Critical analysis of the Novel “The Man Who Was Thursday” by G.K. Chesterton

Published in 1908, The Man Who Was Thursday is a comedic, farce, mystery and allegory book written by G.K. Chesterton. The author has explored philosophical concepts using the trappings of a story about a detective. Chesterton puts together narration paraphernalia to talk about an anarchy threat in London. Chesterton gives his main character Gabriel Syme, the roles of a philosopher, a poet, and a detective in the New Detectives Corps organization. The role of New Detectives Corps is to keep a watchdog eyes on the conspiracy not just in a criminal way but also in a controversial manner1. Gabriel and Lucian are two poets who argue at the tea party about anarchism. Gabriel proves to Lucian that he is a genuine and real anarchist by inviting him to a meeting attended by only anarchists. This is after Lucian promises to keep his mouth shut about what he will experience at the meeting.  

The book begins with a scene where Gabriel the main character intrudes into the Central Anarchist Council meeting in London. Gabriel used one of the council members to earn a position in the Council. The Central Anarchist Council is made of seven people who are named after the seven days of the week. The President is known as Sunday, Monday is the Secretary of the Council, Eustache is Wednesday, Gogol is known as Tuesday, Gabriel is called Thursday, Professor de Worms is called Friday,  and Dr. Bull is known as Friday. After Gabriel infiltrated the meeting, Monday, the Secretary of the Council takes him to a nearby hotel where the rest of the members were. At the meeting Gabriel is perplexed and riveted about Sunday the president of the council and also views that other members of the council are somehow wrong and subtle and Sunday 1.

1. Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. The man who was Thursday. Ignatius Press, 2004. 25-35

Gabriel realized in the meeting that the president was continuously looking at him but does not say any word. The council finds out that Tuesday is a spy when the meeting is about to end but Sunday promises him that he will be killed if he exposes the council and is allowed to leave the hotel2. The council found out that there is a plan to murder the France president and Czar of Russia but the head of the council orders Saturday to be in charge of the matter instead of involving the whole group.

When Gabriel leaves the meeting, he realizes that someone is tracing his movements even if he tries to doge, the person is still behind him. Therefore, Gabriel decides to face Friday who is the one behind him and discovers that Friday also known as Wilks is a disguised young man. Gabriel also discovers that Wilks is a Scotland Yard’s detective. However, the two decide to work in unity to stop assassination of France president3. The two started by investigating to find out what Bull knows and in the process they discovered that he is also a detective.

Gabriel, Wilks and Bull work together to investigate Wednesday who is on a journey to Paris to execute the plans of the council. The trio track Wednesday through an outdoor hotel in Calais and Gabriel insults Wednesday knowingly so that they can engage in a due but the purpose of Gabriel is to delay Wednesday from entering the train3. Gabriel challenges Marquis hard until he reveals that he is also an inspector.

2. Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. The autobiography of GK Chesterton. Ignatius Press, 2006. 89-97

3. Ibid, 45

 Marquis reveals that he is also tracking Sunday who was supposed to come out of the train. They stop the fight and concentrate on the train to observe people who get out. In the process they see a crowd led by the secretary coming out of the train thus, they hide by taking a taxi to an inn nearby. After refreshing themselves they join Coronel Ducroix, a fried of Wednesday who takes them to Renard. Gabriel and his friends are awarded a car from three that Renard owns. Gabriel knocks the secretary to the ground with the car as he tried to prevent them from going. Gabriel and his friends are disappointed to see that the innkeeper, Renard, and peasant join the secretary in a fight against them.

Gabriel and his friends feel so hopeless, however, they decide to fight them. Gabriel has hope that they can fight long enough to wait for help from the French police. However, when the police arrive, they join the secretary to fight Gabriel and his team. At this point Gabriel saw death however, he was helped by the secretary who shouted that he was there to arrest him. The secretary explained to the mob that Gabriel and his friends are anarchists. After that fight Gabriel together with the other four travels back to London to face Sunday and investigate who he is. Gabriel’s journey to save people from the bomb blast reveals to him that most of the council members were police officers appointed by one unknown person. When they went as a group to investigate Sunday, the president revealed the he was also a police officer, in fact a chief detective. Sunday also reveals to them that he is a chief anarchist. Sunday then runs through the city of London as Gabriel and others chase him. The chase involved an elephant, carriages and a balloon. Sunday runs until Gabriel and others find themselves in the president’s house.

