# Sidney Davidson — Short Fiction character guide

> Sidney Davidson in Short Fiction by H. G. Wells.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Davidson, old Davidson, Sid

**First appearance:** 0016-the-remarkable-case-of-davidson-s-eyes

## Snapshot

A young man whose eyes become a window onto a phantom world of rocks, penguins, and a wrecked ship, even as he goes blind to the world around him.

## Who they are

Davidson is a young man of ordinary prospects, brother to the narrator's sister, whose life is overturned when his vision splits into two irreconcilable pictures. He is torn between the pull of the haunting phantom island, which he comes to love, and the demands of his real life and approaching marriage. His slow recovery and lingering longing for the shadowy world make him the story's central study in how the mind clings to what it has seen.

## In the story

### [The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/chapters/the-remarkable-case-of-davidson-s-eyes)

The protagonist who experiences a strange displacement of his vision after being struck by lightning.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/chapters/i)

Experiences a transitory mental aberration during a thunderstorm, perceiving a beach and schooner instead of the laboratory.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/chapters/ii)

In a somnambulistic trance, hallucinating a beach and ship while blind to his actual surroundings.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/chapters/iii)

Suffers from a strange vision that overlays a bleak island and underwater scenes onto reality, leaving him blind and helpless.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/chapters/iv)

Recovering his sight after three weeks of seeing a phantom world; gradually loses the vision after marrying the narrator's sister.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/chapters/v)

Davidson's dream vision of H.M.S. Fulmar is corroborated by Atkins, confirming his sight traveled to a distant island.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/characters/sidney-davidson
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_25_se/characters