# Extracts from My Journal explained — The Inferno

> Chapter companion for The Inferno by August Strindberg.

## What happens

The narrator, isolated and suffering, reflects on his spiritual crisis and his relationship with an unknown friend who serves as a mentor and critic. He recounts a past conflict with a friend who tried to have him committed, and describes his current paranoia and experiments in Paris, including a suicide attempt with cyanide and an attempt to make gold.

## Themes in this chapter

### Isolation and Paranoia

The narrator experiences extreme loneliness, paranoia about neighbors and the unknown man, and feels persecuted.

### Guilt and Redemption

The narrator confesses his sin of hubris (ὕβρις) and seeks to own himself wrong, crushed by the invisible hand.

### The Invisible and the Occult

The narrator discusses the powers as living personalities, his secret friend as a messenger of Providence, and references theosophy and Madame Blavatsky.

## Character check-ins

### The Unknown

The narrator, isolated and paranoid, reflects on his suffering and spiritual crisis.

### Madame Blavatsky

Mentioned as a theosophist teacher recommended by the unknown friend.

### Popoffsky

Referenced during the Popoffsky episode; the narrator fears Popoffsky may be a murderer.

### Providence

The narrator acknowledges Providence as guiding his destiny and protecting him.

### Sphinx

The narrator mentions solving the riddle of the Sphinx as a metaphor for his scientific hubris.

### Orpheus

The narrator compares himself to Orpheus, attempting to reanimate nature.

## Key lines

> I had sinned through conceit, through ὕβρις , the one sin which the gods do not forgive.

I had committed the sin of hubris, the one sin the gods never forgive.

_The narrator acknowledges his arrogance as the root of his suffering._

> The killing of the Ego is self-murder.

Destroying the self is equivalent to suicide.

_The narrator defends the cultivation of the ego against theosophical self-denial._

> In order to learn to know the boundary between life and death, I lie on the bed, uncork the flask containing cyanide of potassium, and let its poisonous perfume stream out.

To explore the line between life and death, I uncorked a flask of cyanide and inhaled its fumes.

_The narrator attempts suicide but is interrupted, seeing it as the powers denying him release._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_inferno_se/chapters/extracts-from-my-journal
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_inferno_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_inferno_se/chapters