Confused policemen find that they are all in a dress ball room after a long chase. At the dress ball the detectives are clothed with costumes representing the order of creation as outlined in the book of Genesis. Sunday explains to them that he has at many occasions complied with the anarchists calling. The real anarchist, Gregory arrives in the gathering and questions the president if he has ever been that lonely. The president replied to him by quoting Jesus “Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of”4 (126). The book ends when Gabriel wakes up and finds himself with Gregory where the narration started thus, he realizes that all the scenarios were visions. Chesterton has highlighted a lot of themes in his book. Thus, the essay herein discusses the themes and how Chesterton portrayed his characters.

What are the Themes in the book The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton?

Many scholars and literature gurus have praised the work of Chesterton ”The Man Who Was Thursday”. The author has highlighted some of the significant themes that can be connected with the world people are living in today. Chesterton has talked about theme of suffering, freedom, betrayal, violence and also his philosophical view of God. The section herein majorly focuses and critically analyses of the themes Chesterton explains in his book ”The Man Who Was Thursday”.  

How does Chesterton view Suffering?          

The author has mixed suspense, intrigue, fantasy and allegory in the book.  The book ends with the allegory which is out of this life but it started as a novel about the war of spies. The book has portrayed the theme of suffering through its chapters. The author welcomes suffering in the book by portraying Sunday the leader of council as a chaotic man who inflicts pain to people5. However, as the storyline progresses, the readers can observe that Gabriel and other detectives are wrong about Sunday. In fact, the president is not the enemy.

4. Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. The collected works of GK Chesterton. InteLex Corporation, 2002.

5. Boyd, Ian. The novels of GK Chesterton: a study in art and propaganda. Elek, 1975.

The detectives even relate Sunday with the universe, they observe and notice that the president can be a representative of nature. The author narrates that the detectives are chasing the chaos of the Mother Nature and in that case, they will be running forever. Through that plot, the author has shown how Gabriel and his fellow detectives are suffering psychologically trying to figure out the nature of Sunday6. Relating this to the real world, people are always in pain and suffering wondering what the nature is, and why the world is cruel.

Gabriel and other detectives suffered a lot while trying to find out the identity of Sunday, where he comes from and how he thinks6. Gabriel suffered physically while engaging on a combat with one of the members of the council preventing him from boarding the train7. They fought so hard until Wednesday surrenders and reveals that he was also a police detective. Gabriel again engages in a physical duel with the secretary and other members of the mob. At this scene, Gabriel suffers both emotionally and physically. He and other detectives fight the secretary and other mob that had outnumbered them. Automatically, he was injured during this fight. Gabriel and other detectives were hurt emotionally, when he realized that the French police were also working with Sunday8. During the fight, Gabriel had hope that he and his colleagues could hold the secretary and the mob as they wait for the French police to help them. Surprisingly, the French police came and joined the secretary thus, Gabriel thought that he was dead.

6. Coates, John D. Chesterton and the Edwardian cultural crisis. Hull University Press, 1984. 10

7. Ibid, 12-13

8. Holquist, Michael. ”Whodunit and other questions: metaphysical detective stories in post-war fiction.“New Literary History 3, no. 1 (1971): 135-156.

At Sunday’s house, the president revealed his identity to the detectives saying that he is God of peace and he is also the Sabbath. At that point is when Gabriel and other detectives realized that they were chasing God of peace, Nature, the creator, the first and last in order of creation and the Alpha and Omega. A question that run in the heads of the detectives is that how could God allow them to suffer yet He is the one who had created them9.  Why did allow them hurt themselves. According to the questions from the characters, God is the giver of pain, suffering, joy and happiness10.

The author relates the energy used by the characters to chase Nature to the will the people in the world use to run after destiny. Some people struggle to make it in life in terms of getting a good job, marry, have children and live happily ever after. Some get lucky enough in that their dreams come true while other suffer to the end trying to build their lives11. In the same way, Gabriel and other four detectives tried to chase the president of the council, Sunday to no avail. According to how detective Gabriel, the man who was Thursday was dressed in the dressing room, life might be shiny and joyful as the moon in the night or it might be horrible and full of suffering as red sun in the evening.

How does Chesterton view Violence and Terrorism?

In the early 20th

century and late 19th century, there were manay terrorist with anarchists ideas in Europe causing one violence scene to another. Chesterton wrote this book to express his views on these terrorists and the kind of violence they were imposing on the European citizens.

