The Jade God · Chapter
III: The Man from the East explained
Derrick struggles with his writing at Beech Lodge, feeling increasingly drawn to the study and the portrait of Millicent.
What happens
Derrick struggles with his writing at Beech Lodge, feeling increasingly drawn to the study and the portrait of Millicent. Edith expresses unease about the house, feeling superficial and threatened. Perkins reveals that Millicent's gardener, missing for two years, has returned and wishes to be rehired. Derrick interviews the man, who appears mysterious and unsettling.
Themes in this chapter
The Occult and Supernatural
Derrick feels the presence of Millicent's spirit and writes unconsciously about invisible towers of influence and Things behind reality.
The Psychology of Place
Beech Lodge affects both Derrick and Edith, with the study and portrait exerting a powerful influence on Derrick's mind.
Fear and Paranoia
Edith feels threatened and superficial, and the mysterious return of the gardener heightens the sense of unease.
Characters to notice
- Mr. John Derrick
Struggles with writing, feels compelled by Millicent's study and portrait, interviews the returned gardener.
- Edith Derrick
Expresses unease about Beech Lodge, feels superficial and threatened, confides in Derrick.
- Perkins
Reveals the gardener's return, advises Derrick on hiring him, remains enigmatic.
- The Stranger
The returned gardener, described with dark features and a furtive expression, seeks his old position.
- Jean Millicent
Mentioned as the daughter of the late Mr. Millicent, pretty but affected by her father's death.
Key passages
“Ideas, when they came, were illusory; his characters imbued themselves with strange aspirations and qualities, and plot after plot was displaced by the secret but constantly strengthening conviction that this novel was not, for the present at any rate, the most important thing in life.”
Derrick finds his writing blocked, feeling that his characters take on odd traits and that the novel is less important than the mysterious pull of the study.
Highlights Derrick's growing obsession with the supernatural over his work.
“I'm not actually conscious of them now, but it's as if something had suggested their existence. At the same time I know I'll never quite understand. I'm not built that way.”
Edith senses something beyond her understanding, feeling that the house is affecting her in ways she cannot grasp.
Shows Edith's intuitive unease and her rational nature clashing with the house's influence.
“You believed as I do that we are not the masters of things, but that each of us builds up around him invisible towers of influence, by which in time we are dominated.”
Derrick writes that people are controlled by unseen forces they create around themselves.
Reflects the theme of supernatural influence and the power of the past.