# XIX: Seventh Trial of the Ring explained — The Indiscreet Jewels

> Chapter companion for The Indiscreet Jewels by Denis Diderot.

## What happens

Mangogul tests his ring on Zelais, whose Toy is stifled by a muzzle, causing her to nearly suffocate. Orcotomus claims to cure her, but the Sultan's intervention and the ring's power discredit muzzles and expose Orcotomus as a quack, leading women to abandon muzzles altogether.

## Themes in this chapter

### Satire of Court and Society

The absurd fashion of muzzles and the court's reaction to Zelais's accident satirize societal hypocrisy and the tyranny of fashion.

### Truth vs. Appearance

The ring forces hidden truths to surface, as Zelais's stifled Toy reveals the danger behind the seemingly polite muzzle.

## Character check-ins

### Mangogul

Tests the ring on Zelais, causing her Toy to speak despite the muzzle, and later turns off the ring to save her.

### Zelais

Subject of the seventh trial; her Toy is stifled by a muzzle, leading to a near-fatal suffocation.

### Orcotomus

Physician who claims to cure Zelais but is later exposed as a quack by Mangogul's actions.

### Eolipila

Mentioned as a rival quack whose muzzles lose credit after Orcotomus's indiscretion.

## Key lines

> Pshuh! says the Sultan, here is a Toy that has a vast impediment of speech. Most certainly there must be somewhat that impedes its respiration.

The Sultan remarks that the Toy's speech is obstructed, suspecting something is blocking its breath.

_Mangogul identifies the physical cause of Zelais's stifled Toy._

> Alas! alas!—I am—I am—I am stifled. I can no more.—Alas! alas! I am stifled.

The Toy cries out that it is being suffocated and can no longer endure.

_The Toy's desperate words reveal the lethal effect of the muzzle._

> Shame was preferred to the apoplexy. The one kills, said the women, the other does not. Wherefore they renounced their muzzles; let their Toys talk on; and nobody died thereby.

Women chose shame over death, abandoning muzzles because they preferred the risk of scandal to the risk of suffocation.

_The women's pragmatic decision ends the fashion for muzzles._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_indiscreet_jewels_se/chapters/xix-seventh-trial-of-the-ring
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_indiscreet_jewels_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_indiscreet_jewels_se/chapters