9. McCleary, Joseph. The historical imagination of GK Chesterton: locality, patriotism, and nationalism. Routledge, 2009.

10. Ibid., 9

11. Ibid., 14

The author describes terrorists in two ways in the book12 first, he notes that, the terrorist violence threat in the ruling class was real. Second, the terrorism violence is as a result of the media messages and reaction from the security agencies like the police. The police had a notion that the globe was under attack from the anarchists thinking and conspiracy.

During the period when Chesterton wrote the book, most politicians were assassinated in Europe and there was war against the European ruling class and that of the United States13.  The terrorist attacks were as a result of the torturing and imprisonment of the previous terrorists by the government. For example, in 1879, the terrorists attempted to kill the German Kaiser and the Italian king14. The brutal handling and imprisonment of the demonstrators in France led to two terrorists’ attacks. Most of the political high profile killings were reported in the year 1894 and the year 1901, a scene that created a lot of panic among the citizens of Europe and United States of America15. All these scenes contributed to the authoring of this book.  

The anarchism talked about in the book, came from the belief by the police and the governments in the real world that anarchists were the people responsible for all the attacks in both Europe and London. Though there were no reported anarchist bodies like the one in the book, there were some small anarchists groups around the globe. These groups include the Autonomie Club, Rose Street Club, Social Democratic Federation, and the International Club15. The author reveals that,

12. Bird, Steven, Ewan Klein, and Edward Loper. Natural language processing with Python: analyzing text with the natural language toolkit. ”O’Reilly Media, Inc.“, 2009.

13. Ibid., 13

14. Ibid, 23

15. Boyd, Ian. The novels of GK Chesterton: a study in art and propaganda. Elek, 1975.

Social Democratic Federation might resemble the Council of Anarchists Chesterton has written in the novel. The improved technological innovation on communication also increased the spread of anarchists’ conspiracy theory around Europe. Most governments reacted differently to the anarchists’ conspiracy. According to Chesterton the governments reacted by sending spies to go and collect information about anarchists groups and report the situations to them. Gabriel was one of these police sent by their governments to spy on Anarchists Council led by the president known as Sunday. Apart from Gabriel, there were other four detectives sent by their nations to spy on the council. In the first meeting Sunday found out that Tuesday is a spy and promises him that he will take his life if he reveals anything about the organization to the outside world.  

Gabriel finds out in the meeting that there is a plot by the council to assassinate the French president. The action relates to that of 1879 were it was alleged that anarchists terrorists were plotting to murder the German leader16. After learning of the plot and many other bomb attacks, Gabriel tries his best to stop the council from committing the atrocities. He teams up with other three detectives and travel to France to stop the assassination plot. Reaching the train terminal in France, Gabriel realizes that even the person who was mandated by Sunday to assassinate the French president is a detective. Wednesday is also trying to trace Sunday to find out his identify and report back to his base. All of the detectives were shocked to find out that the person whom they are chasing is a chief detective and is the one who recruited them all and posted the. This scene is where Chesterton explains the threat of terrorists attacks on the ruling bodies in Europe17.

16. Holquist, Michael. ”Whodunit and other questions: metaphysical detective stories in post-war fiction.“New Literary History 3, no. 1 (1971): 135-156.

17. Schwartz, Adam. The Third Spring: GK Chesterton, Graham Greene, Christopher Dawson, and David Jones. CUA Press, 2005.

Most of the higher ranking officials in the security departments in Europe and United States of America were the real anarchists. Chesterton explains that conspiracy in the ruling agencies made it easy for Sunday and his team to track Gabriel.

Chesterton view violence at that time as the era of terrorism driven by anarchists’ emotions and complexions. The author has successfully demonstrated how the governments reacted on their fears and panic from anarchical violence. He narrates how Gabriel infiltrates the council to spy on them. Apart from Gabriel, there are other four detectives sent by their various agencies to collect information about Sunday and his group. Violence in the book was brought by the anarchist who saw nothing good about humanity18. There thinking of saving the human king from suffering is by killing them. To Gabriel and other detectives’ surprise, Sunday the president of the group was not the real anarchists, however, Lucian was the genuine anarchist. According to Lucian, all people should suffer they way he has suffered. Lucian even goes ahead and asks Sunday if he has ever suffered. Chesterton has portrayed Lucian’s views has those hold by the terrorists in the late 19th and early 20th

against Europeans and United States of American citizens19.

