The Return · Chapter
IX explained
Lawford returns to the graveyard at dusk and finds a stranger sitting by Sabathier's grave.
What happens
Lawford returns to the graveyard at dusk and finds a stranger sitting by Sabathier's grave. They discuss the suicide, the possibility of the dead answering back, and the nature of death. The stranger reveals himself as Herbert Herbert, and invites Lawford to visit him. As they part, Herbert sees Lawford's face in the moonlight and reacts with astonishment.
Themes in this chapter
Mortality and the Past
The graveyard setting and discussion of Sabathier's suicide and the nature of death dominate the chapter.
The Supernatural and Possession
Lawford speculates about the dead trying to return, and Herbert's reaction to Lawford's face hints at supernatural transformation.
Isolation and Alienation
Lawford feels more at home among the dead than among the living; Sabathier is described as a stranger kept out by the community.
Characters to notice
- Arthur Lawford
Returns to the graveyard, converses with a stranger about death and Sabathier, and arranges to meet again.
- Herbert
The stranger sitting by Sabathier's grave; invites Lawford to his home and reacts with shock upon seeing Lawford's face in the moonlight.
- Nicholas Sabathier
His grave is the focus of the conversation; discussed as a suicide and stranger buried in unconsecrated ground.
Key passages
“It seemed to him that the steady eyes of the dead were watching him in his slow progress.”
Lawford felt as though the dead were observing him as he walked.
Highlights Lawford's sense of being watched by the deceased.
“I believe in the resurrection of the body; that is what we say; and supposing, when a man dies—supposing it was most frightfully against one's will; that one hated the awful inaction that death brings, shutting a poor devil up like a child kicking against the door in a dark cupboard; one might—surely one might—just quietly, you know, try to get out?”
Lawford wonders if the dead, if they resisted death, might try to escape their graves.
Expresses Lawford's growing obsession with the possibility of the dead returning.
“He was a stranger; it says so. Good God! how he must have wanted to get home!”
Lawford exclaims that Sabathier, being a stranger, must have desperately longed to return home.
Reflects Lawford's empathy for Sabathier and his own feelings of displacement.