Under the Volcano

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1947

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses depictions of addiction to alcohol and outdated and offensive language referencing Indigenous peoples, mental health, and addiction, which feature in the source text.

At the Hotel Casino de la Salva in Quauhnahuac, Mexico, M. Jacques Laruelle and Dr. Vigil sit under the shadow of two volcanoes, Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl. They are enjoying a drink on the eve of Jacques’s departure from the town after nearly five years. It is November 2, 1939, the Day of the Dead, and the friends discuss events that led to the death of their friend exactly a year prior. Both remember their own involvement in the Consul’s demise and wonder if they could have prevented it. With his impending move, Jacques bids Dr. Vigil farewell and takes the long way back to his still-unpacked home.

As he maneuvers through town, Jacques continues to think of that fateful day. He remembers his complicated relationships with the Consul (Geoffrey Firmin) and the Consul’s ex-wife, Yvonne. He is avoiding returning home and finds himself passing the local prison and the dilapidated palace of Emperor Maximilian. He soon finds himself on a bridge and pauses, falling into a memory of his relationship with the Consul that predates their time in Mexico. Geoffrey was the ward of the Taskerson family, an alcoholic family from England that took him in after his family collapsed in India. He and Jacques met on a vacation as teenagers, and afterwards Jacques’s father sent him to live with the Taskerson family. The two were fast friends but after an incident in which Jacques stumbled upon Geoffrey with a girl, the friendship faded, not to be rekindled until their adulthood.

Jacques continues his walk through town and realizes that a storm is moving in. He seeks shelter at a bar next to a theater, where he shares a drink with Senor Bustamente, the owner of the theater. Sr. Bustamente returns to Jacques a book of Elizabethan plays that was on loan to Jacques from the Consul himself. The two men drink and discuss the death of the Consul and how the locals’ perception of him as a spy contributed to his murder. Jacques acknowledges this falsehood and remembers the Consul as being constantly drunk but also, sometimes, generous. Jacques also remembers a completely different version of the Consul, one who commanded a ship during WWI and took the fall for the murder of German POWs.

Sr. Bustamente leaves Jacques, and in his solitude, he opens the book of plays. Jacques, a movie man, had borrowed it in hopes of creating a movie based on the story of Faust, and finds himself again reviewing Christopher Marlowe’s rendition, Doctor Faustus. While he reads, he finds a letter written by the Consul to his ex-wife, Yvonne. The letter discusses his drinking habits and his absolute need for her to return to him. Jacques reads the letter and burns it.

Chapter 2 Summary

It is the morning of November 2, 1938, and Yvonne has returned to Quauhnahuac to see her ex-husband, the Consul. She finds the Consul at a bar at seven in the morning, drunk and with no socks. He is talking about a dead child taking a train and the necessity in Mexico for adults to accompany the bodies of dead children. Their relationship soured because of the Consul’s drinking, and it does not escape her notice that he is drinking at this hour to ward off the shakes of withdrawal. The Consul is surprised to see her. They walk to the home that they used to share.

On the way, Yvonne stops in a window and looks at a picture of La Despedida, a rock formation irrevocably split apart. The image of something that had once been whole now fragmented evokes a powerful emotional response in her as she considers the state of her own relationship. Their walk is further interrupted when the Consul must stop for a drink and the two witness a child’s funeral procession. The Consul reveals that his half-brother, Hugh, has been staying with him and that he is due to arrive back from a trip that day. He also reveals that he has not told Hugh of their divorce. As the two near the house, Yvonne wrestles with the advanced state of the Consul’s addiction and the effect it has had on his physical and mental state.

Chapter 3 Summary

Upon their return home, the Consul imagines Yvonne’s disapproval of his drinking and the state of the house. He and Yvonne settle on the porch and the Consul’s maid, Concepta, brings them alcohol, which Yvonne refuses. The Consul, attempting to keep up the guise of having his drinking under control, follows Yvonne’s example and solely drinks strychnine, a prescription given to him by his doctor. However, he soon hears voices, or as he refers to them, “his familiars,” reminding him of his need to drink. Yvonne, distressed at the state of the garden, goes inside to take a bath. The Consul takes this opportunity to run to the nearest cantina for a drink.

On his way, he falls over and is unable to pick himself up. While on the ground, he imagines a conversation with his half-brother, Hugh, and expresses his insecurities and regrets about his relationship with Yvonne. The Consul, stuck in this drunken hallucination, doesn’t realize that a car is approaching and fails to move out of the way. Luckily, the driver of the car, an Englishman, stops and helps the Consul up. After assuring the man that he is all right and doesn’t need any attention, the Consul is offered a flask of alcohol, which he gladly takes a gulp from. The Englishman leaves the Consul, and the Consul turns back home.

