# III explained — Suspiria de Profundis

> Chapter companion for Suspiria de Profundis by Thomas De Quincey.

## What happens

The narrator dreams of a girl in white roses fleeing in panic along a shore, only to be swallowed by quicksand. Her death is mourned by funeral bells, but the sorrow is interrupted by a great shout and roar that suggests a final victory.

## Themes in this chapter

### Suffering and Grief

The narrator's solitary tears and the funeral bells express profound grief over the girl's untimely death.

### The Sublime and the Dreadful

The dream blends the sublime beauty of the girl and the white roses with the dreadful horror of the quicksand swallowing her.

### Childhood and Innocence

The girl is described as a 'fair young head' and 'buried child,' evoking lost innocence and blighted dawn.

## Character check-ins

### The Narrator

The dreamer who witnesses the girl's death and later interprets the sound of victory.

### Girl Drowning in Quicksand

A fair young girl adorned with white roses who runs in panic and is buried by treacherous quicksand.

## Key lines

> Sweet funeral bells from some incalculable distance, wailing over the dead that die before the dawn, awakened me as I slept in a boat moored to some familiar shore.

Distant, mournful bells ringing for those who die before sunrise woke me from sleep in a boat tied to a familiar shore.

_The narrator is roused by funeral bells that set the dream's somber tone._

> I saw a girl, adorned with a garland of white roses about her head for some great festival, running along the solitary strand in extremity of haste.

I saw a girl wearing a crown of white roses, as if for a celebration, running desperately along the empty beach.

_The girl's festive adornment contrasts with her panicked flight._

> Already her person was buried; only the fair young head and the diadem of white roses around it were still visible to the pitying heavens; and, last of all, was visible one white marble arm.

Her body was already submerged; only her beautiful head with its white rose crown and one pale arm remained above the sand.

_The quicksand slowly consumes the girl, leaving only her head and arm visible._

> I sat, and wept in secret the tears that men have ever given to the memory of those that died before the dawn, and by the treachery of Earth, our mother.

I sat and cried privately, as people always do for those who die too young, betrayed by the earth itself.

_The narrator mourns the girl's premature death, blaming the earth's deceit._

> But suddenly the tears and funeral bells were hushed by a shout as of many nations, and by a roar as from some great king’s artillery, advancing rapidly along the valleys, and heard afar by echoes from the mountains.

Then the crying and bells stopped, replaced by a massive shout like many nations and the roar of a king's cannons moving through the valleys, echoing off the mountains.

_A triumphant noise interrupts the grief, suggesting a shift from sorrow to victory._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/iii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters