The story in the story was a favorite literary device of Stefan Zweig. In the novel "Amok" as the main plot is a story that a stranger told the main character. The story in the story, or, as it is also called, the “principle of nesting dolls”, Zweig used in “Impatience of the heart”, “Letter of a stranger” and a number of his works.
March 1912 A case occurs in the port of Naples, about which European newspapers will write a few days later. What exactly happened, the reader finds out later, after the protagonist becomes aware of the story of a person suffering from a mental illness called amok. Zweig did not give the main character a name. However, the narrator is not a central actor. The protagonist is a doctor who is distraught with love.
For chapters, a summary of Amok Zweig will not be possible to state. The author did not divide his work into parts. The following is the content of Amok by Stefan Zweig according to the following plan:
- On deck.
- European in India.
- The reason for the imminent departure.
- Blues.
- Englishwoman.
- A terrible secret.
- Death.
- The case in Naples.
On deck
So, the hero of the novel "Amok" Zweig miraculously gets on board the "Oceania" and sent to Europe. One night, suffering from insomnia, he goes to the deck, where he meets a man with a gloomy, terribly distorted face.
The stranger speaks to him. It turns out that this man was no coincidence at night on a deserted deck. He does not tolerate society; he does not like the laughter and conversations of people. He strives for loneliness in every possible way. But even the most notorious misanthrope sometimes has a desire to speak out ...
By profession, a strange person on the deck is a doctor. Below is his story, but we will call this character a doctor, because Zweig did not endow him with a name either.
European in India
The doctor first visited this country seven years before the events described in the novel by Zweig “Amok”. Then he appreciated the charm of the tropics, palm trees and quaint buildings. He was still a young man, not without romance. He dreamed of treating the natives, learning their language, working for science. But later his attitude towards this country changed.
According to the hero of the novel by Stefan Zweig "Amok", in India, the European loses his moral character, becomes lethargic and limp. The same thing happened with the doctor, who spent several years in this country.
Reason for imminent departure
Nevertheless, the doctor went to India not only because he wanted to treat local residents. He admits that he was always attracted to impudent, imperious women. In Germany, where he graduated from a university, he began an affair with one of such persons. She treated him coldly, arrogantly, and it drove him crazy. Once the doctor decided to leave Europe, to escape from the one that tormented him.
Blues
He arrived in a small village eight hours from the city. He dreamed of loneliness, and received it in full. Two boring officials, several Europeans and natives - such was the environment of the Austrian doctor.
At first, he tried to entertain himself with something. Gathering weapons of local residents, playing golf with other Europeans. But soon all this bored him. He stopped communicating with anyone, increasingly drank and indulged in gloomy thoughts.
Englishwoman
Heavy rains began, which exacerbated the already depressive state of the doctor. After receiving patients, he went to his home, where he spent time in the company of Scotch whiskey. For all this time he has not seen a single European woman. When a European novel fell into his hands and he read about white-faced ladies in it, nostalgia began to unbearably torment him. Once something happened that completely changed his life. An Englishwoman appeared to him - the main character of Zweig’s novel “Amok”, the appearance of which is the plot of the story.
Terrible secret
At the moment when the woman crossed the threshold of the office, the doctor was seized with a bad feeling. He worked in the wilderness, where patients from the city rarely visited. And suddenly a woman appears in his house who has come from far away. Moreover, she behaves quite strangely.
She did not raise her veil, she spoke a lot, nervously, non-stop. The woman asked the doctor about the reasons for his hermit lifestyle, what books he likes to read, the weather, and the writer Flaubert. But nothing about the reason that prompted her to come to such a distance. And only after she, as if incidentally, complained of a slight malaise, which manifests itself in dizziness and nausea, did the doctor understand everything.
The woman was pregnant. As soon as her interlocutor asked a few direct questions, her tone completely changed. She did not conduct meaningless conversations anymore, did not ask inappropriate questions. Rigidity appeared in her voice.
Deal
The woman was unusually worried about him, at the same time provoked anger in him. This cold, impregnable aristocrat came to make a deal with him: he gives her a certificate allowing her to terminate her pregnancy, she pays him 12 thousand guilders, but he receives a check in Amsterdam. The woman did not want anyone to know about the circumstances of her personal life. Doctors were struck by her prudence, coldness, and arrogance.
Madness
He suddenly wanted her to feel in his power. At first he pretended not to understand her hints, and then, when their conversation became frank, he refused her. From that moment he seemed to begin to lose his mind.
What is amok? The hero of the short story explains the meaning of this word. This is the type of intoxication that was once discovered among the Malays. However, according to modern ideas, this is called one of the mental disorders. The hero of the novel by Stefan Zweig "Amok" was not crazy. However, in the last days of his life, he committed illogical, very strange acts.
After the doctor refused the lady, she did not begin to humiliate him before him, to beg him for help. She looked at him contemptuously and left his house. He later found out that she was the wife of a very wealthy man who had been in Europe for a year now. He tried to find her, wanted to talk to her and ask her for forgiveness. The doctor was ready to help her with the organization of a secret abortion. But she did not want to listen to him.
One day at a dinner party, the doctor saw her. She knew how to control herself, but the ridiculous fervor that gripped the doctor scared her a lot. The woman began to avoid the distraught doctor.
Death
Once a servant of an Englishwoman brought a note from her. Even in such a difficult situation, she behaved arrogantly. The note had only a few words: “Late. Wait at home, maybe I'll call you. ”
That day he came to her. According to the situation in the room, the doctor realized that she had "let herself be crippled," and all in order to avoid publicity. A woman had an underground abortion with an unknown doctor. She was dying, but she took her word from him never, under any circumstances, to tell anyone about what happened to her. He promised.
It was not easy for the doctor to explain to people what a healthy young woman died from. He did everything to get a conclusion about death, which said about heart paralysis. And then he met an officer, the same person with whom she had an affair. For several days he was hiding in his house - he was wanted by the husband of the deceased, who arrived in India and did not believe in the version of a heart attack.
On the ship, where the doctor met the main character, was also the husband of an Englishwoman. He drove her body to England for an autopsy, which could establish the true cause of death.
Case in Naples
The next night after the doctor told his chance acquaintance this terrible story, an extraordinary incident occurred in Naples. A coffin with the body of a noble lady was lowered from the side. We did this at night, so as not to disturb passengers with a sad sight. At that moment, something heavy fell from the upper deck and led to the sea and a coffin, and a widower, and several sailors. The Englishman, like the sailors, was saved. The coffin went down. A few days later, a note appeared in the newspapers that the body of an unknown man had been washed ashore.
Novel Zweig "Amok": reviews
Negative reviews of the work of an Austrian writer are rare. His style is concise, simple. Moreover, in each of his short stories there is an unexpected denouement. The story "Amok" is no exception.
Yet among the reviews are not only enthusiastic. Some readers believe that the author was not able to fully convey the inner world of the hero. At the first meeting, the doctor tries in every possible way to humiliate the woman, but after a few hours falls in love with her before losing her mind. However, this is the only detail that may seem implausible.