Chesterton’s views on Freedom in relation to Evil

Chesterton narrates his book by discussing his philosophical view of freedom of will and existence of great evil in the society.  According to him evil and freedom are so related and can lead to each other in the society. Chesterton has symbolized free will or freedom with the views that the anarchists hold against the world.

18. Merivale, Patricia. ”Gumshoe Gothics.“Poe’s ‘The Man of the Crowd’and his Followers.” Detecting Texts. The Metaphysical Detective Story from Poe to Postmodernism. Eds. Patricia Merivale and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P (1999): 101-116.

19. Ibid., 112

The author also refers to free will by the anarchists as the nightmare. Augustine once mentioned that the price people pay for the existence of freedom in the world is great evil20.  In other words, according to Augustine, the freedom given to people is the cause of evil in the society. Augustine further claims that people know what is good or bad and they have been given freedom to choose what they want. But surprisingly, people chose to do more harm than good. Lucian is a good example of bad choices people make. In his dialogue with the president of the council, Sunday, he promises to inflict pain on people than ever before. Lucian’s view of freedom has been hold by all the anarchists in the book. There concept of giving people freedom is to blast them and extinct them out of this life.

The anarchists Chesterton has referred to in his book resemble the people who make bad choices due to the freedom they have. For example Timothy McVeigh activated a bomb around the federal building in the United States because he did not like the federal government21. Islam and Christians fight because they do not like each other. In Ireland, the Protestants and Catholics blow up each other because they do not respect each other’s regions. Analyzing the above events and the ones Chesterton has written about the anarchists, they are related.  The anarchists want the world to be free from suffering and bad governance by killing leaders and blowing people they do not like. The president of the council Sunday gave Wednesday an order to go and execute the French president because they did not like him. Gabriel and other detectives also try to save people from the bombs set to kill them all.

20. Schwartz, Adam. The Third Spring: GK Chesterton, Graham Greene, Christopher Dawson, and David Jones. CUA Press, 2005.

21. Merivale, Patricia. ”Gumshoe Gothics.“Poe’s ‘The Man of the Crowd’and his Followers.” Detecting Texts. The Metaphysical Detective Story from Poe to Postmodernism. Eds. Patricia Merivale and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P (1999): 101-116.

At the time Chesterton was writing the book, anarchist around the globe wanted to be free from governments. Most of them had been imprisoned by the European and United States of American governments for violating those countries’ laws22. They were staging lot of terrorists’ attacks to protest the release of their co-partitas. Some of the attacks were just to show that they did not like the countries. The governments also wanted to be free from the frequent attacks by the anarchical terrorists. On that note, they trained and deployed their spies on different anarchists’ groups around the globe. According to Chesterton, Gabriel the poet was directed to infiltrate the Council of Anarchists headed by Sunday. Other five detectives were sent by different group to investigate Sunday. At the meeting, Gabriel discovered that the anarchists were planning to assassinate the French president.

According to the views of Chesterton about violence in the book, the author believes that too much freedom can lead to grate evil in the society23. The freedom the author talks about in the book is the one given by God to human kind. Sunday was able to control his council members and could even detect the spy amongst them. Likewise, God has the ability to control all the behaviors of human beings24. However, he has given the human right to choose what is good for them. But, like anarchists, humans have decided to choose bad over good and in the process they commit a lot of evil activities25. Thus, according to Chesterton the freedom of will has led to a lot of evil activities in the society including the terrorists’ attacks.

22. Wood, Ralph C. Chesterton: The Nightmare Goodness of God. Baylor University Press, 2011.

23. Caserio, Robert. ”GK Chesterton and Terrorist God Outside Modernism.“GK Chesterton

(2009): 151-169.

24. Ibid., 153

25. Ibid., 167

How has Chesterton viewed Betrayal?

According to Wood, betrayal is an act of being disloyal to a person or a country26. Chesterton reveals through the novel that terrorism attacks can occur within the ruling bodies in United States of America and Europe. This could only happen if the people in the ruling bodies betray each other27. The anarchists felt betrayed that why they wanted to bomb cities and kill the president of France. Maybe, the ruling parties were not inclusive enough to engage them in leadership. Lucian feels a lot of pain from the suffering and torture he incurred on the hands of the ruling parties and as a result he promised terror and suffering. He promised to save the world by killing people and ending their suffering. In the book, betrayal is largely seen among the members of the council.  

