The Survivors of the Chancellor · Chapter
XLVI explained
The survivors' hunger intensifies as thirst is temporarily relieved.
What happens
The survivors' hunger intensifies as thirst is temporarily relieved. The narrator, driven by a mysterious smell of cooked meat, discovers a hidden piece of bacon saved by the steward Hobart. A silent struggle ensues, and the narrator ultimately consumes the food, leaving Hobart empty-handed.
Themes in this chapter
Survival and Sacrifice
The narrator's desperate fight for a scrap of bacon illustrates the primal instinct to survive at any cost, overriding moral considerations.
Human Nature and Morality
The secret hoarding of food by Hobart and the narrator's violent, silent struggle reveal the erosion of social bonds and ethical norms under extreme duress.
Characters to notice
- Robert Curtis
Expresses willingness to risk his life attacking sharks for food, but is dissuaded by the others.
- Hobart
Revealed to have secretly saved provisions from the wreck; fights the narrator for the hidden bacon.
- Mr. Kazallon
The narrator who discovers the hidden bacon, struggles with Hobart, and consumes it.
Key passages
“Curtis expressed his willingness personally to make the attempt, but so numerous were the sharks that we would not for one moment hear of his risking his life in a venture of which the danger was as great as the success was doubtful.”
Curtis offered to dive in and fight the sharks with a knife, but we refused to let him take such a dangerous and uncertain risk.
Highlights Curtis's bravery and the group's protective concern for their leader.
“Shocking to confess, it would be untrue to deny that we surveyed each other with the eye of an eager longing; and I need hardly explain to what a degree of savageness the one idea that haunted us had reduced our feelings.”
It's horrifying but true: we looked at one another with hungry eyes, and it's clear how savage our thoughts had become.
Reveals the dehumanizing effect of starvation on the survivors.
“I released my prisoner, and quietly crept back to my own quarters. And not a soul is aware that I have broken my fast!”
I let go of Hobart and silently returned to my spot, with no one knowing I had eaten.
The narrator's secret consumption of the bacon underscores the moral compromise and isolation brought on by extreme hunger.