# XXI: In Which It Is Shown That a Dearly-Loved Friend Can Lighten the Heaviest Sorrow explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Guy de Maupassant.

## What happens

Doctor Heraclius Gloss, having discovered his monkey to be a great philosopher, devotes himself entirely to the animal, treating it with the tenderness of a lover and the reverence of a worshipper. The monkey accepts this adoration calmly. Heraclius, isolated by his sublime intellect and unable to convince his friends of his doctrine, finds solace in his companion. However, his life grows sadder as the Warden and the Dean visit less frequently, especially after he decrees that no food which once had life be served at his table. He dreads his lonely meals and is haunted by remorse—not for having eaten quails, but for having renounced them forever.

## Themes in this chapter

### Isolation and Loneliness

Heraclius feels alone in his work and beliefs, abandoned by his friends, and finds companionship only in his monkey.

### Obsession and Delusion

Heraclius's devotion to the monkey as a philosopher and his elaborate theories about animal speech and past lives reveal his obsessive and delusional mindset.

## Character check-ins

### Doctor Heraclius Gloss

Becomes the humble valet of his monkey, lavishing it with tender care and philosophical conversation, finding solace from his isolation and grief.

## Key lines

> As the doctor had said, from that day onward the monkey was really master of the house, and Heraclius became the animal’s humble valet.

From that day forward, the monkey ruled the household, and Heraclius served it like a devoted servant.

_Establishes the reversal of roles between Heraclius and the monkey._

> Heraclius, like all great minds living in solitude, isolated by their sublimity above the common level of foolishness of ordinary people, had up till then felt himself alone.

Heraclius, like all great intellects who live in solitude because their brilliance sets them apart from ordinary fools, had always felt isolated.

_Explains Heraclius's loneliness as a consequence of his intellectual superiority._

> He would go sadly into his dining room realizing that now there was nothing to look forward to.

He entered his dining room with sadness, knowing there was nothing to anticipate.

_Highlights Heraclius's despair over his lonely meals after his friends stopped visiting._

## Links

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