Gabriel was trusted by the council and that’s why he was accepted and given a code name. The council thought that Gabriel also shared their view of the world and of the ruling parties. They thought that Gabriel was a true and genuine anarchist. The council was wrong, the motive of Gabriel was to report their operations to the police post that assigned him the mission28. Gabriel even swears to Lucian that he is a real anarchist and not a police. There were four people whose motive was to betray the council. When Sunday assigned one of the members to track the assassination of the French president, Gabriel followed with the motive of stopping the assassination. He did not believe in the anarchists’ view of life, he went there to go and fulfill his duties as a police officer. Sunday told them that he loved them, which means that he was hurt to know that these were not anarchists.

26. Sussman, Mark. ”Performing the intelligent machine: Deception and enchantment in the life of the automaton chess player.“TDR/The Drama Review 43, no. 3 (1999): 81-96.

27. Ibid., 85

28. Caserio, Robert. ”GK Chesterton and Terrorist God Outside Modernism.“GK Chesterton (2009): 151-169.

Was he really hurt? Near the end of the novel Sunday revealed that he was not an anarchists then who was he. Lucian was so hurt to find out that even the head of the council is a betrayer.

Chesterton’s narration about the council and its members can be related to the spies’ governments and illegal organizations sent to spy on people29. Sunday was and anarchist, though he was also a chief of police, a high ranking officer in police department. The police swear to protect the lives of all human beings equally. However, Sunday betrays these oaths and joins an anarchy organization and even attempt to assassinate the president of France. Gabriel and his friends on the other hand, betray the council by deceiving them that they are true anarchists. When people feel betrayed, they act irrationally and can do harmful things. The president of the council, Sunday, promised Tuesday that he will kill him if Tuesday betrays the council. This was after the president discovered that Tuesday was an undercover cop, to be precise a detective.

How does Chesterton view God in the Novel in relation to Suffering?

Many scholars argue that Chesterton used the ideas in the Book of Job in the Bible to narrate the story in his last four chapters. Scholars relate Sunday’s answers to the six detectives to God’s answers to the questions Job was asking Him30. For example, Job asked God to explain to him why He created him. Similarly, the six detectives including Gabriel asked Sunday why they were there. In other words, both job and the six detectives asked both God and Sunday to explain to them their purpose on earth31.

29. Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. The Napoleon of Notting Hill. Courier Corporation, 1991.

30. Sussman, Mark. ”Performing the intelligent machine: Deception and enchantment in the life of the automaton chess player.“TDR/The Drama Review 43, no. 3 (1999): 81-96.

31. Ibid., 94

Scholars equate job to the six detectives and God to Sunday. Another example is that both the answers of God to Job and Sunday to detectives are riddles. Third, both the Book of Job and The Man Who Was Thursday portray the secret of joy. Chesterton has tried to answer the question most people ask, why God tests people yet he knows the outcome of the test. According to both book, heroes undergo suffering not because they are evil individuals but due to their role in the society. Their suffering can be used to teach others life lesson. Chesterton through his narration reveals that heroes are the best and more righteous people the world can have32.

Most people ask if God is the one who brings suffering upon mankind. Chesterton answers the question through the dialogue of Sunday and Gabriel in the last chapter of the book The Man Who Was Thursday. Gabriel thanks Sunday for giving him the freedom of choice or in other words the free will. He realizes that every detective was given freedom to choose what they will do with their roles in the council. Similarly, God gives people life and allow them to choose their path either evil or good33. Gabriel also realizes that every man who has committed evil in the world must live with the consequences for the rest of his life. According to The Man Who Was Thursday, God, does not bring suffering upon human kind, suffering is as a result of the evil that people have committed. However, God can choose some few people to suffer so that others in the world can learn from either their mistakes or achievements.

32. McLaughlin, Paul. Anarchism and authority: A philosophical introduction to classical anarchism. Routledge, 2016.

33. Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. The Napoleon of Notting Hill. Courier Corporation, 1991.

Job was chosen by God to show the mankind the fruits of being righteous and believing in Him34. After all the suffering he endured, Job was blessed with ten times the riches he initially owned. Similarly, Sunday chose the six detectives to act as an example to the rest of the people in the world. Gabriel believed that every suffering has a reason and God is not responsible for the pain people go through35. He also forbids people from thinking in that direction. Through his artistic work The Man Who Was Thursday, Chesterton explains that for a person to understand life better, he should understand the relationship between reasoning and misery. Chesterton notes that the universe is neither reasonable nor unreasonable36. The problem is that the world can be almost reasonable but at some point it becomes misty. Chesterton warns people through his lead character Gabriel not to blame God for their misery and suffering. These are the consequences of evil people did by misusing the free will God granted them.

