# Spadevil — A Voyage to Arcturus character guide

> Spadevil in A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0012-xii-spadevil

## Snapshot

A philosopher of suffering whose doctrine of duty seizes Maskull's conscience so completely that murder follows in its wake.

## Who they are

Spadevil preaches a stern creed in which pain and obligation are the highest goods, and his hold over Maskull becomes one of the enchantments that carry him through the day. His crushed, bloody features haunt the aftermath, proof of how thoroughly a moral system can override a man's own judgment. He matters because he embodies the novel's darkest question: whether a philosophy can be judged by what it makes its believers do.

## In the story

### [On Disscourn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_voyage_to_arcturus_se/chapters/xi-on-disscourn)

Introduces himself as the bearer of a new law, transforms Tydomin's sorb, and offers Maskull a path of duty and renewal.

### [Spadevil](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_voyage_to_arcturus_se/chapters/xii-spadevil)

Preaches iron obedience to duty and rejection of pleasure; leads Maskull and Tydomin to Sant, where he accepts martyrdom at Catice's hands.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_voyage_to_arcturus_se/characters/spadevil
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_voyage_to_arcturus_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_voyage_to_arcturus_se/characters