# III explained — The Monster

> Chapter companion for The Monster by Edgar Saltus.

## What happens

Leilah Verplank, after fleeing from Coronado, suffers a breakdown and recuperates in Salt Lake City. She then travels to Carson, Nevada, where she secures a divorce from Verplank through questionable legal means. Meanwhile, Verplank mistakenly pursues her to Samoa and the austral seas. Leilah later stays with the Silverstairs in Paris, where she meets Count Kasimiérz Barouffski after he saves her from a fire at a dinner party. Barouffski begins to court her, and Violet Silverstairs warns Leilah about his intentions.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Marriage

The chapter explores the dissolution of Leilah's marriage to Verplank through a Nevada divorce and her subsequent courtship by Barouffski.

### Fate and Karma

Leilah comes to believe in karma and fate, viewing her meeting with Barouffski as destined after her spiritual readings.

### Desire and Self-Destruction

Verplank's obsessive pursuit of Leilah and his hatred for Barouffski drive him to destructive actions, while Leilah's flight and illness reflect her own turmoil.

## Character check-ins

### Leilah Verplank

Flees from Coronado, suffers brain fever in Salt Lake City, obtains a divorce in Nevada, and later meets Barouffski in Paris after a fire incident.

### Violet Silverstairs

Hosts Leilah in Paris, forces her to socialize, and warns her about Barouffski's motives.

### Barouffski

Hates Verplank without having met him; saves Leilah from a fire at a dinner party and begins courting her.

### M. Verplank

Pursues Leilah to San Francisco and then to Samoa and the austral seas, unaware of the divorce proceedings in Nevada.

### Lord Silverstairs

Violet's husband, who dismisses Leilah's interest in spiritual books as 'gammon'.

## Key lines

> It was not because of errors of his that she had gone, but for turpitudes of her own.

Verplank convinced himself that Leilah left him not due to his own mistakes but because of her own immoral actions.

_Highlights Verplank's self-justification and blame-shifting._

> Forget, some considerate and subliminal self admonished. Forget.

A part of Leilah's mind urged her to forget the past, but she struggled to do so.

_Illustrates Leilah's internal conflict and desire to escape her memories._

> It was a mere matter of money, he explained, and, what he did not explain, a mere matter of perjury as well, the perjury of local oafs ready to swear to whatever they were paid for.

The lawyer implied that the divorce could be arranged quickly with money and false testimony from locals.

_Reveals the corrupt legal practices in Nevada at the time._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_monster_se/chapters/iii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_monster_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_monster_se/chapters