The Inferno · Chapter
V: Purgatory explained
The narrator, staying at the Hôtel Orfila, a monastic boarding house for Catholic students, finds temporary peace but soon descends into paranoia and despair over his scientific experiments.
What happens
The narrator, staying at the Hôtel Orfila, a monastic boarding house for Catholic students, finds temporary peace but soon descends into paranoia and despair over his scientific experiments. He feels poisoned by Popoffsky, hears whispering, and sees a shadow, leading him to flee his room. On Palm Sunday, he discovers Swedenborg's Séraphita, which becomes his gospel and deepens his spiritual crisis. He experiences a series of seemingly miraculous events, including finding chemical symbols that reveal the secret of gold, and interprets these as signs from the powers.
Themes in this chapter
Isolation and Paranoia
The narrator feels poisoned, betrayed, and watched, weeping like a forsaken child and fearing for his life.
Religion and Spiritual Crisis
The narrator reads Job, encounters Swedenborg, and feels tested by the Eternal, experiencing a profound spiritual awakening.
Science vs. Spirituality
The narrator despairs of his scientific experiments as folly, yet seeks to make gold, blending chemical investigation with mystical signs.
Characters to notice
- August Strindberg
The narrator, experiencing paranoia, spiritual crisis, and scientific obsession at Hôtel Orfila.
- Popoffsky
Suspected of poisoning the narrator with poisonous gases through the wall.
- Swedenborg
Enters the narrator's life on the anniversary of his death, becoming a judge and master through Séraphita.
- St. Vincent de Paul
A faded likeness of St. Vincent de Paul hangs in the narrator's room.
- Job
The narrator reads the book of Job and finds comfort in the idea that suffering is a mark of divine confidence.
- Providence
A wrathful Providence provides a vacant room, and the narrator feels tested by the Eternal.
Key passages
“For the first time I despair of my scientific experiments. If they are all folly, then I have sacrificed my happiness and that of my wife and children to a phantom.”
The narrator begins to doubt his scientific work, fearing he has wasted his life and family's happiness on a delusion.
This marks a turning point in his crisis of faith in science.
“It was then that Swedenborg entered into my life, in which he was to play such a great part as judge and master, and on the anniversary of his death he brought me the palm, whether of the victor or the martyr—who could say?”
Swedenborg's influence begins on the anniversary of his death, offering the narrator a sense of victory or martyrdom.
This event deepens the narrator's spiritual journey.
“The spirits had become naturalistic like the times, which were no longer content with visions.”
Spiritual experiences now manifest through everyday coincidences rather than supernatural visions.
Reflects the narrator's modern, naturalistic interpretation of the occult.