The Innocents Abroad · Chapter
XXXIII explained
The narrator describes sailing through the Grecian Archipelago and the Dardanelles, contrasting ancient Greece's glory with modern Greece's poverty and decay.
What happens
The narrator describes sailing through the Grecian Archipelago and the Dardanelles, contrasting ancient Greece's glory with modern Greece's poverty and decay. He recounts historical sites like Troy and the Hellespont, then details his arrival in Constantinople, where he observes the city's chaotic streets, diverse costumes, the Great Mosque, the Dancing Dervishes, the Thousand and One Columns, and the Sultan Mahmoud's mausoleum. The chapter highlights the bizarre sights, including a goose-rancher and the city's extraordinary cripples and beggars.
Themes in this chapter
The Past vs. the Present
The narrator contrasts ancient Greece's glory with modern Greece's desolation, and Constantinople's historic grandeur with its current decay and bizarre customs.
Satire of Tourism
The narrator mocks tourists who rely on guidebooks and pretentious connoisseurs from New Jersey, and criticizes the superficiality of visiting exotic locations.
Colonialism and Otherness
The depiction of Turkish customs, costumes, and the Dervish ritual emphasizes the exoticism and perceived barbarity of Ottoman culture from a Western perspective.
Religion and Hypocrisy
The description of the Dancing Dervishes and the patriarch walking on sick bodies critiques religious practices as barbarous and superstitious.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Describes the journey through the Archipelago and Constantinople, offering observations on history, culture, and local customs.
- Jack
Mentioned as part of the traveling party, though not directly quoted in this chapter.
- Dan
Referenced as a member of the group, though not active in this chapter's narrative.
- The Doctor
Implied as part of the company, but not explicitly featured in this excerpt.
- Mr. Blucher
Mentioned as a fellow traveler, though not directly involved in the events described.
Key passages
“I suppose that ancient Greece and modern Greece compared, furnish the most extravagant contrast to be found in history.”
The difference between ancient and modern Greece is the most extreme in all of history.
Highlights the theme of past versus present.
“The people who go into ecstasies over St. Sophia must surely get them out of the guidebook... Or else they are those old connoisseurs from the wilds of New Jersey who laboriously learn the difference between a fresco and a fireplug...”
Tourists who rave about St. Sophia are either reading from a guidebook or are pretentious amateurs from New Jersey who just learned basic art terms.
Satirizes tourist behavior and fake expertise.
“It was about as barbarous an exhibition as we have witnessed yet.”
This was one of the most primitive shows we have seen.
Critique of the Dervish ritual as uncivilized.
“A street in Constantinople is a picture which one ought to see once—not oftener.”
You should see a Constantinople street once, but never again.
Expresses the overwhelming and unpleasant nature of the city's chaos.