The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story

As they walk back down the mountain path, Wojnicz tries to make conversation with August August. He learns of August’s desire to become a writer and his views on nationalism and nation states. August deplores the sanatorium’s tradition of treating poor communists for free, a tradition that dates back to a young Dr. Brehmer’s fascination with the lectures of Karl Marx. Wojnicz has “no opinion on the matter of common ownership” (98), nor does he know much about Marx. While Brehmer lost interest in communism, he continued to treat communists. His image is still venerated all around the sanatorium. August claims that Thilo is one of the young communists who is being treated for free, though he does “not have much time left” (100).

The conversation is interrupted by the arrival of a flushed-looking Opitz. Wojnicz talks to Opitz, who claims to have had four wives. They either left him or died; he had “not felt right with any of them” (101) and he is determined not to marry again. Opitz takes every opportunity to talk about his Swiss heritage and his uncle’s experience in the Swiss Guards in the Vatican. Wojnicz suspects that Opitz considers himself to be “racially […] superior” (102) to his guests. 

Wojnicz takes up a conversation with Lukas, who wants to discuss philosophy. His love of alcohol and women led to him being expelled from the Kurhaus, and now he occupies a small, separate apartment in Opitz’s guesthouse that, he believes, distinguishes him from the other guests. Wojnicz likes Lukas, in spite of his disparaging comments about people from Galicia. The men reach the end of the hike, and a carriage waits to transport them back to the guesthouse.

The sanatorium dominates the landscape of Görbersdorf. Wojnicz walks through the streets, inspecting the town and its architecture. He does not read the daily newspapers and feels himself “too young to take a real interest in politics” (110). He cannot read novels as he feels unable to concentrate for long enough. 

He visits the sanatorium library, but tries to avoid the librarian, who tries to warn him about the older residents. The sanatorium welcomes people from many countries. They form into small groups, often based on language or nationality. Wojnicz tries to avoid the Russians and the Poles. He searches for the tall, striking woman he saw at the church and, when he sees her, he is “struck dumb” (113) with flushed embarrassment. He does not talk to her and is horrified to think of how Opitz’s other guests might debate or mock his reaction to seeing this woman. All their conversations, he realizes, seem to eventually lead to women.

Wojnicz spends more time with Thilo, feeling a “strange sense of peace” (113) in the young man’s company. During their quiet afternoons together, he reflects on his own childhood memories. He fondly remembers his Uncle Emil, an officer in the Austrian army. He remembers a duck being slaughtered ahead of one of his uncle’s visits and prepared for the evening meal. The sight of the bleeding duck “filled him with despair” (115), which he hid from his father and uncle. At dinner, Wojnicz was horrified to be served duck-blood soup. He ate the soup, which felt like torture, because he “could not disappoint his two favorite people” (117), his uncle and his father. He felt that they were testing him and evaluating his manliness.

During one of his daily walks, Wojnicz buys postcards and ponders who he should send them to. He has seen the mysterious woman visiting the small Russian Orthodox church and passes her on the street one day. He feels overwhelmed with “desperate yearning” (120) but does not know what to say to her. Some days later, he visits the church with the other guesthouse residents. He studies the icons of saints inside, taking interest in the unfamiliar expressions of religion. The artwork confuses and depresses him. 

Wojnicz wonders how much longer he can continue to remain in this place, receiving treatment. In a conversation with Thilo, the two young men talk about the town’s tendency to induce them into a “strange state of mind” (126) in which they lose track of time. They both linger in Opitz’s guesthouse, waiting for a spot to open up in the Kurhaus, even though Opitz’s rooms are much cheaper. Inside, the guests are discussing women again. They debate the role of women in society, whether women should have the same rights as men, and whether women should be more concerned with their obligations to society.

Some days later, Wojnicz visits the nearby cemetery with Thilo, who confides in Wojnicz about his difficult family background. His mother is in poor health and has a morphine dependency, while his stepfather is difficult to tolerate. Thilo does not want to return to them. Thilo shows to Wojnicz how so many of the graves in the cemetery belong to men who died suddenly before they reached the age of 40, almost always in the month of November. Wojnicz begins to speculate as to what kind of “dangerous sport” (134) might suddenly kill such men at such regular intervals.

Wojnicz is soon bored by “the many minor obligations of a patient” (135). He sends regular postcards to his father and uncle with mundane descriptions of his meals and his treatments. In spite of his well-ordered routine, Wojnicz is bothered by “a gnawing anxiety” (136). He dreams about Frau Opitz and hears rustling noises from above his room. The monstrous sound of a stag from the mountainside particularly disturbs him but amuses the other guests. They make “highly insinuating jokes” (138) which Wojnicz does not understand. 

Each night, the suppers end in long debates and the consumption of Schwärmerei. These debates make Wojnicz feel anxious that he is stuck in a medical facility while so much is happening in the wider world. He enjoys listening to the guests’ debates, even if they do not always end with a resolution. At night, he hears each guest cough in an individual, identifiable manner. Thilo’s coughing sounds particularly strained, and Wojnicz has seen the blood-soaked tissues that are taken from his room. The coughing becomes worse as the charcoal burning season picks up; the smoke floats down into the village.

Wojnicz is bored by chess; the game reminds him too much of his father’s overbearing nature. He prefers to daydream about the pieces on the board, inventing complex narratives for them rather than attempting to beat his opponent. One day, he confesses to Thilo that his father “wanted [him] to be a soldier” (144), an idea Thilo finds greatly amusing. When it became clear that Wojnicz would not be a soldier, his father instead organized for him to attend university in Dresden. Wojnicz claims to have “felt lost there” (146), though he became an expert in sewage systems. He had become sick in the final year of his degree; during his sickness, he became very interested in beekeeping but he struggled to speak honestly to his father about why he was so fascinated by the industrious, orderly bees.

After visiting Thilo each night, Wojnicz sneaks up to Frau Opitz’s empty room. He occasionally visits during the day also, when the house is empty. He sits and stares at the dead woman’s possessions. By mid-October, the weather has begun to turn colder. Wojnicz attends another examination with Dr. Semperweiss. Again, he is anxious about undressing in front of the doctor and refuses to do so “for religious reasons” (149). The doctor is offended but dismisses Wojnicz’s concerns as those of a foreign Catholic. He inquires about Opitz and pontificates on the new science of psychoanalysis, referring to his own close relationship with his mother. He warns Wojnicz about the psychological presence of mothers, even dead ones, on the minds of men. Wojnicz recognizes his father in the doctor’s words. 

As he departs, Dr. Semperweiss warns him not to get attached to Thilo, who “hasn’t much time left” (153). That night, Wojnicz again visits Frau Opitz’s room. He sits amid her fragrance and aura. He believes that the strange sounds only stop when he is in the room.