24 pages • 48 minutes read
Rudyard KiplingThe Mark Of The Beast
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1890A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Epigraph
The word epigraph comes from the Greek word epigraphein, which means “to write on.” An epigraph is a short quotation, saying, or poem from another author that appears at the beginning of a text. An epigraph helps frame a literary work: it may give the reader context for a story or hint at overarching themes in the piece.
In “The Mark of the Beast,” Kipling uses a native proverb as an epigraph to begin the story: “Your Gods and my Gods—do you or I know which are the stronger?” (241). The epigraph points to a major theme in the story, the conflict and disconnect between the English and native Indian cultures, and suggests the inability of the British to ever fully rule India.
Literary Allusion
An allusion is a brief reference by the writer or speaker in a literary work to something else: another literary work, a person, an historical event, a work of art or film, or something culturally significant.
Kipling includes several allusions in “The Mark of the Beast.” He refers to the 1878 Gilbert and Sullivan song “Carefully on Tip-Toe Stealing” from the comic opera HMS Pinafore when the narrator and Strickland tell each other that the sound they heard was “the cat” (247). In Pinafore, the ship’s crew is helping a pair of lovers elope when they hear a sound that they attribute to a cat though they know it is not the cat. Kipling uses this allusion to show the narrator’s and Strickland’s sense of fear and willing self-delusion when they hear a peculiar sound outside.
The narrator also quotes the beginning of a famous phrase from Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: “’There are more things…’” (250). In Act 1 of the play, after seeing the ghost of his father, Hamlet tells Horatio, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy” (Hamlet 1.5.167-168). Hamlet suggests that human knowledge, despite its scientific, rational foundation, cannot explain everything. The fact that the narrator has worn this quote “threadbare” (250) suggests both men have encountered many inexplicable phenomena while in India, including Fleete’s transformation.
Finally, Kipling employs two biblical allusions. The narrator describes the Silver Man as “’a leper as white as snow,’” (242) alluding to lines from 2 Kings 5:27, in which a greedy man is cursed with leprosy. The second biblical allusion is the title of the story. The ‘mark of the beast’ refers to Revelation 13:16-18. The mark is the sign that will identify the wicked followers of the antichrist. This second allusion questions which characters are “beasts” and why. Both biblical allusions reveal the narrator’s own awareness of traditional Church of England religious beliefs and their inefficacy in the face of other powerful deities.
Atmosphere
A story’s atmosphere is the feeling of place that a writer creates while describing the mood and the environment of a literary work. In “The Mark of the Beast” Kipling creates an atmosphere of horror, intending the reader to feel emotions of suspense, dread, fear, and revulsion while experiencing the narrator’s story.
From the opening epigraph, Kipling uses several instances of foreshadowing to build readers’ feelings of suspense and anxiety. For example, the epigraph sets the reader up for a supernatural conflict, which is reinforced when the temple priest ominously suggests that Hanuman will take revenge on Fleete. Strickland adds to the mounting tension, predicting that “There’s going to be trouble—big trouble—to-night” (246). Fleete’s increasingly bestial behavior also creates a sense of mysterious dread.
Mood is another contributor to the story’s atmosphere of horror. The first-person perspective in Kipling’s story gives the reader a close connection to the narrator’s own mounting sense of fear. As the narrator tries and fails to find a logical explanation for the uncanny events he experiences, his terror grows. Hearing Fleete howl, the narrator declares that his “heart stopped as though a knife had been driven through it” (246). Thanks to the first-person point of view, the reader is able to share the narrator’s fear. Kipling also utilizes figurative language to contribute to mood and intensify the reader’s feeling of terror. Hearing Fleete’s howl answered, the narrator comments, that the sound “set the gilded roof on the horror” (246), describing that he is as frightened at that moment as he has ever been.
Kipling skillfully uses gruesome physical detail to generate a sense of disgust, which also contributes to the dark atmosphere. The Silver Man is an object of revulsion: a “foul,” faceless creature (248). Fleete foams at the mouth, howls, and convulses; his physical transformation is graphic and unsettling. Kipling plays on readers’ legitimate fears of two then-incurable diseases: hydrophobia and leprosy.
Kipling’s omission of detail is equally effective in generating a feeling of repugnance. Strickland and the narrator prep the instruments of torture and begin to “work” on the Silver Man, but the narrator does not describe the scene. Instead, he writes, “This part is not to be printed” (249), and inserts the only scene break in the story. Kipling leaves the reader’s own imagination to fill in the horrible blanks.
Related Titles
By Rudyard Kipling
