45 pages • 1 hour read
William BeckfordVathek
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1786A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Pages 88-120Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 88-120 Summary
Vathek, Nouronihar, and the rest of his traveling companions set off. Vathek’s former favorite wife, Dilara, is upset by Nouronihar’s presence. Dilara, having been raised amongst magi, desperately wants Vathek to succeed in his quest and bring her with him to the subterranean palace. She writes to Carathis of Vathek accepting the hospitality of a pious man, hoping that Carathis will punish him and force him back on track toward Istakar. The news enrages Carathis, who resolves to set out after Vathek, declaring that either she will die or Vathek will reign in the palace.
Carathis departs Samarah with her attendants, ignoring and delighting in the dangers of the road. Never allowing herself to rest from her devotion to evil, she terrorizes her peasant guides along the way. Happening upon a graveyard, Carathis summons ghosts and converses with them. Finally reaching Vathek, she yells at him for not following the Stranger’s instructions and insists that he drown Nouronihar. Vathek refuses to do so, and Nouronihar impresses Carathis with her bravery and devotion to Vathek.
Carathis, upon hearing the full story, decides that while Vathek resided with a holy man, he has likely made up for it by breaking the rules of hospitality and stealing his host’s daughter. She then resolves to sacrifice Gulchenrouz to the Stranger, as he loves the hearts of young boys in love. Using magic to find Gulchenrouz, Carathis attempts to kill him, but a Genius (i.e., jinni) sweeps him away before she succeeds, just as he also saved the 50 boys Vathek attempted to sacrifice at the gorge. They and Gulchenrouz now live in a heavenly place, away from “the inquietudes of the world; the impertinence of harems, the brutality of eunuchs, and the inconstancy of women” (97).
Carathis is enraged and is only soothed by the thought of arriving at Istakar and the subterranean palace the next day. However, she discovers through divining that Vathek’s brother, Motavakel, has taken advantage of the people’s anger at Vathek and staged a coup. Morakanabad has retreated to the tower with the rest of those faithful to Vathek. Carathis decides to return to help him.
Vathek and his party arrive in Rocnabad (i.e., Roknabad). Its pious inhabitants offer them hospitality, but Vathek orders the town destroyed. Religious leaders from Schiraz (i.e., Shiraz) approach the party to ask that Vathek honor their town with his presence, but Vathek instead takes their gifts and humiliates them. After enjoying the luxuries of the people they have destroyed and humiliated, Vathek and Nouronihar at last reach Istakar.
The Genius of Mahomet begs to try one last time to save Vathek and Nouronihar from damnation. He presents himself as a shepherd, singing beautiful songs meant to inspire remorse. Vathek and Nouronihar are at first struck, feeling devastated by their crimes. As they approach the shepherd, he counsels penitence. At the last moment, however, Vathek’s pride wins out, and he resolves to continue on to the palace.
Fueled by visions of the luxury and power that await them, Vathek and Nouronihar rush toward Istakar. Reaching the ruins of a palace, they ascend the steps and meet the Stranger, who welcomes them into the subterranean palace at last. The two pass through the ebony portal and enter an enormous palace, decorated with an infinite number of luxuries. Though the palace is incredible, Vathek and Nouronihar observe that a number of its inhabitants hold their right hands over their hearts and seem to see nothing. Their eyes are sunken and their faces pale, and some shriek or moan. Though the sight terrifies them, the Stranger urges them on.
Vathek and Nouronihar are presented to Eblis, ruler of the subterranean palace, who appears to them as a beautiful but unwell young man. Both feel their hearts sink upon seeing him. Eblis tells them that they are numbered among his admirers and invites them to partake of everything within the palace. Vathek and Nouronihar are cheered by this and ask the Stranger to lead them through the palace. They are taken to the room of talismans, where King Soliman presides, and the Stranger tells them to take a talisman. Soliman then speaks, telling them of how he ruled fairly but was led astray by a woman and his own curiosity. He says that he alone among the inhabitants of the palace still has hope, as due to his early piety he will one day be saved. Finally, he tells them that they are not about to live a life of luxury; the evil actions they took to reach this place have damned them, and they will end up like the ghostly figures they saw wandering the halls, clutching their hearts in remorse.
Though Vathek and Nouronihar beg to leave, the Stranger refuses them, laughing before he departs. They are allowed to wander the halls of the palace and enjoy the wonders there, but only as they await their miserable fates. Vathek blames Carathis for their damnation, and Nouronihar and Vathek agree to love each other until they become like the shades they saw. Vathek orders an infernal servant to fetch Carathis so that she will suffer with them. The two then happen upon a room where three other princes and a princess similarly await their fate. Reasoning that they can commiserate in their shared misery, they remark on the hopelessness of their situation and recount their falls from faith to each other.
