# Envoi explained — The Book of Jade

> Chapter companion for The Book of Jade by David Park Barnitz.

## What happens

The speaker reaches the nadir of sorrow and despair, yet defiantly laughs and drinks with personified griefs, before anticipating a mystical dawn and a journey over the sea.

## Themes in this chapter

### Ennui and Existential Dread

The speaker expresses weariness of woe and a bored, nihilistic laughter at grief.

### Death and Decay

Life's glories lie perished, stars are gone, and the speaker crowns himself with nightshade.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker who declares arrival at absolute sorrow and then embraces a defiant, weary joy.

### Death

Implied through the tombwards journey and nightshade crown, though not directly named.

## Key lines

> Now I am come to the nadir at last, to the absolute sorrow

I have finally reached the lowest point of absolute despair.

_Opening declaration of the speaker's emotional state._

> Lo, I am easily bor’d, I am easily tired and made weary; Now at the last I am weary of Woe.

I am quickly bored and tired, and now even sorrow itself has exhausted me.

_The speaker's ennui extends to grief itself._

> Now it is midnight; but soon shall the wakening glory of morning Shine in the East

It is midnight now, but soon the glory of dawn will rise in the east.

_A turn toward hope and renewal after darkness._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_book_of_jade_se/chapters/part-ii-envoi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_book_of_jade_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_book_of_jade_se/chapters