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 9-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “The Man in Spectacles”
Syme and de Worms eat dinner and discuss their upcoming meeting with Dr. Bull. Syme is so relieved to have a companion that he acts giddy. de Worms reminds him of the danger inherent in their visit with Dr. Bull: their goal is to “steal a secret from a very sharp, very strong, and very wicked man” (59).
When the two men reach Dr. Bull’s room, he sits at a table dressed in a white shirt and black breeches. The professor tries carefully to extract the details of the assassination plan without arousing Dr. Bull’s suspicion, but Dr. Bull listens silently. Syme grows suspicious, and though the professor discourages him, he leans across the table and asks the doctor to take off his glasses. Dr. Bull hesitates and then removes his glasses. When Syme sees the doctor’s face, he throws his blue card on the table, proclaiming he knew Dr. Bull was a detective, adding, “I knew my intuition was as infallible as the Pope” (65). The professor throws down his card, too. Dr. Bull laughs and puts his card on the table with the other two.
Dr. Bull explains that he sent the Marquis to Paris to assassinate the Czar and the French president with a bomb. They must catch him, Dr. Bull adds. While they walk to the train for Dover, the doctor tells them how he became a policeman. His story is almost the same as the other two men’s.
From Dover, the three men take a boat to Calais, France. Syme devises a plan to prevent the bombing. Counting on the Marquis’s reputation as a gentleman, Syme will goad him into a duel. He will make sure the time and place of the duel prevent the Marquis from getting on the train to Paris. Both men think Syme is out of his mind but follow him down the street in search of the Marquis. They find him at an outdoor café with two companions.
Chapter 10 Summary: “The Duel”
Syme, de Worms, and Dr. Bull sit down at a table near the Marquis and order wine. Syme stands, a bit wobbly from the wine, and makes his way to the Marquis’s table. He exchanges a polite greeting with the Marquis, declares he is going to pull his nose, and leans over to do so. The Marquis knocks over his chair to avoid Syme, whom his two companions restrain. In a nonsensical conversation, Syme accuses the Marquis of insulting a member of his family by mentioning the music of Wagner. The confused Marquis denies any insult, but soon realizes Syme’s objective is to instigate a duel. He agrees to fight him.
The next morning, everyone gathers in a small field near the train station, and the duel begins. Syme wounds the Marquis several times, but he doesn’t bleed. Syme fights more furiously and wonders if the Marquis is a supernatural being. When the train whistle blows, the Marquis jumps back and shouts, “Stop!”
Amid protests and confusion, the Marquis taunts Syme, telling him to pull his nose. The nose comes off in Syme’s hand and the Marquis then tears off more of his disguise. As the train arrives at the station, the Marquis admits he is Inspector Ratcliffe of Scotland Yard. He isn’t waiting to get on the train, but to see who gets off it. The Marquis is afraid Sunday knows what they are doing and means to kill them, so they can’t oppose the anarchist movement.
The detectives see what they believe to be a large group of ordinary tourists leave the train. The Marquis takes out a pair of field glasses and hands them to Dr. Bull, who says, “Do ordinary tourists wear black masks half-way down their face?” (82). Syme grabs the glasses from Bull, looks at the group, and recognizes the crooked smile of the Secretary.
Chapters 9-10 Analysis
There are countless couplings of opposing forces throughout the story. One obvious pairing is good and evil. In Chapter 9, pessimism and optimism are symbolized by de Worms and Syme, respectively. In addition to his optimism, Syme contributes comic relief in contrast to the serious aspects of their journey.
The setting around Syme and de Worms as they go to meet Dr. Bull creates a sullen mood to match the danger they face. The two men “[…] made their way across the river, which under the grey and growing light looked as desolate as Acheron” (61-62). In Greek mythology, Acheron is the river of woe. As Syme and de Worms climb the stairs to Dr. Bull’s room, the author describes the sunrise as “a pale and tragic dawn lifting itself laboriously over London” (62).
When the pair enter Dr. Bull’s room, sunlight streams through the windows, but the shadows cast on the doctor’s face make him appear more sinister. Here is another instance of opposing forces: dark and light. However, the sunlight precedes the revelation that Dr. Bull is a detective. The changes in natural surroundings often foretell coming events in the narrative.
Prior to Dr. Bull’s admission he is a policeman, Syme is bolder and demonstrates more confidence in his intuition about the doctor’s identity. His relationship with de Worms and the bonds of trust and loyalty they’ve formed bolster his confidence. As the mystery grows more intense, the forces of good embodied by the detectives grows stronger.
Chesterton creates comic scenes as witty as they are absurd. In Chapter 10, Syme confronts the Marquis to incite a duel. In the process, his behavior crosses the line from comedy to farce: “‘This man has insulted me.’ ‘Insulted you?’ ‘He insulted my mother. ‘Insulted your mother?’ ‘Well, anyhow, my aunt’” (72). The exchange continues with great comedic timing and is one of the funniest character interactions in the story. It is the perfect contrast to the seriousness and urgency of the group’s mission to derail an assassination plot.
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