The Red Room · Chapter
XXVIII: From Beyond the Grave explained
Falk and Sellén visit Dr.
What happens
Falk and Sellén visit Dr. Borg at the infirmary, where Borg reveals the body of their friend Olle Montanus, who has drowned himself. They read Olle's posthumous manuscript, in which he explains his reasons for suicide, reflecting on the curse of labor, the illusion of art, and his search for freedom from unprofitable toil.
Themes in this chapter
Artistic Integrity vs. Commercialism
Olle's manuscript critiques the artistic instinct as a longing for freedom from profitable labor, defining beauty as the unprofitable and questioning the value of art.
Death and Existential Despair
Olle's suicide and his rationalization of death as a release from spiritual stagnation and the curse of labor dominate the chapter.
Illusion vs. Reality
Olle argues that the artist's sense of superiority is an illusion, and that art is a semblance of a semblance, echoing Plato's critique.
Characters to notice
- Arvid Falk
Accompanies Sellén to the infirmary, identifies Olle's body, and helps decipher the water-damaged manuscript.
- Sellén
Walks with Falk to the infirmary, identifies Olle's coat, and makes flippant remarks to mask his discomfort.
- Dr. Borg
Leads Falk and Sellén to view Olle's body, reads Olle's suicide manuscript aloud, and drinks grog.
- Olle Montanus
Found drowned; his posthumous manuscript is read, detailing his reasons for suicide and his disillusionment with art and labor.
Key passages
“I have a right to take my life, all the more so because not only does my act not interfere with the interests of a fellow-creature, but rather it contributes to the happiness, as it is called, of at least one person; a place and four hundred cubic feet of air will become vacant.”
Olle claims he has the right to kill himself because his death harms no one and even frees up living space for another person.
Olle's utilitarian justification for suicide, emphasizing his lack of social ties.
“My motive is not despair, for an intelligent individual never despairs, but I take this step with a fairly calm conscience; that an act of this kind throws one's mind into a certain state of excitement will be easily understood by everybody; to postpone it from fear of what might come hereafter is only worthy of a slave clutching at any excuse, so that he might stay in a world where he cannot have suffered much.”
Olle insists his suicide is not born of despair but of calm reason, and that fearing an afterlife is a slavish excuse to remain in a painful world.
Olle's rational, almost philosophical dismissal of fear of the unknown.
“I can analyse the much-talked-of artistic instinct because I was endowed with it myself. It rests on a broad base of longing for freedom, freedom from profitable labour; for this reason a German philosopher defined Beauty as the Unprofitable; as soon as a work of art is of practical use, betrays a purpose or a tendency its beauty vanishes.”
Olle explains that the artistic drive stems from a desire to escape productive work, and that true beauty is useless and purposeless.
Olle's critique of art as a form of escapism and his definition of beauty as unprofitable.