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Professor Kieffer
The Party leader and a clear stand-in for Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union. While No. 1 never appears in person in the novel, his portrait hangs over almost every room, implying his ubiquitous knowledge and power. No. 1 is simultaneously part of the old and new guards: during the Revolution, he was part of the intellectual group planning for a new society (together with Rubashov, Kieffer, and others). Now, though, No. 1 has created an entirely new set of policies, which require the liquidation of all who are unwilling to align themselves with these new expectations. For the younger generations, No. 1 is not just an intellectual model, but a kind of secular saint whose words are infallible rather than historical and contingent.
No. 1 Quotes in Darkness at Noon
The Darkness at Noon quotes below are all either spoken by No. 1 or refer to No. 1. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The First Hearing: 6
Quotes
The horror which No. 1 emanated, above all consisted in the possibility that he was in the right, and that all those whom he killed had to admit, even with the bullet in the back of their necks, that he conceivably might be in the right. There was no certainty; only the appeal to that mocking oracle they called History, who gave her sentence only when the jaws of the appealer had long since fallen to dust.
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The Third Hearing: 3
Quotes
Instead of the old portraits, a light patch shone from Ivanov’s wallpaper; philosophical incendiarism had given place to a period of wholesome sterility. Revolutionary theory had frozen to a dogmatic cult, with a simplified, easily graspable catechism, and with No. 1 as the high priest celebrating the Mass.
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No. 1 Quotes in Darkness at Noon
The Darkness at Noon quotes below are all either spoken by No. 1 or refer to No. 1. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The First Hearing: 6
Quotes
The horror which No. 1 emanated, above all consisted in the possibility that he was in the right, and that all those whom he killed had to admit, even with the bullet in the back of their necks, that he conceivably might be in the right. There was no certainty; only the appeal to that mocking oracle they called History, who gave her sentence only when the jaws of the appealer had long since fallen to dust.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The Third Hearing: 3
Quotes
Instead of the old portraits, a light patch shone from Ivanov’s wallpaper; philosophical incendiarism had given place to a period of wholesome sterility. Revolutionary theory had frozen to a dogmatic cult, with a simplified, easily graspable catechism, and with No. 1 as the high priest celebrating the Mass.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
