The Devil’s Dictionary · Chapter
S explained
This chapter of 'The Devil's Dictionary' presents satirical definitions for words beginning with 'S', including Sabbath, Sacerdotalist, Sacrament, Sacred, Safety-Clutch, Saint, Salacity, Salamander, Serial, Severalty, Sheriff, Siren, Slang,
What happens
This chapter of 'The Devil's Dictionary' presents satirical definitions for words beginning with 'S', including Sabbath, Sacerdotalist, Sacrament, Sacred, Safety-Clutch, Saint, Salacity, Salamander, Serial, Severalty, Sheriff, Siren, Slang, Smithareen, Sophistry, Sorcery, Soul, Spooker, and Story. Through humor and irony, Bierce critiques religion, politics, social conventions, and human folly, often using verse and fictional quotations to underscore his points.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy and Duplicity
Evident in definitions like 'Sacred' (mocking religious sanctity), 'Saint' (a dead sinner revised), and 'Sophistry' (controversial method of an opponent).
Critique of Religion
Prominent in definitions of 'Sabbath' (enforcing neighbor's observance), 'Sacrament' (Protestant economy), 'Sacred' (listing absurd examples), and 'Soul' (parodying theological disputes).
Characters to notice
- James F. Bowman
Mentioned in the definition of 'Serial' as a collaborator on a serial tale whose partner sank all characters in the Atlantic.
- John Elmer Pettibone Cajee
Subject of a poem in the definition of 'Sheriff', describing his bad deeds and his neighbors making him sheriff to stop his lynchings.
- Col. Bryan
Referenced in the poem under 'Safety-Clutch' as the 'busted man' who fell from an elevator, representing a political figure.
- Plato
Mentioned in the definition of 'Soul' regarding his theory of souls entering philosophers' bodies.
- Dionysius I
Referenced in the definition of 'Soul' as a usurper and despot who threatened Plato.
Key passages
“Sabbath: A weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh.”
The Sabbath is a weekly holiday that started because God created the world in six days and was stopped on the seventh.
Bierce humorously reinterprets the biblical creation story, implying God was 'arrested' rather than resting.
“Saint: A dead sinner revised and edited.”
A saint is a deceased sinner who has been cleaned up and rewritten.
This cynical definition suggests sainthood is a whitewashed version of a flawed life.
“Serial: A literary work, usually a story that is not true, creeping through several issues of a newspaper or magazine.”
A serial is a fictional story that slowly appears across multiple newspaper or magazine issues.
Bierce emphasizes the slow, creeping nature of serial publication and its fictional quality.
“Sheriff: In America the chief executive officer of a county, whose most characteristic duties, in some of the Western and Southern States, are the catching and hanging of rogues.”
In America, a sheriff is the top county official, whose main job in some Western and Southern states is to catch and hang criminals.
Bierce satirizes frontier justice and the violent role of sheriffs in lynching.
“Slang: The grunt of the human hog (Pignoramus intolerabilis) with an audible memory.”
Slang is the grunt of an intolerable human pig that can be remembered when heard.
Bierce disparages slang as animalistic and mindless, mocking those who use it as witless imitators.
