Short Fiction · Chapter
The Examining Magistrate explained
An examining magistrate recounts to a doctor the story of his wife, who predicted her own death after childbirth and died exactly as she foretold.
What happens
An examining magistrate recounts to a doctor the story of his wife, who predicted her own death after childbirth and died exactly as she foretold. The doctor suggests she may have poisoned herself due to her husband's infidelity, a theory that devastates the magistrate as he realizes the truth about his own wife's death.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This is the dramatic climax because it marks the psychological peak where Ivan Dmitritch’s paranoid resistance…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Mortality and Legacy
The wife's fixation on her own death and her prediction of it highlight the theme of mortality and the desire to control one's legacy.
- Hypocrisy and Moral Failure
The husband's infidelity and his subsequent shock at the possibility of suicide reveal moral failure and self-deception.
- Suffering and Compassion
The wife's silent suffering and the doctor's cold analysis contrast with the magistrate's eventual anguish, exploring the limits of compassion.
Characters to notice
- The Examining Magistrate
The magistrate, who is also the husband in the story, is haunted by the doctor's theory that his wife poisoned herself after his infidelity.
- The Doctor
The district doctor who proposes the theory that the wife's death was a suicide, not a mystical prediction.
- The Wife
The deceased wife who predicted her own death after childbirth and died under mysterious circumstances.
Key passages
“There is a great deal that is enigmatic and obscure in nature; and even in everyday life, doctor, one must often come upon phenomena which are absolutely incapable of explanation.”
The magistrate reflects on the mysterious aspects of life that defy rational explanation.
Sets up the central mystery of the wife's death.
“People don't die without a reason.”
The doctor insists that every death has a cause, rejecting the idea of a purely mystical death.
Introduces the doctor's rational perspective.
“My God, if your theory is correct, why it's … it was cruel, inhuman! She poisoned herself to punish someone else! Why, was the sin so great?”
The magistrate realizes that his wife may have committed suicide to punish him for his infidelity, and he is overwhelmed by guilt.
Climactic moment of revelation and emotional breakdown.
