Short Fiction · Chapter
IV explained
Frederick Fant, suffering from heart trouble and emotional turmoil, observes his wife at a dance and reflects on their lost intimacy.
What happens
Frederick Fant, suffering from heart trouble and emotional turmoil, observes his wife at a dance and reflects on their lost intimacy. He wanders through the rooms, haunted by memories of their past kiss, and overhears a cruel remark about his tattooed hand.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Loss
Frederick's bitter longing for his wife's past affection and the kiss they once shared.
Illusion and Reality
Frederick perceives the dancers as silent in the mirror, a metaphor for the disconnect between appearance and truth.
Hypocrisy and Moral Decay
The whispered gossip about Frederick's tattoo reveals social cruelty and hidden judgments.
Characters to notice
- Frederick Richard Fant
Sits in the smoking-room, smokes despite his heart condition, observes his wife in the mirror, and is tormented by desire and jealousy.
- Mr. Fant
The Knight Commander sitting beside Frederick; they are on first-name terms but say nothing.
- Edith
Frederick's wife, seen in a stiff silk dress, whispering with her cousin.
Key passages
“Look at the girls’ white dresses! behold their panting bosoms!— He recollected that he had once seen her who was now his wife float past, as they did, in a girl’s plain white ball-dress.”
He watches the dancers and remembers seeing his wife in a simple white dress when she was a girl.
Frederick contrasts the past innocence of his wife with her present appearance.
“He could not force himself to leave the room, because he felt a bitter and devouring desire for his wife and the kiss of old times, the kiss under the blue-green light from pearl fringe of the single electric light, the kiss which the mandarin had beheld in his nodding half-slumber.”
He stays in the room, consumed by longing for his wife and the memory of their past kiss.
The kiss is a symbol of lost love and intimacy.
“Well, after all it’s only natural. One can’t expect her to be in love with someone who has a blue anchor tattooed on his hand.”
A voice remarks that it's understandable she wouldn't love a man with a blue anchor tattoo.
The remark underscores Frederick's social humiliation and the stigma attached to his tattoo.