Short Fiction · Chapter
Dogged explained
Artemus Gibbon, a timid and respectable young man, is coerced into buying a rakish fox terrier named Beelzebub at a church bazaar.
What happens
Artemus Gibbon, a timid and respectable young man, is coerced into buying a rakish fox terrier named Beelzebub at a church bazaar. The dog's depraved influence gradually dismantles Gibbon's placid life, leading him into bohemian rooms, dissolute habits, and a compromising encounter with a birdlike lady whose ostrich-feather boa Beelzebub destroys. Gibbon's moral decline is sealed when his former protégé Hilary Helforlether catches him in a compromising moment, and Gibbon admits he now belongs body and soul to the dog.
Themes in this chapter
The Futility of Ambition
Gibbon's attempts to maintain a respectable life are futile against the overpowering influence of the dog Beelzebub, illustrating the hopelessness of resisting one's fate.
Hypocrisy and Moral Facade
Gibbon's respectable exterior crumbles as he succumbs to the dog's depravity, revealing the hypocrisy of his earlier blameless life.
The Absurdity of Social Rituals
The church bazaar, a supposedly safe and proper event, becomes the catalyst for Gibbon's undoing, highlighting the absurdity of such social conventions.
Characters to notice
- Artemus Gibbon
The protagonist, a timid and respectable bachelor who is coerced into buying a depraved fox terrier at a church bazaar, leading to his moral and social decline.
- Tobermory
The fox terrier named Beelzebub, a rakish and depraved dog that dominates Gibbon's life and drags him into dissipation.
Key passages
“It is a well-tried axiom that, in human affairs, as in steeplechasing, the ugliest croppers occur at the 'safest' and most carefully pruned places”
The worst disasters happen when you least expect them, especially in situations that seem most secure.
Sets up the irony of Gibbon's downfall at a church bazaar.
“A rakish-looking fox terrier, stamped with the hallmark of naked and unashamed depravity, and wearing the yawningly alert air of one who has found the world is vain and likes it all the better for it”
The dog looked shamelessly wicked and seemed to enjoy the world's emptiness.
Introduces Beelzebub's character and his corrupting influence.
“No; I belong to him. Body and soul.”
I am completely under the dog's control.
Gibbon's final admission of his total subjugation to Beelzebub.