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Part 4
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
In the journal entry, Matthew Rose Sorensen describes visiting Val Ketterley at his home in Battersea Park. Entering his home, he notes the surprising scent of rain, clouds, air, and “limitless space.” The two chat about the negative impact of Ketterley’s connections to Arne-Sayles on his academic career and Sorensen reveals Arne-Sayles has refused to speak to him. Sorensen takes out his meticulously indexed notebooks and Ketterley asks if he is a good record keeper. Sorensen says yes and proceeds to explain his interest in Arne-Sayles as a transgressive thinker. Ketterley responds coldly to Sorensen’s critical characterizations of Arne-Sayles’s ideas. Ketterley claims that Arne-Sayles, while manipulative, was intellectually honest. Sorensen disputes this, citing Arne-Sayles’s claims of traveling to other worlds.
This passage provides insight into the person who Piranesi once was. Though there are notable differences in their personalities—Sorensen is far less naïve and agreeable than Piranesi—they are not entirely unalike. Both are deeply intellectually curious, and both keep meticulously organized notebooks. This latter quirk gestures to the possibility that Piranesi has only survived because he’s kept these notebooks—without the notebooks, and without the ability to go back and revisit the person he once was, Piranesi may have lost his mind.
Themes
Ketterley tells Sorensen he dislikes him, but Sorensen is unbothered. He asks Ketterley how Laurence convinced him of the existence of other worlds, particularly the labyrinth. Ketterley tells him about Laurence’s ritual, noting how he would always stress that he doesn’t need to use it. The only other person who also didn’t need the ritual was Sylvia. Ketterley admits to having seen the labyrinth briefly and claims that it matches Laurence’s description. He then asks Sorensen if anyone knows he is here, wondering if he is worried about being associated with Arne-Sayles. Taken aback, Sorensen says no to both questions. Ketterley says they should perform the ritual to enter the labyrinth and Sorensen agrees.
Ketterley and Sorensen’s conversation quickly turns sour. Like his House counterpart, the Other, Ketterley is blunt and unpleasant, openly admitting his dislike of Sorensen to his face. Despite his growing unease at Ketterley’s strange line of questioning—why does it matter if anyone knows he’s here? —Sorensen agrees to enter the labyrinth with Ketterley. A journalist, he clearly expects this will make a good story, though readers may infer that this is how Piranesi ends up trapped in the House.
Themes
Ketterley lowers the blinds and lights an old-fashioned candle. He hands Sorensen his bag, claiming he will need his notebooks. Sorensen is bemused, but not concerned. Ketterley tells Sorensen to focus on the candle and Sorensen notes that the candle has clearly been used frequently; Ketterley clearly believes in the ritual. Ketterley stands behind Sorensen and begins to chant and, eventually, howl. Sorensen is amused, but then grows bored. Then “everything switch[es]” and Sorensen opens his eyes. He is in a hall filled with minotaur statues. He yells and turns to find Ketterley totally at ease. Ketterley tells him a “young, healthy” man is what he needs and Sorensen yells at him “to put it back.” Ketterley laughs.
In retrospect, Sorensen’s amused compliance with Ketterley’s ritual assumes a tragicomic irony. Believing himself to be playing along with the infantile games of a lunatic, Sorensen is utterly unprepared for his arrival and entrapment in the House. The true nature of Piranesi and the Other’s relationship is thus revealed: they are not friends. Rather, the Other—Ketterley—kidnapped Sorensen, named him Piranesi, and has been manipulating Piranesi into working for him.
Themes
