Short Fiction · Chapter
VIII: The Second Stage explained
Mr.
What happens
Mr. Jennings describes the escalating malevolence of the spectral monkey that haunts him. It has grown more aggressive, thwarting his clerical duties by appearing in church and on his prayer book. After a brief respite under Dr. Harley's care, it returns with renewed fury, disrupting his prayers and drawing him toward despair.
Themes in this chapter
Supernatural and the Uncanny
The spectral monkey is a persistent, malevolent supernatural entity that defies natural explanation and grows in power.
Faith and Skepticism
Jennings's faith is tested as the phantom disrupts his prayers and clerical duties, pushing him toward spiritual despair.
Guilt and Retribution
Jennings's torment suggests a hidden guilt or moral failing, with the monkey as an agent of retribution drawing him 'interiorly into hell.'
Characters to notice
- Mr. Jennings
Narrates his deepening torment by the spectral monkey, its interference with his ministry, and his growing desperation.
- Doctor Hesselius
The listener and physician to whom Jennings confides his ordeal; offers a philosophical ear.
Key passages
“Its power of action, I tell you, had increased. Its malice became, in a way aggressive.”
The creature's ability to act and its ill will had grown more forceful and hostile.
Jennings notes the escalation of the phantom's malevolence.
“It was with me in the church—in the reading-desk—in the pulpit—within the communion rails. At last, it reached this extremity, that while I was reading to the congregation, it would spring upon the open book and squat there, so that I was unable to see the page.”
The phantom followed him into every part of the church, even perching on his Bible during services to block his view.
The monkey's interference with Jennings's clerical duties becomes physically obstructive.
“It used to spring on a table, on the back of a chair, on the chimneypiece, and slowly to swing itself from side to side, looking at me all the time. There is in its motion an indefinable power to dissipate thought, and to contract one’s attention to that monotony, till the ideas shrink, as it were, to a point, and at last to nothing.”
The creature would perch and sway, hypnotically draining his concentration until his mind felt empty.
Jennings describes the phantom's ability to disrupt his mental focus, especially during prayer.