What is the Setting of the book The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton?

The setting of a literary work is vital when analyzing a literature material to further understand the plot of the book. According Dale, the setting of Chesterton’s book The Man Who Was Thursday, provides the mood of the world at that time37. There were many high profile political assignations and increasing conspiracy about anarchical ideas in Europe and United States of America. When The Man Who Was Thursday was written there were a lot of new about terrorists’ attacks in Europe.

34. McLaughlin, Paul. Anarchism and authority: A philosophical introduction to classical anarchism. Routledge, 2016.

35. Sussman, Mark. ”Performing the intelligent machine: Deception and enchantment in the life of the automaton chess player.“TDR/The Drama Review 43, no. 3 (1999): 81-96.

36. Ibid., 83

37. Dale, Alzina Stone. The outline of sanity: a biography of GK Chesterton. iUniverse, 2005.

Some literature analyses argue that these events are the ones that contributed to the crafting of the book. The Central Anarchist Council in the book represents the small anarchists groups that were believed to be in existence by security agencies in the late 19th and early 20th century38. The groups include Autonomie Club, Rose Street Club, Social Democratic Federation, and the International Club.   

The author has also taken the setting of the security forces by titling the six characters as detectives. Even Sunday was chief of police in the police for in one of the countries in Europe.  The novel was set at the beginning of the First World War39. The war was as a result of tension between anarchists and the countries who felt threatened by the conspiracy. The author also uses the streets of London and France to describe the activities of Gabriel and other detectives.  The train station has also been pictured in the book. Gabriel started a fight to prevent Wednesday from entering the train. Though the book was set in the late 19th century and early 20th

century, the themes that Chesterton has highlighted in the novel pictures the current world people live in. For example, the tensions between terrorist groups like Al Shabaab with the current governments. According to Ray, Chesterton was trying to explain the political war between states during his time in the book40.

What are the Character Traits of the Characters in the Book?

Writers use characters to develop their manuscripts. The traits the characters have in a novel are the things used to make the plot of the book. As a literary master, Chesterton has used some character traits to explain more about his characters in the book.  The author has defined Gabriel as an intelligent person, a philosopher and a poet.

38. Blackwell, Laird R. The Metaphysical Mysteries of GK Chesterton: A Critical Study of the Father Brown Stories and Other Detective Fiction. McFarland, 2018.

39. Ibid., 12

40. Ibid., 17

The character according to the author believes in order41. Gabriel is also a secretive person, this is seen when he joins the Central Anarchists Council yet he was a police detective. His intelligence earned him a post at the council.

 Though Gabriel is a clear man, he does not know his identity and why he is at the president’s house. Gregory called Gabriel a hypocrite when Gabriel was trying to convince the council to absorb him. Chesterton has portrayed Sunday as unknown person42. Nobody knows the identity of Sunday in the book. Some of the detectives see him as an anarchist, however, he reveals at the end of the book that he was also a police detective. The detectives learn that Sunday is wealthy when they find themselves at the president’s house. Sunday is also a cheerful man. When he meets Gabriel and other detectives he greets them cheerfully and asks if the president of France is dead43. Sunday at the party confesses that he loves the detectives so much, this shows that he is a loving person. Sunday is also an intelligent person through the witty answers he was giving the detectives44.

Apart from Gabriel and Sunday, the author has described Lucian as a bitter person as he is ready to make the world suffer has he did. Lucian is the only true and genuine anarchist in the novel. Additionally, he is the only intelligent anarchist. Marquis is viewed as a murder because he was the one tasked to assassinate the president of France and czar of Russia. However, it turns out that he is a betrayer to the council because he is a police officer. The author has viewed all his characters as betrayers apart from Lucian.

41. Blackwell, Laird R. The Metaphysical Mysteries of GK Chesterton: A Critical Study of the Father Brown Stories and Other Detective Fiction. McFarland, 2018.

42. Mitrani, Judith L. Psychoanalytic Technique and Theory: Taking the Transference. Routledge, 2018.

43. Ibid., 23

44. Ibid., 26

From all the characters in the book, only Lucian was a believer of anarchical views and he was the only one who was not a spy. However, all the members of the