Short Fiction · Chapter
Silence explained
A Demon narrates a fable about a desolate region in Libya by the river Zaire, where a man sits on a rock amidst a chaotic, noisy landscape.
What happens
A Demon narrates a fable about a desolate region in Libya by the river Zaire, where a man sits on a rock amidst a chaotic, noisy landscape. The Demon summons hippopotami and a tempest to disturb the man, but the man remains seated. Finally, the Demon curses the scene into absolute silence, causing the man to flee in terror. The Demon then laughs, but the narrator cannot laugh with him.
Themes in this chapter
Isolation and Alienation
The man on the rock is utterly alone in a desolate landscape, longing for solitude yet trembling in it, highlighting profound isolation.
The Supernatural and the Gothic
The Demon narrator, the cursed landscape, and the supernatural imposition of silence create a gothic, otherworldly atmosphere.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator listens to the Demon's fable and cannot laugh at its end.
Key passages
“The region of which I speak is a dreary region in Libya, by the borders of the river Zaire. And there is no quiet there, nor silence.”
The Demon describes a bleak area in Libya near the Zaire River, where there is no peace or silence.
Sets the scene for the fable's chaotic environment.
“And the man trembled in the solitude;—but the night waned and he sat upon the rock.”
The man shivered in his loneliness, yet remained seated as the night passed.
Repeated refrain emphasizing the man's endurance despite fear.
“Then I grew angry and cursed, with the curse of silence, the river, and the lilies, and the wind, and the forest, and the heaven, and the thunder, and the sighs of the water-lilies. And they became accursed, and were still.”
The Demon angrily cursed everything to silence, and all became motionless and quiet.
Climactic moment where the Demon imposes absolute stillness.