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 31-50Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 31-50 Summary
Vathek takes shelter with Carathis in her tower full of scientific inventions and magical artifacts. Carathis also desires the wealth and knowledge the Stranger promised, and she protects Vathek, using her eloquence and intelligence to persuade the angry crowd that has followed him to leave. Retreating to her rooms, where she has collected magical objects and studied “infernal powers,” she plots to regain the favor of the Stranger and passage into the infernal palace.
Carathis has been looking forward to contacting dark powers and has prepared her entire tower for the possibility, including one chamber in particular:
[There], under the guard of 50 female negroes mute and blind of the right eye, were preserved the oil of the most venomous serpents; rhinoceros’ horns; and woods of a subtile and penetrating odour, procured from the interior of the Indies, together with a thousand other horrible rarities (31).
Carathis gathers many items from this room to use in a dark ritual.
Vathek, meanwhile, shows no remorse for his actions on the cliffside. Instead, he has become ravenously hungry and calls for food. He grows enraged when the guards do not respond, having forgotten that, as they are deaf, they cannot hear his demands. Carathis arrives and chastises Vathek for his behavior. She has brought the articles she collected from her stores and insists that he fast until they perform the ritual to bring the Stranger back. Vathek, while frustrated, agrees. Carathis organizes a pyre of dark artifacts for the ritual. Aided by her guards, she pours oils over the artifacts and strips down nearly naked. The ritual is so exciting to Vathek that he swoons. At last, Carathis lights the pyre on fire. It appears as a blaze at the top of the palace tower.
The citizens of Samarah see the fire. Their fear and remaining love for Vathek overcome their anger at the events earlier that day, and they rush to save him. Only Bababalouk, the head of Vathek’s eunuchs, realizes the fire is magic and that no one is in danger. As the people rush to the tower, they grow increasingly ill, choking on smoke as they attempt to enter. At last, 140 of the strongest break down the doors. Though at first upset, Carathis realizes that she can sacrifice them to the Stranger; Vathek agrees to her plan. When the people reach the top of the tower, Carathis has her army of soldiers slaughter them to be thrown on the pyre. She then bars the doors with chains, deciding that she has enough sacrifices to make an impression.
After the 140 people are sacrificed, the fire vanishes and a table laid with a magnificent feast appears in place of the pyre. While Vathek eats, Carathis finds a piece of parchment that thanks them for the sacrifice and promises Vathek, and thus Carathis, entrance to the infernal palace should he travel to Istakar. The note commands Vathek to bring his finest treasures, his loveliest wives, and his most faithful servants. However, Vathek must be careful of whose hospitality he accepts while traveling. Both Carathis and Vathek are delighted by the news and celebrate by indulging in wine, leading them to scream blasphemies.
Returning to the palace from the tower, they tell Morakanabad that they escaped the fire, while those that rushed to help them perished. Vathek announces that he will travel to Istakar and leave Morakanabad and Carathis in charge while he is gone. Vathek also charges Morakanabad to supply Carathis with anything she needs for her experiments in the tower. Though Morakanabad fears the tower and dislikes Carathis, he is relieved that Vathek is leaving, thinking that he is even worse than his mother. While preparations for the journey get underway, Carathis starts to secretly poison the other ladies of the court, healing them after they grow ill. She does this merely because she does not want to be idle.
Meanwhile, Vathek stops going to the mosque and worshiping, with “half of Samarah [following] his example, whilst the other lament[] the progress of corruption” (39). An embassy that Vathek sent to Mecca returns with an array of holy objects to add to his collection. He forces the emissaries to watch as he sweeps cobwebs with the sacred broom they brought back and then laughs in their horrified faces. Two of them die on the spot, while the rest remain in their beds forever due to their heartbreak.
At last, the stars align and Vathek feels he can begin the journey to Istakar. The whole palace aids his preparations, eager to get rid of Vathek, who has been behaving cruelly and erratically toward them. Carathis gives Vathek a variety of dark objects to sacrifice to the Stranger. She says goodbye to Vathek, requesting that he send for her when he gains entrance to the infernal palace. At last, with much pomp and circumstance, Vathek gathers his wives and servants and sets off.