Meanwhile, Carathis arrives excitedly at the palace. Delighting in it, she is confused as to why Vathek has secluded himself in a room rather than enjoy the wonders around him. Refusing to listen to Vathek’s reproaches, she tells him that Morakanabad has sided with his brother and that she burned down her magic tower with all her servants inside of it. She also says that she killed Bababalouk and buried Vathek’s wives alive.
Ignoring the curses Vathek yells at her, Carathis goes to see Eblis and Soliman. She descends quickly and easily to the depths of the palace, not startled or frightened by any atrocities she sees. Though Eblis tells her she will soon be consumed by flames and torments, Carathis is unaffected by this news. She focuses on continuing to amass power, even attempting to take the throne of Soliman. However, when a voice exclaims that everything is “accomplished,” she clutches her heart in agony.
Vathek and Nouronihar and their companions are also struck and become ghostly inhabitants of the palace. No connection or love remains between them. The narration ends by proclaiming the dangers of excess and curiosity unchecked, comparing Vathek and Nouronihar’s fate to that of Gulchenrouz, who lives forever in “the pure happiness of childhood” (120).
Pages 88-120 Analysis
The themes Vathek establishes early on culminate in its conclusion. Vathek at last faces consequences for his actions, discovering what the entire novella has foreshadowed—that the subterranean palace is, in fact, hell. He is too late to understand the conflict of Appearance Versus Reality. Even when the Genius’s intervention gives him a last chance at redemption, he is too set on his path to accept the terrible things he has done. Vathek remains motivated by his own comfort. Remorse and guilt do not penetrate his greed, but the knowledge that his decisions have led him to a place where he will lose all he desired and know only pain forces him to recognize the reality of the palace. What appeared to offer heightened enjoyment of life is in reality a place of death. In rejecting religion for his own pleasure, Vathek himself chose death and damnation, even if he wasn’t aware of the choice as he made it. As a final blow, the presence of other royals shows that Vathek was not as special as he felt he was, others having been offered the same false promise of exceptionality.
Vathek is not the only one condemned by his choices; Nouronihar is trapped with him. The gap between the actions that condemned them becomes apparent in this section. Vathek has allowed hundreds of people to die or be sacrificed in his pursuit of unneeded wealth. Nouronihar merely married him. This reflects 18th-century views of women as extensions of their husband, but it also implies a certain moral standpoint. It is not exclusively Vathek and Nouronihar’s actions that have condemned them but rather their motivations. Nouronihar’s desire for wealth and status mirrored Vathek’s own. The Dangers of Excess are what condemn the two, their horrific actions a product of their selfish natures.
Carathis also meets her fate in this final section. Her seemingly inherent evil nature persists to the end; she does not even experience the moment of realization that Vathek and Nouronihar do prior to being transformed in some metaphysical sense. Her motivations are at their most extreme in her final conversation with Vathek. She relates how she would have happily killed Morakanabad had he not at last defected to support Vathek’s brother. Upon learning her fate, she devotes herself to committing as many evil acts in the infernal palace as possible. Her uncompromising depravity increases the Gothic macabre at work in Vathek, but it also paints a stereotypically Orientalist portrait of an Eastern woman as morally corrupt and materially greedy.
The coup brings the theme of When to Break Loyalty to its culmination. Morakanabad’s inability to support Vathek and Carathis’s evil rule allows him to ally himself with a better option. He only breaks with them because they were disloyal first—to their religion, to their people, and to Morakanabad himself. In contrast to how Vathek vacillates between allegiances based on what will bring him pleasure, Morakanabad acts on moral and communal concerns. Bababalouk has his own reckoning with loyalty, which contrasts with Morakanabad’s experience. Bababalouk, unconcerned about the morality of his masters, is killed for his devotion.
This final section also presents an alternative to the terrible world Vathek, Nouronihar, and Carathis find themselves in. Gulchenrouz and the 50 other sacrificed boys live in an eternal and blissful childhood. This is a specifically male childhood; the absence of the “inconstancy of women” numbers among the reasons the place is considered a heaven (97). Time is also absent in this heaven. The boys can spend “whole ages in undisturbed tranquility” (120). As Vathek and Nouronihar anxiously await the end of the ticking clock that will doom them to eternal misery, the boys live out the inverse, experiencing satisfaction with no end. This signifies the enduring nature of the pleasures of innocence and peace compared to the temporary ones of wealth and power.
