_Initial Incident_: André Fernet meets the hunchback, Flavio Minetti,
and learns that he knows something of Suvaroff’s death. He is brought
under Minetti’s power of fascination.
_Steps toward Dramatic Climax_: Fernet’s landlord, Pollitto, speaks
of his vacant room. Fernet resolves to see Minetti again, and perhaps
to learn who killed Suvaroff. They meet at the Hotel de France.
Minetti says he was “expecting” Fernet. Fernet goes with Minetti, in
spite of warning, to a wine-shop. Minetti’s suggestion that Fernet
evidently wished to know who murdered Suvaroff is coupled with a
warning that it is a “dreadful thing to share such a secret.” But
Fernet insists.
_Dramatic Climax_: Minetti says, “It was I who killed him,” whereupon
Fernet laughs. Notice that the dramatic climax, the laughter, falls
early in this story, whereas in the former it arrives tardily. Is
this logical, from the nature of the circumstances?
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Minetti states that he kills
every one who laughs at him. He prepares a _café royal_; Fernet is
afraid, but makes a show of indifference or incredulity. In the
morning, Fernet learns that his landlord has rented the room to
Minetti; he thinks of going away but decides to stay and “see what
happens.” After some days, Minetti calls on Fernet. He says he has
tried every slow way of murder except mental murder. Fernet laughs,
thus emphasizing the dramatic climax, but as Minetti says it does
not matter, “You can die only once.” His speech intensifies the
dramatic forecast, already conveyed. Minetti supplies saccharine for
the coffee; Fernet fears “slow poison,” but nevertheless drinks, as
if in a spirit of bravado, or unwillingness to seem afraid. Minetti
harps on the idea that Fernet has laughed at him. Fernet’s landlord
comments on his haggard appearance. Fernet dreams. He stays away
from his office, visits the library, and asks for all the works on
poison. After dining alone, he meets Minetti, who persuades him to
have a cup of coffee. Fernet speaks of his reading. He decides to go
away to-morrow. On arriving at his room, he feels sick and is helped
to bed by Minetti. He grows worse; Minetti attends him, and sends
for the doctor. Upon the doctor’s prescribing delicacies, Minetti
prepares several which, in succession, Fernet refuses, and which he
sees are thrown out of the window. At length he manages to tell the
doctor that he is eating nothing, in spite of Minetti’s assertion
to the contrary. The doctor thinks Fernet insane. At the end of the
week, even Minetti says he has eaten nothing. Fernet resolves, again,
to go away to-morrow. But, still doing without food, he grows weaker.
_Climax of Action_: He dies, but not before he hears Minetti’s
laughter and the words: “Without any weapon save the mind!”
The _struggle_ is well elaborated, as the preceding plot outline
indicates, even though it is the one-sided bird-and-snake struggle,
with a predetermined outcome.
CHARACTERIZATION. Compare Fernet with Suvaroff. Which of the two offers
the more difficult problem in psychology? Is it easy to believe that
Fernet submitted to the sway of Minetti? Why, for example, did he not
go away?
Compare, also, the subordinate characters with those in “Laughter.”
What do most of them in this story think or feel about Minetti? How
does the author indicate their attitudes?
DETAILS. Is the angle of narration similar to that in “Laughter”? What
details appeal to the reader’s gustatory sense? Study the symbolic use
of the pepper-tree. Compare it with the cherry-tree in “Cruelties.”
What details of setting emphasize the locality?