XVIII: The Apotheosis of the Beetle explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• The Supernatural and the Unknown

  The Beetle's shape-shifting from human to insect and back defies natural law, embodying the supernatural and the unknown.

• The Foreign and the Occult

  The Beetle is described as an Oriental figure with uncanny eyes and powers, linking foreignness to occult menace.

• Fear and Psychological Terror

  Atherton experiences stupefaction and breathless terror at the transformation; the Beetle's gaze exerts a baleful, almost supernatural influence.

Characters to notice

• Sydney Atherton

  Narrator and observer of the Beetle's transformation; attempts to capture the creature but fails; locks the laboratory door after the encounter.

• The Beetle

  Transforms from a humanoid Oriental figure into a giant beetle and back; revealed to be female; escapes through the yard.

• Percy Woodville

  Found asleep in the yard; wakes disoriented with a headache; Atherton leads him into the laboratory.

Key passages

• “it began to dwindle, and that so rapidly that, in a couple of seconds at most, a little heap of drapery was lying on the floor, on which was a truly astonishing example of the coleoptera.”

  The figure shrank so quickly that within seconds only a pile of clothing remained, with a remarkable beetle sitting on it.

  Atherton describes the initial transformation of the Beetle from human to insect.

• “I had been egregiously mistaken on the question of sex. My visitor was not a man, but a woman, and, judging from the brief glimpse which I had of her body, by no means old or ill-shaped either.”

  Atherton realizes his visitor is actually a woman, not a man, and she appears youthful and well-proportioned.

  The Beetle's true sex is revealed during the transformation back to human form.