Short Fiction · Chapter
The Wages of Sin explained
The narrator recounts a story of a young girl and an apothecary, where the apothecary asks the narrator to write a poem for the girl's poetry book.
What happens
The narrator recounts a story of a young girl and an apothecary, where the apothecary asks the narrator to write a poem for the girl's poetry book. The narrator provides a poem, claiming the apothecary wrote it himself. At a party, the girl becomes restless and later asks the narrator if the apothecary truly wrote the verses. The narrator lies, saying yes. Later, the narrator sees the girl and the apothecary kissing in the woods and weeps bitterly.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy and Moral Decay
The narrator's deliberate deception of the young girl about the poem's authorship, and his subsequent guilt, highlight the theme of moral decay and hypocrisy.
Love and Loss
The narrator's unrequited feelings and the sight of the girl kissing the apothecary evoke a sense of love and loss.
Illusion and Reality
The narrator creates an illusion about the apothecary's poetic abilities, which leads to the girl's romantic interest, contrasting with the reality of the apothecary's ordinariness.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The narrator, who deceives the young girl by claiming the apothecary wrote the poem himself.
- Miss Erika
The young girl who smells of pine woods and heather, is sunburned and freckled, and is deceived by the narrator.
- Apothecary
The apothecary who wears a white vest on Sundays and asks the narrator for a poem to write in Miss Erika's book.
Key passages
“I felt a sting in my conscience, for I saw that she was a pretty and lovable child and that it was a great sin to deceive her so.”
The narrator felt guilty for lying to the innocent girl.
Highlights the narrator's moral conflict and the theme of hypocrisy.
“But when he had kissed her three times, I went away and wept bitterly.”
After seeing the apothecary kiss the girl three times, the narrator left and cried.
Emphasizes the narrator's emotional pain and loss.