Victory · Chapter
XIII explained
Mr.
What happens
Mr. Jones fires a shot over Heyst's shoulder and vanishes. Heyst finds Lena in the room, who exults in having saved him. She reveals she has been shot by Mr. Jones's bullet. Heyst and Davidson attend to her wound, but she dies in Heyst's arms, triumphant in her sacrifice.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Sacrifice
Lena sacrifices herself to save Heyst, dying triumphantly in his arms.
Illusion vs. Reality
Heyst perceives the room and events as shadowy and dreamlike, contrasting with the brutal reality of Lena's death.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Jones
Fires a shot over Heyst's shoulder and vanishes from the verandah.
- Axel Heyst
Returns to find Lena; attends to her wound and holds her as she dies.
- Lena
Exults in having saved Heyst; reveals she has been shot; dies in Heyst's arms.
- Davidson
Appears suddenly, holds Ricardo's dagger, and assists Heyst in attending to Lena.
- Martin Ricardo
His dagger is held by Davidson; Lena claims it as the symbol of her victory.
Key passages
“All the objects in there—the books, the gleam of old silver familiar to him from boyhood, the very portrait on the wall—seemed shadowy, unsubstantial, the dumb accomplices of an amazing dream-plot ending in an illusory effect of awakening and the impossibility of ever closing his eyes again.”
Heyst felt that everything around him was unreal, like part of a strange dream from which he could never wake.
Heyst's perception of reality dissolves into a nightmarish illusion.
“I knew you would come back in time! You are safe now. I have done it! I would never, never have let him—”
Lena exclaims that she has saved Heyst and prevented harm from coming to him.
Lena's triumphant declaration of her protective act.
“No doubt you acted from instinct. Women have been provided with their own weapon. I was a disarmed man, I have been a disarmed man all my life as I see it now.”
Heyst remarks that Lena acted on instinct, while he has always been defenseless.
Heyst reflects on his own passivity and Lena's instinctive action.
“You have been shot, dear Lena.”
Heyst tells Lena that she has been wounded by a bullet.
Heyst reveals the truth of her injury.
“Who else could have done this for you?”
Lena asks who else would have made such a sacrifice for him.
Lena's final assertion of her unique devotion.