Ficciones: 13. The Secret Miracle Summary & Analysis

In 1939 in Prague, writer Jaromir Hladík is dreaming about a chess game between two families over many centuries. In his dream, Hladík is the firstborn of one of the families. When it came time to make his next move, Hladík awoke from the dream. That morning, the Nazi army entered Prague and arrested Hladík for being an anti-Nazi Jew. These accusations are true, as Hladík is Jewish and signed a petition protesting the Anschluss (Hitler’s annexation of Austria). At the moment of his arrest, Hladík is working on a tragedy called The Enemies.

Hladík’s execution is scheduled for 10 days from the arrest. The delay is due to the authorities’ desire to torture Hladík with the waiting period. When Hladík learns that his mode of execution will be before a firing squad rather than by another method such as gallows or beheading, he is horrified. Hladík anxiously awaits his execution in jail, constantly imagining the moment of his death. He faces these imaginings “with true terror (perhaps with true courage).” He begins to tell himself that, by foreseeing his death, he is preventing it from happening. As he lies awake all night, he reflects that every night while he is still alive, he is immortal. He tries to stay awake all night but always ends up falling asleep.

On the night before his execution, Hladík thinks about his poetic drama The Enemies. He reflects that, like all writers, he measures other writers by their performance but expects those other writers to measure him by his intentions. He reflects on his own work. Hladík, aside from his scholarly, translation, and drama work, has also written a series of poems. In The Enemies, he uses the form of verse because he believes it allows the viewer to forget unreality. The Enemies takes place in the late 19th century in the library of the fictional Baron Roemerstadt. Over the course of the play, visitors come to Roemerstadt. He understands these visitors to be conspirators against him. By the end of the play, it is clear that Roemerstadt is actually a man named Jaroslav Kubin, and that the play has all happened in Kubin’s mind.

Hladík is determined to finish the play and asks God for another year to work on it. Because he feels his previous works were mediocre, Hladík hopes that making The Enemies into a great work can redeem him. He falls asleep and dreams he is in a library, where someone tells him that the time he wished for has been granted. Hladík wakes and remembers the philosophy that dreams all belong to God, and that all words spoken in dreams are holy.

Hladík stands before the firing squad on the day of his execution. The sergeant commands the soldiers to fire. Suddenly, time stops. Hladík realizes that his wish for more time has been granted. Hladík cannot move, but he can think. In his mind, he finishes The Enemies with great pride. Time begins again, and the soldiers shoot Hladík, only two minutes passing in real life between the command to fire and the time of his death.