The Fall

The cher ami visits Clamence in his apartment. Clamence is bedridden due to a fever. He blames it on malaria, which he claims he contracted when he was crowned pope; he then acknowledges that his truths are difficult to disentangle from his lies. Clamence believes that the truth is blinding and lies are comforting. Clamence’s apartment is sparse, and he gave up books long ago because he believes they are full of comforting lies and pretenses.

Clamence explains his status as pope to his curious friend. Clamence was in Paris when World War II began and considered joining the French Resistance. The Resistance, however, required life-endangering commitment and working underground. Clamence then ventured to North Africa and couldn’t decide which side to join. A friend gave him work in Tunisia, and the two were captured by the Germans because Clamence’s friend worked with French forces. Clamence was kept in a prisoner-of-war camp outside the city of Tripoli. Water and food were extremely scarce in the camp. Clamence met a Frenchman he calls “Du Guesclin” after the medieval knight of the same name. Du Guesclin was very religious and patriotic. The heat and lack of food and water made the prisoners delirious. Du Guesclin decided that the camp needed to pick a man to be the “pope,” one who would live on and carry the suffering and death experienced in the camp, no matter the cost. Du Guesclin asked for the man who had the “most failings,” and Clamence volunteered. Clamence watched over several weeks as his compatriots died of thirst. He had to continue living despite the death around him because of his position as “pope.”

Clamence asks his cher ami to lock the door and reveals that he possesses The Just Judges, a painting stolen from a Belgian church in 1934. (In real life, the panel has never been found.) Clamence says he took it from Mexico City, where the thief sold it to the bartender for a bottle of alcohol. Clamence believes it’s right to keep the painting because it allows him to dominate those who believe the replica in the church is the “real” Just Judges. He explains that the judges are on their way to see the “lamb” (baby Jesus), and keeping them from seeing the embodiment of innocence reveals the lack of innocence in the world.

Clamence finally reveals his solution: To judge everyone as guilty at all times. Good intentions, mistakes, and circumstances do not matter to him. Everybody is guilty of something, which alleviates his own guilt. As a “judge-penitent,” he is positioned to judge others and preach the virtues of slavery, which he presents as the only way for others to escape their crushing guilt. Clamence closed his law office in France and moved to Amsterdam to pursue this new calling. Mexico City is a crossroads for people from all walks of life, wealthy and impoverished, so he seeks out new acolytes there. Clamence is able to find “cultured bourgeois” people like his cher ami there who are the most susceptible to his “solution.” He has also accepted duplicity as a fundamental part of life and uses it to dominate others by tearing them down. Clamence discovers his cher ami is a lawyer in Paris, just like he was. Clamence is certain his cher ami will continue to visit him and be persuaded that slavery is necessary, and nobody is innocent. Finally, Clamence declares that he would not save the drowning woman if given a second chance, as his guilt allows him to dominate others forever.