The Dark Other · Chapter
XVIII: Vanished explained
Patricia Lane, unable to reach Nicholas Devine by telephone, grows increasingly anxious and seeks Dr.
What happens
Patricia Lane, unable to reach Nicholas Devine by telephone, grows increasingly anxious and seeks Dr. Horker's advice. Horker suggests writing a letter to Nick's last known address, speculating that he will leave a forwarding address. Pat writes a brief, hopeful letter and posts it, but her mood darkens again after seeing the Doctor's hypochondriac patient leave.
Themes in this chapter
Duality of Self
Dr. Horker discusses the Jekyll-and-Hyde concept and Stevenson's idea that liberating evil can also release good, reflecting Nick's dual nature.
Psychological Trauma
Pat's panic and anxiety over Nick's disappearance, and her emotional volatility, highlight her psychological distress.
Science vs. Superstition
Pat questions the efficacy of psychiatry, comparing doctors to Salem witches, while Horker defends the medical profession's occasional successes.
Characters to notice
- Patricia Lane
Frantically tries to contact Nick, then consults Dr. Horker; writes a letter to Nick expressing hope and love.
- Dr. Carl Horker
Calms Pat, suggests writing a letter, discusses the Jekyll-and-Hyde concept and the limits of psychiatry.
- Nicholas Devine
Has vanished; Pat cannot reach him by phone and fears he has left without a forwarding address.
- Mrs. Lane
Briefly appears opening mail, exchanges a few words with Pat about Dr. Horker.
- Mueller
Mentioned as having brought Pat home the previous night and as a potential tracer of Nick's whereabouts.
Key passages
“He doesn't answer! I'm too late”
Pat thinks she has missed her chance to reach Nick.
Opening line expressing Pat's despair.
“Sometimes even my psychiatry is puzzled to explain how you can be so clever and so stupid, so self-reliant and so dependent, so capable and so helpless—all at one and the same time.”
Dr. Horker tells Pat she is a bundle of contradictions.
Horker's observation of Pat's paradoxical character.
“Jekyll and Hyde! ... Is that possible?”
Pat asks if a person can truly have two separate personalities like in the story.
Pat connects Nick's behavior to the classic tale.
“We do cure people occasionally. You'll admit that.”
Horker defends psychiatry by noting that sometimes treatments work.
Horker's rebuttal to Pat's skepticism.
“So did the Salem witches—occasionally.”
Pat retorts that even historical witch trials had occasional 'successes.'
Pat's sharp comparison between psychiatry and superstition.