The Dewy Morn · Chapter
XXVIII explained
Under a yellow harvest moon, Robert Godwin returns to the chestnut tree where he attacked Felise.
What happens
Under a yellow harvest moon, Robert Godwin returns to the chestnut tree where he attacked Felise. Ruy lies dead, being scavenged by crows. Godwin attempts suicide with a flintlock pistol; after a misfire, he reprimes the weapon and successfully shoots himself in the heart.
Themes in this chapter
Obsession and Jealousy
Godwin's final act is the culmination of his obsessive fixation on Felise and his jealousy of Martial, leading to self-destruction.
Nature and Spirituality
The moonlit landscape, scavenging crows, and the yellow fungi mark a natural, indifferent backdrop to Godwin's violent end.
Characters to notice
- Robert Godwin
Returns to the chestnut tree, executes his suicide after a failed first attempt.
- Ruy
Found dead and stiffening under the chestnut tree, eyes already taken by crows.
Key passages
“Robert Godwin walked straight to the chestnut-tree, and, pausing on the spot where he had thrown Felise, drew from his pocket one of the old flintlock pistols he had so carefully cleaned.”
Godwin went directly to the chestnut tree, stopped at the place where he had earlier thrown Felise, and took out one of the antique flintlock pistols he had meticulously cleaned.
Godwin returns to the scene of his assault on Felise to carry out his suicide.
“He opened the pan and poured fresh gunpowder into it from some which he carried in a screw of newspaper in his waistcoat-pocket.”
He opened the priming pan and refilled it with gunpowder he had stored in a twist of newspaper in his waistcoat pocket.
After the first misfire, Godwin calmly re-primes the pistol.
“The bullet entered his heart and he fell dead; his face struck a bunch of yellow fungi growing in the grass, and lay still there.”
The bullet pierced his heart, and he collapsed dead, his face landing on a cluster of yellow fungi in the grass, where he remained motionless.
Godwin's suicide is successful; his face comes to rest on a patch of yellow fungi.