65 pages • 2 hours read
The Man Who Was Thursday
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Chapters 13-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “The Pursuit of the President”
The next morning, the five detectives get on a boat for Dover. They are confused but also relieved. The Secretary explains the mob believed Syme and the other detectives were anarchists. The men with the Secretary wore black masks in order to appear to be part of the conspiracy. Despite the events of the past few days, all five men have the same questions about Sunday: why did he choose a council of policemen, what is he planning, and who is he?
The Secretary reminds the others there is a breakfast meeting the next day where they can confront Sunday. They stop at a hotel near Leicester Square for the night. Dr. Bull takes a walk and discovers Gogol outside the hotel. Gogol enters and is stunned to learn they are all policemen.
As the detectives approach the restaurant for the meeting, they see Sunday on the balcony. He greets them cheerfully and asks if the Czar is dead. The Secretary denounces the act and says it didn’t happen. He goes on to demand that Sunday tell them who he is, what he is doing, and why they are all together.
Sunday avoids giving a direct answer and calls them jackasses. Syme repeats the question, and Sunday rises and loudly declares, “Since the beginning of the world all men have hunted me like a wolf […] [b]ut I have never been caught yet […]” (105). He jumps over the railing, but before he disappears, Sunday explains he is the man in the dark room who made them all policemen.
The detectives are stunned. They jump over the rail and follow Sunday, who gets into a carriage. Three carriages race behind Sunday, each containing two of Syme’s group. They careen through the streets of London. Periodically, Sunday taunts them by throwing out paper with random questions, poetry, or words. Sunday leaps from the carriage, runs a short distance, and jumps on a fire truck. The chase leads to an unfamiliar area, where Sunday jumps off the fire truck, goes over a railing, and disappears into a forest.
The detectives move through a group of trees and hear strange noises. As they continue to walk, the detectives find themselves at the London Zoo. At the gate, Sunday appears riding an elephant. As they exit the zoo, the elephant is visible, but Sunday is gone. Syme spots Sunday above them in a hot air balloon. Determined to catch Sunday, Syme prods the group forward.
Chapter 14 Summary: “The Six Philosophers”
The bedraggled men follow the balloon on foot. As they walk, each man shares his perception of Sunday. Dr. Bull feels Sunday is jolly and likes him despite his wickedness: “Why do I like Sunday? […] how can I tell you? […] because he’s such a Bounder” (114).
After a pause, the Secretary says he dislikes Sunday. When the Secretary spoke with passion and sincerity, Sunday laughed and “[…] shook like a loathsome and living jelly” (114). Sunday’s teasing is something the Secretary can’t forgive.
Unlike the others, the Marquis met Sunday in broad daylight. Although he was very neat and his office was immaculate, Sunday was absentminded. The Marquis reasons that an absent-minded man who is good-natured cannot be evil. When asked what he thinks of Sunday, Gogol replies he doesn’t think of him at all.
It is difficult for de Worms to explain what he thinks of Sunday: “Sunday’s face […] was too large […]. The face was so big that one couldn’t focus it or make it a face at all. The whole thing is too hard to explain” (115). After struggling to make his point clear, the Marquis says, “Sunday has taught me the last and the worst doubts, the doubts of a spiritualist” (115-16).
Syme points out that each man sees Sunday differently. He thinks of Sunday as the whole world. From the back, Syme perceived that Sunday was ugly and brutal, but when he saw his face, he saw beauty: “[…] [W]hen I saw him from behind I was certain he was an animal, and when I saw him in front, I knew he was a god” (116).
The group sees the balloon come down, but Sunday is not there. As they cross a field, an immaculately dressed valet tells them carriages await to bring them to his master’s house. When they arrive at the house, they go to rooms laid out with food, wine, and clothing. Syme asks the valet about the clothing on his bed. The man hands him a Bible, points to a verse in Genesis, and tells him the clothing represents the creation of the sun and moon on the fourth day of the week. All six men are in costumes that represent a day in the creation of the world. When Syme dresses, he feels a sense of freedom, natural as when he was a boy.
Chapters 13-14 Analysis
When Sunday makes the shocking revelation that he is the man who recruited the detectives, they cannot understand the purpose of everything they’ve experienced: “What did it all mean? If they were all harmless officers, what was Sunday? If he had not seized the world, what on earth had he been up to?” (103).
Chapter 13 marks a change in the nature of their journey. The detectives believe they are engaged in a chase, but Sunday is in control, leading them to something. It is a change the characters don’t recognize and an important transition from a secular to a spiritual context. This transition is more marked in Chapter 14.
The settings in every chapter are punctuated by descriptions of nature, either specifically directed to the reader in narration, or noted by the characters. Chesterton uses natural surroundings to transition the story from reality to fantasy. During the chase through the city, the detectives cross a field, enter a wooded area, and find themselves at the zoo. The animals in the zoo relate to the emphasis on the creation narrative of the Bible, which is prominent in Chapter 15.
The detectives continue to follow Sunday across a green field, over blooming hedges, black thickets, and so on. They move further from the city and its worldliness and closer to a spiritual realm. When Syme and his companions arrive at the edge of the field, a valet awaits to lead them to Sunday’s house. Chesterton was a theologian and nowhere in the novel is his dedication to Christianity and to God as plainly represented as in the last two chapters. Sunday’s house is a representation of returning to the dwelling place of God. It also suggests the message from John 14:2, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: […] I go to prepare a place for you,” as Sunday literally prepares a room for each man.
The clothing or costumes laid out in the rooms are a key to each man’s identity. The characters shed their secular attire, leaving their worldly identities behind, and put on a new identity. In Chapter 13, the narrator explains, “[…] these disguises did not disguise, but reveal” (120).
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By G. K. Chesterton
