The Return · Chapter
XVIII explained
Lawford spends a morning with Herbert, who expounds on genius and the nature of life, then joins Grisel for a picnic where they discuss his changed appearance and sanity.
What happens
Lawford spends a morning with Herbert, who expounds on genius and the nature of life, then joins Grisel for a picnic where they discuss his changed appearance and sanity. Grisel reassures him that his identity remains intact, though he remains troubled.
Themes in this chapter
Identity and Transformation
Lawford questions his own identity and whether his changed face reflects a deeper change, while Grisel argues that identity persists beyond physical appearance.
Sanity and Madness
Lawford fears his sanity is in question, and Grisel and Herbert's concern for his mental state is a subtext throughout the chapter.
Isolation and Alienation
Lawford feels estranged from his former self and from others, struggling to articulate his experience and find a place.
Characters to notice
- Arthur Lawford
Engages in philosophical discussion with Herbert, then walks with Grisel; expresses anxiety about his changed face and sanity.
- Herbert
Delivers a monologue on genius and the 'touch' of life; laughs at Lawford's request for a Sabathier translation.
- Grisel
Joins Lawford for a picnic; reassures him about his identity and criticizes her brother's thoughtless chatter.
Key passages
“I mean when you cease to be a puppet only and sit up in the gallery too. When you squeeze through to the other side. When you suffer a kind of conversion of the mind; become aware of your senses. When you get a living inkling. When you become articulate to yourself. When you see.”
Herbert describes a moment of awakening where one stops being a passive observer and gains true self-awareness and insight.
Herbert's definition of 'the touch'—a transformative realization.
“There are only two kinds of happiness in this world—a wooden post's and Prometheus's. And who ever heard of anyone having the impudence to be kind to Prometheus?”
Grisel says happiness is either numb indifference or heroic suffering, and kindness is inappropriate for the latter.
Grisel's philosophy on happiness and the futility of pity.
“Of course, the first glimpse is the landscape under lightning as it were. But afterwards isn't it surely like the alphabet to a child; what was first a queer angular scrawl becomes A, and is always ever after A, undistinguished, half-forgotten, yet standing at last for goodness knows what real wonderful things—or for just the dry bones of soulless words?”
Grisel compares first impressions to a lightning-lit scene, which later becomes familiar and symbolic, like learning letters.
Grisel's metaphor for how perception of a person changes over time.