Previous
Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Man Who Was Thursday, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Order, Chaos, and God
Identity
Tradition vs. Modernity
The Purpose of Art
Summary
Analysis
The novel begins in Saffron Park, a redbrick suburb west of London, whose charming architecture and quirky residents make it look like “a frail but finished work of art.” This artwork’s hero is the anarchist poet Lucian Gregory, who spends his evenings lecturing a group of friends in his garden. Even the “emancipated” women worship him. His strange combination of curly, feminine dark red hair with a brutish, protruding chin helps him attract attention.
In this opening passage, it may seem like Chesterton is just setting the scene for the rest of the novel. But in reality, his quaint portrait of the gorgeous sunset in charming Saffron Park and his description of Lucian Gregory as the novel’s hero are designed to give the reader misleading expectations and contribute to their surprise when the novel descends into a gloomy nightmare and Gregory turns out to be a relatively minor character. Indeed, this opening scene makes Chesterton’s taste for paradox clear, from the contradiction between Lucian Gregory’s beautiful, feminine hair and ugly, masculine chin, to that between his anarchy and the attractive, orderly neighborhood where he lives.
Themes
Literary Devices
One evening, after a spectacular but perturbing sunset, a new poet—the meek-looking Gabriel Syme—visits one of Lucian Gregory’s gatherings. The two men start arguing about the meaning of poetry. Syme views poetry as a way of imposing order on the world, but Gregory believes that poetry (like anarchy) means destroying order in the name of beauty. Gregory finds order boring—he compares it to a predictable train that goes exactly where it’s supposed to. But Syme argues that this train actually represents humanity’s victory over chaos and meaninglessness. Gregory celebrates revolt and rebellion, which Syme compares to seasickness.
Syme and Gregory’s argument about poetry speaks to the purpose of all art—including this novel. Chesterton uses this debate to introduce the binary oppositions at the heart of this book: order versus chaos, creation versus destruction, faith versus skepticism, and meaning versus meaninglessness. Throughout the story, Syme and his allies believe that they are saving the world by stopping anarchists from destroying it, while anarchists believe that this destruction is the only way to truly improve society and make life worth living. Of course, Chesterton chooses Syme’s side in the end.
Themes
Gabriel Syme even suggests that Lucian Gregory isn’t serious about anarchism. This infuriates Gregory, but Syme just calmly walks away. Rosamond Gregory, Lucian’s sister, approaches Syme. She asks if her brother is really an anarchist and would really set off bombs. Syme says no: Lucian Gregory usually “says more than he means,” and bombing “has to be done anonymously.” Syme and Rosamond Gregory sit in the corner of the garden, and he talks at her for several minutes, full of sincere passion. When he stands back up, he realizes that everyone else has left. He leaves, too. The narrator explains that Syme won’t stop thinking about Rosamond Gregory and her red hair during the rest of his “mad adventures,” even though he won’t see her again until they’re all over.
Syme speculates that Gregory isn’t really a serious anarchist because his radical ideology obviously contradicts his comfortable middle-class life. Of course, the novel’s paradoxes and contradictions, even in its first few pages, should prepare the reader for Chesterton to break all of their expectations. Meanwhile, Syme’s attraction to Rosamond Gregory suggests that his belief in order and predictability doesn’t prevent him from feeling or acting on strong passions. In other words, Chesterton uses Syme’s romance to show how choosing order over chaos doesn’t necessarily mean living a dull, predictable life.
Themes
Outside, Gabriel Syme notices a man in a hat and trench coat waiting for him in the shadows behind a street lamp. It’s Lucian Gregory. He says that Syme is only the second man to have ever truly irritated him, then declares that he will take action to show that he’s serious about anarchism. He invites Syme to “a very entertaining evening,” on the condition that Syme not tell anyone—especially not the police. Syme calls Gregory’s offer “far too idiotic to be declined” and promises to keep his secret. They leave in a cab.
When Lucian Gregory stands in the shadows, this represents the metaphorical darkness of his anarchist beliefs. He rejects the idea that there is any inherent meaning or goodness (light) anywhere in the world, and particularly in the modern, technologically advanced world of the 20th century (which is represented by the street lamp). Gregory’s promise of “a very entertaining evening” and Syme’s characterization of this offer as “idiotic” both foreshadow the next chapter’s events. But Syme’s claim ends up being literally true, whereas Gregory’s is only true ironically, for reasons that he completely fails to understand.
Themes
Literary Devices
Get the entire The Man Who Was Thursday LitChart as a printable PDF.
