comparing his frustration to the Roman emperor Caligula's cruel desire.
Expresses Julian's extreme exasperation with labor strikes delaying his house construction.
“When I had entered it and closed the door, I was surrounded by the silence of the tomb.”
Julian's underground room was so quiet it felt like being in a grave.
Describes the profound silence of his subterranean sleeping chamber.