# XI: Hell Let Loose explained — The Inferno

> Chapter companion for The Inferno by August Strindberg.

## What happens

Strindberg, reeling from a public notice accusing him of misogyny, becomes convinced of a plot against him. His daughter Christina's innocent dance and a Bible passage about Saul's evil spirit lead to a strange incident where a neighboring woman falls into a frenzied dance. He moves to his aunt's house but is plagued by eerie occurrences. Climbing a hill, he seizes a flag and hears a bridal march, taking it as a good omen. A visit to his grandmother's house stirs painful memories of his lost marriage, and a night of supernatural terror forces him to flee northward.

## Themes in this chapter

### Isolation and Paranoia

Strindberg feels persecuted by a plot, suspects everyone, and is trapped in a labyrinth of doubt.

### The Invisible and the Occult

The chapter is filled with supernatural occurrences: evil spirits, exorcism by a child, and a woman's frenzied dance linked to the occult.

### Suffering and Punishment

Strindberg endures sleepless nights, terror, and a descent into a 'valley of sorrows,' viewing his life as a hellish punishment.

## Character check-ins

### August Strindberg

The narrator and protagonist, tormented by paranoia and supernatural events.

### Christina

Strindberg's young daughter, whose innocent dancing seems to exorcise an evil spirit.

### Providence

Implied as the orchestrator of Strindberg's trials and the coincidental events.

### Saul

Biblical figure referenced when Strindberg opens the Bible to the story of Saul and the evil spirit.

### Orpheus

Mentioned in the newspaper notice as a figure whose head was torn off by women, paralleling Strindberg's fears.

### Job

Strindberg compares himself to Job as an innocent sacrifice.

## Key lines

> The unhappy Strindberg, who brought his misogyny to Paris, was quickly compelled to take himself off. Since then his partisans are dumb and confounded before the feminist flag. They do not wish to undergo the fate of Orpheus, whose head was torn off by the Thracian Bacchanals.

A newspaper article claims Strindberg's misogyny forced him to leave Paris, and his supporters are silenced by feminists, warned not to share Orpheus's fate.

_This notice fuels Strindberg's paranoia about a plot against him._

> But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him...

Strindberg reads from the Bible about King Saul being tormented by an evil spirit sent by God.

_This passage resonates with Strindberg's own sense of being afflicted by an evil spirit._

> My little daughter has exorcised the evil spirit who, driven out by her innocence, has entered into an old lady who used to boast of being a free thinker.

Strindberg believes his daughter's innocent dancing drove out an evil spirit, which then possessed a free-thinking old woman.

_He interprets the woman's frenzied dance as a supernatural transfer of the spirit._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_inferno_se/chapters/xi-hell-let-loose
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_inferno_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_inferno_se/chapters