The Hashish Eater · Chapter
XXIII: The Hell of Waters and the Hell of Treachery explained
The narrator describes the ongoing torments of his dreams after abandoning hashish, particularly recurring nightmares of drowning and the Niagara Falls.
What happens
The narrator describes the ongoing torments of his dreams after abandoning hashish, particularly recurring nightmares of drowning and the Niagara Falls. He recounts a vivid dream in which a woman he knew in waking life treacherously tries to cause his death, revealing that they are in hell. The dream culminates in a confrontation with another demonic figure who brands him with a fiery heart, before he awakens.
Themes in this chapter
Suffering and Redemption
The narrator endures intense psychological suffering in his dreams, with no clear path to redemption, as he is trapped in a hellish state.
The Duality of Beauty and Terror
The dream of the queenly woman combines beauty with treachery, and the Niagara setting blends natural grandeur with mortal danger.
Visionary Experience and Imagination
The narrator's dreams are vivid, visionary experiences that blur the line between reality and hallucination, shaped by his hashish history.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Suffers from terrifying nightmares after abandoning hashish, including visions of drowning and a treacherous encounter in hell.
- Niagara
Haunts the narrator's dreams, appearing as a cliff over the falls and a setting for his watery catastrophes.
Key passages
“If, from a human distaste of dwelling too long upon the horrible, I have been led to speak so lightly of the facts of this part of my experience that any man may think the returning way of ascent an easy one, and dare the downward road of ingress, I would repair the fault with whatever of painfully-elaborated prophecy of wretchedness may be in my power, for through all this time I was indeed a greater sufferer than any bodily pain could possibly make me.”
The narrator fears he has downplayed his suffering, so he emphasizes that his mental anguish during this period was far worse than any physical pain.
The narrator reflects on the difficulty of conveying the true horror of his withdrawal experience.
“That law of hashish operation by which all existence is merged in the present, and there is no memory of having ever lived in a previous state, was most consistently obeyed by the sleeping horrors of abandonment.”
The dreams during withdrawal follow the same hashish-induced rule of being fully immersed in the present moment, without any memory of past experiences.
The narrator notes how the hashish effect persists in his dreams, preventing him from using logic to escape.
“My eyes were opened. She said truly. We were indeed in hell, and I had not known it until now.”
The narrator realizes that the dream setting is actually hell, and the woman's treachery confirms this truth.
A moment of revelation in the dream, where the narrator understands the infernal nature of his vision.