65 pages • 2 hours read
G. K. ChestertonThe Man Who Was Thursday
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1908A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Feast of Fear”
Syme gets to the top of the embankment and sees a man leaning over a low wall. He shows the man the paper from Buttons, and learns the man is the Secretary of the Council (Monday). When he smiles, his scarred face and crooked grin unnerve Syme.
Walking through Leicester Square, Syme feels as if he’s in a foreign place, even though he’s gone to the square since he was a child. He has “the eerie sensation of having strayed into a new world” (32). As they approach the hotel, Syme sees a group of men on a balcony. He is riveted by a huge man sitting with his back to Syme. Syme looks at the man’s massive back and feels frightened. Syme soon finds out this is the president of the council, Sunday.
When Syme sees Sunday’s face, it reminds him of something that frightened him as a child. He has the urge to scream but remains calm. He meets the other five members of the council. They are Gogol (Tuesday); the Marquis de St. Eustache (Wednesday); Professor de Worms (Friday); and Dr. Bull (Saturday). Syme notices each man is “subtly and differently wrong,” and feels Dr. Bull is the “wickedest of all those wicked men” (36).
The men around the table blend into the atmosphere around them and don’t appear unusual. Gogol complains about disguising himself. Sunday tells the other men Gogol doesn’t seem to grasp the concept. Syme listens and continues to look at the other men: “[…] he began to see in each of them exactly what he had seen in the man by the river, a demoniac detail somewhere” (35).
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Exposure”
During breakfast, the council discusses a plot to assassinate both the Czar and the French President. They select the Marquis to carry out the bombing. Syme realizes he should think of ways to stop the assassination, but all he feels is a growing sense of fear. He resists the urge to jump over the balcony and run to a nearby policeman. Syme remembers his promise to Gregory not to reveal anything about the council and silently debates whether he should keep his promise. If he breaks his promise, he can get away from these men. His sense of honor wins out, and he stays.
As Syme watches Sunday, he notes that everything about him is exaggerated. Even when he does not speak, Sunday has an overwhelming presence at the table. He eats for twenty men: “he ate incredibly, with a frightful freshness of appetite, so that it was like watching a sausage factory” (39). Syme feels uncomfortable and notices Sunday stare steadily at him, but he doesn’t say anything.
Sunday asks everyone to follow him into a private room. Gogol scoffs because they fail to adhere to their plan to conceal themselves by not concealing themselves. Sunday forbids the council from talking about their plans any further and assigns Dr. Bull to take care of the details. Everyone is shocked as Sunday stands up, strikes the table, and declares there is a spy in their midst. He names Gogol as the spy, and a scuffle begins among the members. Gogol pulls out two guns, but three of the others detain him. Syme sinks into his seat, relieved he has not been found out.
Chapters 5-6 Analysis
When Syme debarks from the boat and climbs the embankment, he steps into a different world metaphorically. He moves around the city, which is at once familiar to him and strange and foreign. He crosses Leicester Square and enters the world of the anarchist; he is surrounded by men whose presence and ideas frighten him. The juxtaposition of ordinary men eating breakfast while discussing sinister plans to assassinate world leaders is a chilling example of how evil exists unobtrusively in everyday surroundings.
Gogol’s exposure as a policeman is the first of many identity changes in the novel. Characters change from good to evil and from evil to good. The characteristics and qualities of the policemen, the anarchists, the rich, the poor, and the intellectuals are continually discussed and are part of the mysteries explored in the novel.
In Chapter 5, Sunday is introduced. He is very large, his presence is almost oppressive, and he inspires both fear and awe in those around him. He is a paradox. In Christendom, Sunday is the most sacred day of the week, a day of rest, yet he is the leader of an organization bent on destruction and chaos. He heads the anarchist council, and at the same time he chairs a humanitarian organization. In both roles, his plans—whether for good or for evil—can change the entire world.
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By G. K. Chesterton
