# the Master — Poetry character guide

> the Master in Poetry by C. S. Lewis.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** The Master

**First appearance:** 0048-canto-i

## Snapshot

A haunted host who trims his lamp and counts his chair legs, guarding a library of forbidden magic against the horrors that come each night.

## Who they are

The Master presides over a lonely house buried in folded fields, where Dymer wakes from a drunken sleep and asks for water. He is a man released from some wrong control, his eye unsteady, his lip loose, until terror snaps him back to desperate coolness. Drawn again and again to Theomagia, Demonology, and the Book of the Dead, he buys dreamland joys with dreamland terror, and his crumbling composure shadows Dymer's own descent into a world where the spirit is lost.

## Relationships

### [Dymer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/characters/dymer)

_psychological_

The Master exerts a manipulative, almost hypnotic influence over Dymer, treating him as a pawn.

### [Bran](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/characters/bran)

_rivalry_

Bran and the Master are antagonists, with Bran opposing the Master's control over Dymer.

### [Dymer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/characters/dymer)

_psychological_

Dymer is intensely obsessed with the Master, viewing him as a manipulative figure who controls his fate.

## In the story

### [Part I: The Prison House](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/chapters/part-i-the-prison-house)

Authority figure in the city whom Dymer kills.

### [XII: De Profundis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/chapters/xii-de-profundis)

Addressed as the object of curse and defiance, portrayed as a powerful but indifferent or cruel force.

### [XIII: Satan Speaks](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/chapters/xiii-satan-speaks)

Satan speaks in the first person, presenting himself as the Lord God who created material things and rules over humanity with harsh laws and punishments.

### [XIX: Milton Read Again](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/chapters/xix-milton-read-again)

The speaker addresses the Master, whose spirit has been close at hand, guiding him to find treasures and waters in barren land.

### [Part III: The Escape](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/chapters/part-iii-the-escape)

Killed by Dymer, triggering the escape and revolution.

### [Dymer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/chapters/dymer)

Authority figure in the Perfect City whom Dymer kills, symbolizing the oppressive order Dymer rejects.

### [Dymer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/chapters/dymer)

Authority figure killed by Dymer early in the chapter, later encountered again in a mysterious form.

### [Canto I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/chapters/canto-i)

The lecturer whom Dymer strikes and kills in the classroom, symbolizing the oppressive authority of the Perfect City.

### [Canto IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/chapters/canto-iv)

Mentioned as the man Dymer struck dead in the Perfect City, triggering the uprising.

### [Canto VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/chapters/canto-vi)

The Master appears as a mysterious, ancient figure who advocates for the power of dreams and illusion, attempting to persuade Dymer to abandon earthly concerns.

### [Canto VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/chapters/canto-vii)

Shows signs of obsessive-compulsive ritual, despair, and madness from his occult studies; ultimately tries to kill Dymer.

### [Canto IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/chapters/canto-ix)

Appears as the sentinel spirit who guards the frontier and reveals the beast's origin.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/characters/the_master
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_3_se/characters