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.
Themes
The Dangers of Excess
Content Warning: This section references child murder and racist stereotypes.
The first description of Vathek’s life emphasizes the sheer abundance he has access to. That Vathek has added “five wings, or rather other palaces, which he destined for the particular gratification of each of the senses” immediately establishes that Vathek seeks to maximize his pleasure (1). His desire to obtain even more leads him to follow the Stranger’s edicts into damnation. Descriptions often focus on the excess of Vathek’s life—his numerous wives, the amount of food he eats, his constant desire for entertainment, etc. This pursuit of excess not only damns him but alienates those around him.
A sense of opulence—even decadence—in fact saturates the text. The Stranger, the representative of the infernal palace, eats to excess and demands extravagant sacrifices. Carathis’s desires manifest in her excessive collection of occult artifacts and need to constantly occupy herself with dark tasks. Nouronihar has comfort, wealth, and love with her father and Gulchenrouz, but she cannot resist when offered more. This emphasis on indulgence is closely related to the work’s Orientalism, as is Vathek’s ambivalence toward it. In each of the above cases, the desire for more than has been freely given is either a sign of a character’s evil nature, or the thing that leads them to eternal damnation. At the same time, the novella seems to delight in the perceived lushness and sensuality of its setting, detailing its sights, sounds, and smells with vivid imagery and at times associating them with good, as in this description of the mountains outside Samarah:
[I]ts summit [was] overspread with so delightful a plain, that it might have been taken for the Paradise destined for the faithful. Upon it grew a hundred thickets of eglantine and other fragrant shrubs; a hundred arbours of roses, entwined with jessamine and honeysuckle; as many clumps of orange trees, cedar, and citron; whose branches, interwoven with the pomegranate, and the vine, presented every luxury that could regale the eye or taste. […] Four fountains, not less clear than deep, and so abundant as to slake the thirst of ten armies, seemed purposely placed here, to make the scene more resemble the garden of Eden watered by four rivers […] (12).
This simultaneous fascination with and revulsion toward “Eastern” luxury is characteristic of Orientalism.
The novella offers a more straightforward condemnation of two “sins” of excess with long roots in Western literature: curiosity and hubris. To varying degrees, Nouronihar, Vathek, and Carathis all suffer from the desire to know more than is “appropriate.” As the sabers’ second inscription states, “Woe to the rash mortal who seeks to know that of which he should remain ignorant” (11). The word “mortal” is significant, implying that seeking arcane knowledge is itself a form of hubris, as it entails a mere human trying to access divine secrets. Vathek and Carathis’s esoteric studies are therefore linked to the pride and excess confidence that similarly contribute to their fates.
Appearance Versus Reality
Vathek makes a sharp distinction between appearance and reality. Vathek appears to be a good ruler at the outset, but this is because he has not faced real conflict. The people of Samarah believe the palace is on fire, but it is in fact a magical ritual. Nouronihar and Gulchenrouz appear to be dead but remain alive. The subterranean palace appears to be a place of wonder full of miraculous objects, but in reality it is a place of damnation. Clinging to the appearance of a thing commonly leads to disaster in Vathek.
Nevertheless, it is difficult for the characters to let go of their first impressions. The portal to the subterranean palace is the most prominent example of this. Dazzled by its beauty and the wealth that exists within, Vathek (and later Nouronihar) doesn’t investigate the palace’s true nature. Even when the Stranger asks Vathek to sacrifice children, Vathek does not question whether the portal might be not just wondrous, but dangerous. This refusal to reflect stems from the fact that the palace’s appearance is in keeping with Vathek’s idea of what he deserves. He believes that he has the right to greater wealth and glory than he already has; in fact, he believes he has a right to all the secrets of the universe. Here, for example, is how he reacts to the sabers’ initial message:
‘We were made where every thing is well made; we are the least of the wonders of a place where all is wonderful and deserving the sight of the first potentate on earth.’
‘You translate admirably!’ cried Vathek; ‘I know to what these marvellous characters allude’ (10).
Vathek himself can’t read the inscription; he has no reason to think the man’s translation is “admirable” other than his own wishes. Conversely, when the sabers’ inscription changes to something Vathek does not like—a warning against hubris—Vathek faults the man’s “understanding.” It never occurs to him that the sabers might not merely be deceptive, but also (as they are in the broader text) a symbol of the dangers of taking pleasing appearances at face value.
Deceptive appearances are not always a sign of ill intent, however. The Genius who appears as a shepherd to attempt to save Vathek and Nouronihar uses a false appearance for good. Fakreddin invents the idea of the mountain top purgatory to protect Nouronihar and Gulchenrouz. In each case, the false appearance is meant to help another, but significantly, neither instance succeeds. Without the recipient’s desire for the fiction to be true, the ruse falls in on itself. It is a reciprocal performance—one side inventing, the other believing. Remorse is a difficult emotion for the characters to embrace, whereas greed and hubris come easily, making flattering but evil illusions all the more powerful.
When to Break Loyalty
Changes in allegiance drive Vathek’s plot while illustrating the difficulty of cutting ties with those one is loyal to. The most obvious of these struggles concerns the populace’s loyalty to Vathek as he kills and terrorizes them. Vathek stresses its titular character’s role as “commander of the faithful.” The phrase typically refers to the caliph’s status as a religious leader, but within the Orientalist worldview of the novel, it also comments on that status. Western literature of this era frequently portrayed “Eastern” cultures as more despotic and corrupt. Vathek is therefore not simply the leader of those faithful to Islam (a role he in any case fails to fulfill). Rather, this station positions him as “commander” of a population that is unduly “faithful” to him.
The character arc of Morakanabad, Vathek’s chief advisor, stands in for this broader conflict. Though he truly loves Vathek, Vathek’s enthrallment with the treasures of the subterranean palace forces Morakanabad to confront the damage his leader is causing. However, even when Vathek sacrifices two of Morakanabad’s sons, he still struggles with completely casting off his leader. When the tower catches fire as part of Carathis’s ritual, he “[flies] from his retirement, wipe[s] away his tears, and crie[s] out for water like the rest” (33). It is only when Vathek is absent and the better option of his brother on the horizon that Morakanabad’s loyalty finally shifts.
This breaking of bonds saves his life. Carathis states her intention was to murder Morakanabad, “had he not prevented [Carathis], by deserting at last to [Vathek’s] brother” (117). This is the key to loyalty in Vathek: Not breaking ties when there is good cause to can be dangerous. Bababalouk, the head of Vathek’s eunuchs, remains loyal even through humiliation and tribulation. His reward is to be killed by Carathis, simply as a way for her to commit more evil deeds. Had Bababalouk broken loyalty at the signs of his leader’s descent into obsession and greed, he, like Morakanabad, would have survived.
Vathek does not, however, argue against all loyalty. Nouronihar breaking with her father and Gulchenrouz is just as much the cause of her death as Bababalouk not breaking with Vathek is his. The motivation for letting loyalty go is important. Nouronihar, who abandons her family for power and wealth, is punished. Her father and Gulchenrouz have not wronged her. Morakanabad, who recognizes how terrible Vathek has become, is saved. His loyalty to Vathek is first violated by Vathek, who fails to fulfill his duties as ruler. Loyalty, according to Vathek, must be guided by prudence and informed by circumstance.
