The Mark Of The Beast

The titular symbol represents the cultural rift between the English and the native Indian cultures. Each culture understands the mark of the beast differently. The Indians at the temple see Fleete as the true example of ignorance and uncivility. He is the beast who uses his cigar to mark and desecrate Hanuman, their venerated god. Strickland and the narrator see the Silver Man as a beast: a diseased creature that has lost its humanity. The two become beasts when they disregard the law, subdue the Silver Man as they would an animal, and violate him. Ironically, given the brutality they commit, they give the Silver Man a sheet to cover his nakedness to conform the Silver Man to their own now-stained English standards of morality.

Despite his physical repulsiveness, the Silver Man embodies the power of the deity: His bite marks Fleete with Hanuman’s revenge. Fleete’s mark appears as a “perfect double of the black rosettes—the five or six irregular blotches arranged in a circle—on a leopard’s hide” (243). The mark is literally identical to the mark of an animal.

Finally, the mark of the beast is an