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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Piranesi, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Human vs. Inhuman Worlds
Science and the Pursuit of Knowledge
Memory and Identity
Friendship, Betrayal, and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
Piranesi travels to the Ninth Vestibule to watch three Tides converge. However, he underestimates the height of the combined tides and must cling to a statue to avoid being swept away. The tides recede and Piranesi, finding a marble finger in his hand, concludes the House’s beauty to be “immeasurable” and its “Kindness infinite.” Piranesi describes the world as an infinite progression of Halls and Passageways, each with Statues. He is determined to explore as much as he can and keeps a detailed log of the places and statues he encounters. The world is made of three levels, each roughly corresponding to sea, land, and sky. Piranesi spies the Other from across the courtyard, but the Other does not see him.
Writing in his journal, Piranesi describes a near-death experience where he almost drowns. His interpretation of the events, attributing his survival to the “Kindness” of the House, reveal a peculiar, almost religious, sense of connection with the world he inhabits. He seems to believe the world, which he personifies as the House, plays an active role in his life. This passage also underscores Piranesi’s scientific curiosity, a trait which seems closely tied to his love of the world.
Themes
Piranesi lists all the people who have ever lived. A scientist, Piranesi claims there is only evidence for the existence of 15 people. The first two are Piranesi himself, aged around 30 or 35, and the Other, an older scientist and friend of Piranesi who quests after a Great and Secret Knowledge hidden in the world. He has given Piranesi the name Piranesi, but Piranesi recalls it is not his original name. The remaining people are all dead, being skeletons. They include the Biscuit-Box Man, the Concealed Person, The People of the Alcove, The Fish-Leather Man, and the Folded-Up Child, whom Piranesi believes was once intended to be his wife. Last, Piranesi names the 16th person, “You,” the person he is writing for.
For all his self-proclaimed interest in scientific rigor, Piranesi occasionally reveals strange, seemingly unfounded assumptions about the workings of the world. Here, for instance, he explains his belief that the “Folded-Up Child” was intended by the House to be wife. Readers still know too little of his strange world to properly determine what is logical within it, and what is accurate.
Themes
Piranesi explains why he keeps notebooks, citing the sharpening effect of writing on one’s mind, as well as the importance of passing on knowledge to “you,” the 16th person. Piranesi keeps multiple notebooks, one to track the Tides, one to catalog the Statues, and another to record daily thoughts and memories. There are nine in all, and they are all dated. However, Piranesi notes some strange irregularities. The three earliest journals are dated with the years 2011 and 2012, while the later ones have names specific to those years, like “The Year I named the Constellations.” There are also pages ripped out from these early journals. Piranesi is confused by this, particularly the use of two systems to number the years.
Here, Piranesi questions his use of two different numbering systems for his notebooks. This not only calls into question Piranesi’s reliability as a narrator, but also the nature of his world. Piranesi’s original dating system, while alien to him, is a familiar one for readers of the novel: it is the Gregorian calendar, the dating system used in the modern world. Its presence in the otherwise fantastical world of the House suggests that Piranesi’s world may not be as removed from the regular one as initially thought.
Themes
Piranesi claims to love some statues more than others. Among these are the Woman carrying a Beehive and the Statue of a Faun, whom Piranesi once dreamed was speaking to a girl in a snowy forest. Piranesi notes another statue, though it is not necessarily a favorite. It is a pair of statues, nicknamed the Horned Giants, whose waists emerge from the wall, their faces contorted with struggle. Piranesi believes they represent “Endeavor and the Struggle against a Wretched Fate.” Piranesi wonders if it is disrespectful to have favorites. Under the journal heading, “Do Trees exist?” Piranesi recalls finding a strange leaf with two sides curving to a point on each end. Its material was strange, and it seemed designed to live in Air.
More evidence emerges of Piranesi’s unreliability as a narrator. One moment he appears to know what a tree is—at least enough to ask whether they “exist”—and yet the next he seems completely oblivious to the possibility of their existence: confronted by what is clearly a tree’s leaf, he can only wonder at its origins. Despite his seemingly flawless memory of the structure of the House and its various statues, Piranesi’s memory appears to have major gaps.
Themes
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