The Devil’s Dictionary · Chapter
W explained
This chapter presents definitions for words beginning with W, including satirical takes on Wall Street, war, weather, weddings, werewolves, widows, wine, wit, witches, women, and worms'-meat.
What happens
This chapter presents definitions for words beginning with W, including satirical takes on Wall Street, war, weather, weddings, werewolves, widows, wine, wit, witches, women, and worms'-meat. Bierce's characteristic cynicism targets political figures, social conventions, and human folly.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy and Duplicity
The definition of 'Wall Street' and the poem about Carnegie highlight the hypocrisy of moral condemnation by the wealthy.
War and Violence
The definition of 'War' presents it as a byproduct of peace and warns against professions of eternal amity.
Marriage and Gender Relations
The definitions of 'Wedding', 'Widow', and 'Woman' offer cynical views on marriage, gender roles, and female nature.
Human Folly and Self-Deception
The definition of 'Worms'-Meat' mocks the folly of building grand tombs, and 'Weather' satirizes the uselessness of weather forecasting.
Characters to notice
- Andrew Carnegie
Quoted and then satirized in a poem about Wall Street, accused of calling brokers parasites.
- William Bryan
Referenced in the poem about 'Whangdepootenawah' as having 'caught it'.
- Christ
Mentioned in the definition of 'Widow' for his tenderness toward widows.
- David
Referenced in the definition of 'Wrath' for incurring God's wrath by numbering his people.
- Balthasar Pober
Credited as the author of the definition of 'Woman'.
Key passages
“War is a byproduct of the arts of peace. The most menacing political condition is a period of international amity.”
War emerges from peace; peace itself is the most dangerous political state.
Bierce's cynical inversion of the common saying 'in time of peace prepare for war'.
“Wedding: A ceremony at which two persons undertake to become one, one undertakes to become nothing, and nothing undertakes to become supportable.”
Marriage is a ceremony where two people try to unite, one person loses their identity, and the resulting union is barely tolerable.
Bierce's darkly humorous take on the institution of marriage.
“Woman: An animal usually living in the vicinity of Man, and having a rudimentary susceptibility to domestication.”
Woman is an animal that lives near man and can be somewhat tamed.
A misogynistic definition typical of Bierce's era, attributed to Balthasar Pober.