Gwynplaine’s suicide

Gwynplaine’s suicide is the final reversal of the voyage: after Dea dies, he follows what he understands as her summons and steps from the ship into the water. The scene makes his death both deliberate and strangely serene, setting the still-moving vessel against the irrevocable disappearance of its last two lovers.

The Moment After Dea’s Death

The event begins in the immediate aftermath of Dea’s death. Ursus says that she is dead, then collapses in despair, bowing his head over the folds of the gown covering her feet. He is overcome before he can witness what follows. Gwynplaine, by contrast, rises. The sharp division between Ursus’s physical collapse and Gwynplaine’s sudden, purposeful movement turns grief into action: the old man falls unconscious beside Dea, while Gwynplaine looks upward into the darkness.

The narration presents Gwynplaine’s response as an encounter with something no one else can see. He stretches out his hands and says, “I come!” The account qualifies the vision as unseen by anyone on earth and only perhaps visible to an invisible presence; it does not establish an external messenger. What matters within the scene is that Gwynplaine acts as though he has received a summons, and soon explains his movement as following Dea’s sign.

Across the Deck and Into the Water

Gwynplaine walks toward the side of the vessel without looking down. The abyss is only a few paces away, yet his gaze remains fixed above him, on a place in the sky where the shadow is deepest. The sky is entirely black and no star is visible, but the narration says that he evidently sees one. That contrast gives the scene its central uncertainty: the reader is shown the darkness, while Gwynplaine’s fixed attention makes the unseen appear decisive to him.

His steps are slow, rigid, and without hesitation. His arms remain raised, his head thrown back, and his eyes fixed; the narration compares his movement to that of a ghost. A smile comes over his face, like the one Dea had worn just before, linking their final expressions while keeping their fates distinct. Gwynplaine murmurs, “Be easy. I follow you. I understand the sign that you are making me.” He then calls, “I come,” and “Dea, behold, I come!” The words give his approach the form of an answer: he understands himself to be responding to Dea, not merely moving toward an unguarded edge.

At the ship’s side there is no bulwark to stop him. Gwynplaine takes one more step into the void and falls. The water swallows him; he disappears calmly and silently, unseen and unheard. The scene’s measured pace makes the act feel at once chosen and inexorable: each deliberate step brings him closer, while his unbroken upward gaze excludes the danger immediately before him.

Witnesses and Aftermath

No one sees or hears Gwynplaine fall. Ursus is still unconscious, and the ship sails on as the river continues to flow. The vessel’s movement supplies a stark counterpoint to the disappearance: the surrounding journey does not pause or answer the death. Shortly afterward the ship reaches the sea, but the account offers no recovery or return; the fall ends in disappearance.

When Ursus regains consciousness, he finds Gwynplaine gone. Homo stands at the edge of the deck, baying into the shadow and looking down at the water. The dog’s posture marks the place where the human witnesses failed: Ursus awakens only to absence, while Homo remains beside the edge, facing the water into which Gwynplaine has gone.

Narrative Significance

The suicide completes the sequence of loss begun with Dea’s death. Gwynplaine’s repeated declaration that he is coming makes the fall legible as an attempt to follow her, while the black sky and absent star leave the source of his perceived summons unresolved. The narration therefore holds two registers together: the physical fact of a man stepping from a ship into deep water, and the vision through which he understands that act.

The scene also reverses the roles of witness and survivor established in its opening moments. Ursus first announces Dea’s death, but grief incapacitates him; he cannot witness Gwynplaine’s final choice. Homo’s baying is the only response after the fall, while the ship and river continue without interruption. Gwynplaine’s disappearance closes the lovers’ story through action rather than explanation: the narrative gives his last steps and words, then leaves only the water and the moving vessel.