The journey begins well, with Vathek’s subjects providing for him along the way. After a few days, storms begin to strike the party. Vathek attempts to push onward, forcing his navigators to attend him despite the weather. The combination of the clouded skies and the rain ruining the maps causes the party to become lost. Vathek is again enraged, but they continue to the base of a mountain range. All members of the party become miserable and upset—Vathek’s wives particularly, as they have never experienced such adverse conditions before.
As they attempt to scale the mountain despite their disorientation, a cold night freezes the party in their tracks. While they are attempting to get back on course, wild animals attack them, sending them into a state of terror. When Bababalouk informs Vathek that some of his drivers have been eaten and much of their food has been lost, Vathek begins to scream and beat himself. He is most upset over the food supplies lost to the animals. Recognizing that their leader will be of no help, Bababalouk takes charge. He has everyone light torches to drive the animals away. The light from their torches is so brilliant that it becomes like day. Still, all their supplies and food have been eaten, and the party is miserable and stranded. For the first time, Vathek hears words said against him.
Pages 31-50 Analysis
Though little time has elapsed since Vathek asked the Stranger if the 50 boys could be spared, his only concerns after killing them are keeping himself safe and entering the infernal palace. Vathek has already progressed beyond even his brief feelings of remorse, raising no objections when his mother performs another human sacrifice soon after the first. Vathek’s singular focus on the riches of the infernal palace has affected not only Vathek himself, but the narrative’s mood. Vathek’s inability to regulate his desires overflows into the plot, with events growing increasingly intense and bombastic. The sacrifice of 140 people who were trying to help Vathek is far removed from Vathek’s initial act of pique in imprisoning someone for refusing to speak.
Despite the increased intensity and rapidity of Vathek’s selfish and evil acts, he still faces no consequences for them. His status and his people’s loyalty protect him from punishment. The intelligence and actions of Carathis and Morakanabad further protect him while revealing their respective characters. Carathis uses qualities the narrator has explicitly attributed to her—eloquence and cunning—to keep Vathek safe from the crowd mobbing him. This also reveals a pattern in Carathis and Vathek’s relationship, as they function like two parts of one whole. Though Vathek, by virtue of his position and gender, tends to be the one fulfilling the Stranger’s edicts, Carathis is the mastermind behind the plans. Vathek will even blame Carathis for his actions when he learns that he is damned.
By contrast, Morakanabad helps Vathek out of his sense of duty, raising the question of When to Break Loyalty. Though Morakanabad plans to resign as chief advisor after Vathek kills his sons, his sense of loyalty and honor is too overwhelming to set aside. When the fire starts and he goes to help Vathek, he does so knowing that the prince is not a good leader. Morakanabad thus struggles between wisdom and allegiance, suggesting that while Vathek has avoided consequences, this state of grace may not last. Morakanabad’s relief at Vathek’s impending departure foreshadows Morakanabad’s eventual defection to Vathek’s brother. In comparison, Bababalouk does not concern himself with Vathek’s morality. He accepts without protest the dark deeds Vathek has committed, never questioning his continued service. These portrayals set up two contrasting relationships to service that the narrative will continue to explore.
The depiction of Carathis’s ritual further develops the theme of The Dangers of Excess. The ritual is based on collecting as many rare items as possible and setting them ablaze. There isn’t a complicated ceremonial aspect, or even a spiritual one. It is just a monument to the excesses that Carathis has indulged in. Sacrificing the people of Samarah is another show of excess, their murders being done out of opportunity, not necessity. At every turn, the infernal palace encourages people to take as much as they can. Even the travel plans laid out for Vathek are a ridiculous excess, asking Vathek to bring most of his court with him for a reward only he will experience.
As Vathek aligns himself more and more with the Stranger, his faith in Islam deteriorates. The prospect of obtaining the wealth of the subterranean palace encourages him to turn religion into another source of entertainment, as seen in his conduct with his own ambassadors when they return from Mecca. As the birthplace of Muhammad, Mecca is the holiest city in Islam and a site to which all Muslims are expected to make a pilgrimage at least once. Vathek’s behavior is thus deeply blasphemous, implying that when someone embraces evil, the pretenses they made before at goodness fall away. This tension with religion anticipates the conflict between Fakreddin and Vathek that comes in the following section. Vathek’s unnecessary cruelty also further aligns him with Carathis, his tormenting of his religious men mirroring Carathis’s random poisonings.
