Summary Of The Mark Of The Beast By Rudyard Kipling

Consequences
Rudyard Kipling was a very well known British writer. Born on December 30th, 1865 in Bombay, India and died on January 18th, 1936 in London, England. He wrote short stories, novels, and poems throughout his lifetime, some famous and some not. He won Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907. The short story, The Mark of the Beast, written by Rudyard Kipling uses conflict through the characters to prove all choices have consequences.
Kipling’s parents were John and Alice Kipling. Mr. Kipling was an artist as well as a teacher of architectural sculpting. At age five, “... his parents sent him and his sister [Trix] to England, partly to avoid health problems, but also so they could begin their schooling” (“Rudyard Kipling”, poetryfoundation.org).

In this particular story three friends are out in India celebrating New Year’s Eve at a club. Fleete, main character, gets extremely drunk and desecrates Hanuman, an image of an Indian God, “Shee that? Mark of the B beasht! I made it. Ishn’t it fine?”(Kipling 2). After drunkenly insulting an ancient, religious statue. Seconds later a lot of people run out shouting and a Silver Man appears from behind the statue and slowly approaches Fleete. The Silver Man bites Fleete on his left breast, and a priest warns Strickland and the narrator, “Take your friend away his has done with Hanuman, but Hanuman has not done with him” (Kipling 2). The narrator and Strickland took Fleete to Strickland’s house. Complaining of being fatigue, he went straight to

He has lost his speech and began howling, “We could hear him moving about in his own room, but there was no light there. Presently from this room came the long - howl of a wolf” (Kipling 5). When he started howling Strickland’s thoughts became a reality, so and the narrator came up with a plan to capture the Silver Man. When they lured him, “ the leper halted in the front porch for a moment and we jumped out on him with the sticks. He was wonderfully strong … Strickland knocked his legs from under him and I put my foot on his neck”(Kipling 7). Fighting them at first, they drug him inside where Fleete was, begging him to take away the curse. After torturing the Silver Man he defeatedly took away the curse, “we unstrapped the leper and told him to take away the evil spirit. He crawled to the beast and laid his head upon the left breast. That was all. Then he fell face down and whined and drawing in his breath as he did so”(Kipling 7). Fleete went to sleep afterwards. Strickland went to the priests to thank them for taking away the curse, but the priest had no idea what he was talking about. Upon returning home, Strickland discovered Fleete does not even remember the incident itself, only Strickland and the narrator remember. Fleete mocked the smell of dog and laughed about