The Mark Of The Beast

“When men foregather from the uttermost ends of the Empire, they have a right to be riotous.” 

The narrator excuses the drunken New Year’s Eve exploits of his fellow colonizers, soldiers, and adventurers, suggesting that they are a scattered minority in a foreign land. When the men gather, they deserve to let their guard down. He appreciates the pluck and the solidarity of the men gathered “from around the Empire” (241). The quote reveals the narrator’s own cultural identification with the English.

“All gods have good points, just as have all priests.” 

The narrator reveals his personal open-mindedness towards religion. He is no more attached to the Church of England than he is to the Hindu religion, which enables him to perceive each religion as equally worthy of respect and consideration.

“One never knows when one may want a friend.” 

Friendship and the potential for friendship are valuable notions to the narrator. When he states his respect for Hanuman, the narrator shows that he prefers to be on good terms with the Indian people and respectful of their culture in the case he may need their support. Friendship is also a motivating factor behind the narrator and Strickland’s rescue of Fleete, who unknowingly needs his British friends to save his soul.

“Shee that? Mark of the B—beasht! I made it. Ishn’t it fine?” 

Fleete’s slurred comment reveals his indifference to the culture of India and his ingrained belief in his superiority as a British colonizer. Ironically, Fleete proves himself less civilized than the Indian people he encounters when he defiles the image of Hanuman with the mark of his cigar. His physical form soon transforms into the physical form of the beast that he truly is, which means that his mark on Hanuman is actually the mark of a beast.

“Take your friend away. He has done with Hanuman, but Hanuman has not done with him.” 

The words of the temple priest foreshadow Hanuman’s revenge and help build the story’s sinister atmosphere. That the priest speaks in perfect English reveals his ability to adapt as necessary to British rule; however, he is still capable of maintaining the secrets and the traditional practices of his culture. 

“Strickland hates being mystified by natives, because his business in life is to overmatch them with their own weapons. He has not yet succeeded in doing this, but in fifteen or twenty years he will have made some small progress.” 

The narrator wryly observes that Strickland will never completely understand the local culture. It is impossible for Strickland, or any British person, to comprehend the local culture as completely as one born to it. This quote highlights the adversarial relationship between the colonizers and the colonized. As a policeman, Strickland’s “business” is to enforce rules and British law, a position that by nature puts him in opposition to Indian custom. 

“The affair was beyond any human and rational experience.”

Here the narrator concurs with Hamlet’s observation that there are phenomena occurring in the world which have no connection to reason and logic—two values held by British culture and the narrator. He strives to maintain a factual approach in his narrative despite the unnatural events that take place.

“I tried to say ‘Hydrophobia,’ but the word wouldn’t come because I knew that I was lying.” 

The narrator tries to rely on science to explain Fleete’s condition, and he uses a dreaded disease as the rationale for Fleete’s horrific transformation. In truth, however, all the advancements of British culture cannot explain the supernatural reality of the situation. The narrator’s attempt at self-delusion fails because the narrator is introspective and open to different ideas, unlike Dr. Dumoise, who has a fixed scientific mindset, as evidenced by his firm diagnosis of hydrophobia.

“If this happens six times I shall take the law into my own hands. I order you to help me.” 

Although sworn to uphold the law, Strickland goes rogue in order to save Fleete. He waits until the Silver Man mews six times, an allusion to the number of the beast in the Book of Revelations in the Old Testament—before enacting his violent plan. By abandoning rules and regulations, Strickland undercuts his own British values. His command that the narrator assist him absolves the narrator from guilt, since he is compelled to participate, but it also forces the narrator to put aside his own English morals.

“It was an unattractive sight, and thinking of poor Fleete, brought to such degradation by so foul a creature, I put away all my doubts and resolved to help Strickland from the heated gun-barrels to the loop of twine—from the loins to the head and back again—with all tortures that might be needful.” 

The narrator is appalled that a subhuman “creature” like the Silver Man can overpower an Englishman to the extent that he is able to strip away Fleete’s dignity and humanity. The narrator reveals his loyalty to his friend and compatriot and shows that supporting a fellow colonizer ranks above his appreciation for the Indian culture. 

“I understood then how men and women and little children can endure to see a witch burnt alive; for the beast was moaning on the floor, and though the Silver Man had no face, you could see horrible feelings passing through the slab that took its place, exactly as waves of heat play across red-hot iron—gun barrels for instance.” 

In comparing their torture session to the burning of a witch, the narrator shows that he believes his cause is just. The narrator expresses no pity for the man enduring the pain the narrator is inflicting. Instead, his grim simile suggests that the act contains an element of revenge.

“We watched the face of the beast, and saw the soul of Fleete coming back into the eyes” 

Strickland mysteriously comments that the Silver Man cannot take Fleete’s life, but he was able to take Fleete’s soul, leaving him a beast and reflecting a major theme of the story; as the narrator points out that Fleete’s soul returns to his body, he acknowledges that, for a time, the beast of the story was an Englishman.

“It is terrible to see a strong man overtaken with hysteria.” 

Strickland’s fit of hysterics frightens the narrator “as much as anything in all the night’s work (250), and the narrator fears most that the hysteria is able to unman Strickland. The narrator, struck by the magnitude of what the two of them did to save Fleete and how it reflects on themselves as Englishmen, reacts “as shamefully” (250) as Strickland. Their emotional loss of control flies against the image of the strong English male.