The Four Feathers · Chapter
XX: East and West explained
Feversham, captured and brought before Emir Nejoumi, endures mockery and torture but maintains his cover as a Greek musician, playing the melody associated with Ethne and Durrance.
What happens
Feversham, captured and brought before Emir Nejoumi, endures mockery and torture but maintains his cover as a Greek musician, playing the melody associated with Ethne and Durrance. He refuses to betray his mission, and Nejoumi orders him sent to Omdurman. Meanwhile, Durrance, blind and at home in Guessens, is consumed by memories of his past and a longing for the East, feeling the loss of his sight and his former life.
Themes in this chapter
Suffering and Endurance
Feversham endures physical and psychological torment, maintaining his composure and resolve under extreme duress.
Memory and Regret
Durrance's blindness triggers a deep nostalgia for his past achievements and the life he has lost, while Feversham's melody evokes memories of Ethne and Durrance.
Isolation and Loneliness
Feversham faces his tormentors alone, and Durrance is isolated by his blindness, surrounded by trophies that remind him of his former independence.
Characters to notice
- Harry Feversham
Captured and tormented by the enemy, he clings to his disguise and endures torture with surprising composure, focused on his mission and the hope of redemption.
- Durrance
Blind and at home, he is haunted by memories of his active past and feels a deep longing for the East, which he can no longer experience.
- Emir Wad El Nejoumi
The Emir interrogates Feversham, attempting to force a confession of espionage, but ultimately orders him sent to Omdurman.
- Ethne Eustace
Though not present, she is invoked through the melody Feversham plays, which she had played in the drawing-room at Southpool.
Key passages
“He had time to anticipate and foresee. He felt his heart sinking till he was faint, just as in those distant days when he had heard the hounds scuffling and whimpering in a covert and he himself had sat shaking upon his horse.”
Feversham had ample time to dread what was coming, his fear reminiscent of his childhood terror while hunting.
Highlights Feversham's internal fear and the echo of his past cowardice.
“It was the melody to which Durrance had listened in the street of Tewfikieh on the eve of his last journey into the desert; and which Ethne Eustace had played only the night before in the quiet drawing-room at Southpool.”
The tune Feversham played was the same one Durrance had heard in Cairo and Ethne had played at home, linking the three characters.
Connects Feversham's present ordeal with his past and the people he cares about.
“He put his guns away, and was seized suddenly with a desire to disregard his blindness—to pretend that it was no hindrance, and to pretend so hard that it should prove not to be one.”
Durrance, feeling the weight of his disability, desperately wished to ignore it and act as if he were still sighted.
Shows Durrance's struggle with his blindness and his longing for his former life.