Upon his return, he brings Yvonne breakfast in bed. He informs her that he has resigned from the service and is no longer a consul of the British Empire. Yvonne seizes on this opportunity to suggest that the two of them leave town immediately. She expresses her opinion that the house has become a source of evil for them and that their relationship cannot be mended if they stay in Mexico. The Consul is offended by her suggestion and refuses, insisting that he is fine and that he cannot leave with Hugh in town and her just returning to him. This sets him off on an inner tangent related to his own drinking and the state he is in. He insists to himself that he is in control but admits to Yvonne that perhaps he should try and wean himself off the liquor.

The two continue to talk and the Consul recalls the night before she left him. She told him to meet her at a restaurant in a neighborhood of Mexico City, but he could not remember the name. He visited every restaurant in the area he could find but could not locate her. However, at each restaurant, he stayed for a drink, becoming quite intoxicated before returning to his hotel.

They attempt to make love, but due to his drinking, the Consul cannot perform and leaves Yvonne in her room. He goes out to the patio, thankful that the whiskey is still there. He drinks as he hears Yvonne cry and wonders to himself why he never responded to any of the many letters that she wrote him while they were apart. As he gazes at the two volcanoes shadowing the town, he commends himself on acting better with Yvonne before falling asleep.

Chapters 1-3 Analysis

The first three chapters of Under the Volcano not only set the scene of the plot through Jacques’s expository chapter but also introduce Yvonne and the Consul through each other’s eyes. In this early stage of the novel, it quickly becomes apparent that Addiction to Alcohol is the most dominant aspect of the Consul’s life. It is seen through his reactions to Yvonne’s surprise appearance as well as in the reminiscences of Jacques and Dr. Vigil. Dr. Vigil, a medical professional and former drinking partner to the Consul, is particularly remorseful: “I meant to persuade him to go away and get dealcoholisé” (4). Dr. Vigil has his own experience with addiction and certainly recognizes the Consul’s plight. He and the Consul were out drinking the night before his death and Dr. Vigil possesses a unique perspective on his state: “Oh, I know, but we got perfectamente borracho, that it seems to me, the Consul is as sick as I am. Sickness is not only in body, but in that part used to be called: soul” (5). The notion that the Consul’s addiction affects his soul illuminates the damaging effects of his alcohol dependency, implying that alcohol has corrupted his mind and morals. Many of the novel’s conflicts can be traced back to the Consul’s behavior under the influence of alcohol, whether he is ignoring Yvonne or fighting with Jacques. The novel establishes early that Addiction to Alcohol has cascading consequences for the Consul and those around him.

This theme is further explored in the subsequent chapters as Yvonne and the Consul meet again after an extended period of separation. These chapters, like the rest of the novel, happen on the fateful day of their deaths and slowly reveal the events that led them down that path. Chapter 2 focuses primarily on Yvonne’s point of view as she returns to find the Consul in Quauhnahuac and realizes the advanced stage of his addiction. Her desire to reunite with him permeates her experience of her surroundings, where she finds symbolism in objects that are united as well as separated. Her reaction to the picture of La Despedida, a broken rock formation, exhibits the desperation she feels towards the reparation of her relationship:

Oh, but why—by some fanciful geological thaumaturgy, couldn’t the pieces be welded together again! She longed to heal the cleft rock. She was one of the rocks and she yearned to save the other, that both might be saved. By a super-lapidary effort she moved herself nearer it, poured out her pleas, her passionate tears, told all her forgiveness: the other rock stood unmoved (57).

She envisions herself and the Consul as these fractured rocks, unable to return to a united whole. The symbolism of La Despedida introduces the theme of Self-Determination in the Face of Interference. Yvonne knows that it will be a difficult struggle to save the Consul and their marriage, but by envisioning them as broken rocks, she is examining the nature of each as individuals. Their history has fractured them, and the pain of the past cannot be erased. They are both unique individuals, and the Consul is especially concerned with the notion of self-determination and independence. This belief is apparent not only in his politics but also in his insistence that he is fine, and that his loved ones should not interfere in his life. Just as La Despedida will forevermore be broken, so too will Yvonne and the Consul’s relationship.

The third and final chapter of this section is the first in which the Consul provides the primary point of view, further revealing the extent of his addiction. He struggles to think of anything other than where his next drink will come from and must contend with voices in his head that both criticize his drinking and help him to rationalize it. Additionally, his awareness and view of the world around him is completely altered at various points depending on his state of intoxication. The writing of the novel changes to match his level of drunkenness, making it at times difficult to understand. The Consul jumps from thought to thought and even place to place as he maneuvers through alcohol-induced blackouts. One such instance occurs after Yvonne goes to take a bath: “Christ...He hung up the receiver the wrong way and returned to the porch: no Yvonne: after a moment he heard her in the bathroom...The Consul was guiltily climbing the Calle Nicaragua” (80). Unlike in the chapters that focus on events through Hugh or Yvonne’s perspective, the plot jumps around in the Consul’s chapters. His intoxication causes him to lose parts of his day or to find himself in unfamiliar surroundings, unsure how he got there. This chapter introduces the stylistic uniqueness of the Consul’s perspective and explores the ways in which intoxication change a person’s relationship to their surroundings and thought process.