The Monster · Chapter
Chapter X explained
After the violent attack by Barouffski's dogs, Leilah is left traumatized and anxious.
What happens
After the violent attack by Barouffski's dogs, Leilah is left traumatized and anxious. Violet visits and advises her to buy off Barouffski and avoid scandal. Leilah prays to the Lords of Karma for guidance and peace.
Themes in this chapter
Violence and Dueling
Barouffski sets dogs on Verplank, leading to a violent attack and Verplank's collapse.
Scandal and Reputation
Violet warns Leilah about the scandal from the garden incident and advises her to avoid it.
Spiritual Search
Leilah prays to the Lords of Karma for peace and guidance, seeking spiritual solace.
Characters to notice
- Leilah Verplank
Traumatized by the attack, she feels alone and prays for guidance.
- Violet Silverstairs
Visits Leilah, advises her to buy off Barouffski and avoid scandal.
- Barouffski
Sets dogs on Verplank, strikes Leilah, and demands all her money.
- M. Verplank
Attacked by dogs, shoots them, and collapses in the garden.
Key passages
“At the ignominy of that flouting jeer, Leilah, impelled by the impulse to do something, though it were but to beat her head against a wall, rushed from the window, and, strangling with spasms, fled out of the room and down the stair, where horror so suffocatingly enveloped her that in it her brain tipped, and she fell.”
Leilah, humiliated by Barouffski's mocking taunt, felt a desperate urge to act, even if only to hurt herself. She fled from the window, choking with emotion, and collapsed on the stairs, overwhelmed by horror.
Leilah's emotional breakdown after the attack.
“Pain has accents which only its graduates know. Violet, in all her brilliant life, had never shed a poignant tear.”
True suffering is understood only by those who have experienced it. Violet, despite her glamorous life, had never known deep sorrow.
Leilah feels isolated in her pain, as Violet cannot comprehend it.
“O, Lords of Karma, Watchers of the Seven Spheres, grant me so to live that, hereafter, I may say, I have harmed no heart, I have made no one weep. Out of your infinite bounty grant that somewhere, sometime, there may be peace to Gulian’s soul and mine.”
Leilah prays to the cosmic forces of karma, asking to live without causing harm and to find peace for herself and Gulian.
Leilah's spiritual plea for redemption and peace.