The Hashish Eater · Chapter
XIX: Resurgam explained
The narrator, while under the influence of hashish, discovers an article titled 'The Hashish Eater' in a bookseller's copy of Putnam's magazine.
What happens
The narrator, while under the influence of hashish, discovers an article titled 'The Hashish Eater' in a bookseller's copy of Putnam's magazine. He is struck by the uncanny parallels between the author's experiences and his own, feeling an intense sympathy and a sense of shared suffering. This encounter inspires him to vow to abandon hashish forever. He contacts the author, receives a supportive reply, and begins his journey toward liberation, leaving behind the visionary world.
Themes in this chapter
Addiction and Emancipation
The narrator's discovery of a kindred sufferer and his subsequent vow to abandon hashish highlight the struggle between bondage and liberation.
Isolation and Sympathy
The narrator's sense of utter isolation is shattered by the article, leading to a profound sympathy with the unknown author.
Visionary Experience and Imagination
The narrator recalls the 'glories of the enchantment' and the 'sublimer heaven' of past visions, even as he resolves to leave them behind.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Discovers the article 'The Hashish Eater' and resolves to quit hashish, seeking counsel from the unknown author.
- Hashish
The substance that has held the narrator in bondage; its allure and horrors are central to his struggle.
Key passages
“None but a man in my circumstances can realize the intense interest which possessed me at the sight of these words.”
Only someone in my situation could understand the powerful fascination I felt when I saw those words.
The narrator emphasizes the unique resonance of the article for a hashish user.
“We both had been abandoned of Heaven; had climbed up into the prerogatives of Deity, thence to be cast down; had drawn the accursed knife at the whispers of a frightful temptation; had been the disowned, the abominated, the execrated of men.”
We had both been forsaken by Heaven, had assumed divine powers only to be cast down, had yielded to terrible temptations, and had been rejected and despised by humanity.
The narrator lists the shared experiences that create a deep bond with the unknown author.
“Out of its tremendous Elysium, its quenchless Tartarus, its speechless revelations, I came slowly into a land of subdued skies and heavier atmosphere.”
I emerged gradually from that immense paradise, unending hell, and ineffable visions into a world of muted light and denser air.
The narrator describes his slow return to ordinary reality after abandoning hashish.