# Memory and the Past in Suspiria de Profundis

> Theme guide for Suspiria de Profundis by Thomas De Quincey.

Memory is treated as a palimpsest, with past experiences layered and recoverable, and the act of recalling grief and joy serves as a central narrative device for understanding identity and fate.

## Where it surfaces

- [Dreaming](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/dreaming): The chapter revisits childhood afflictions as a key agency that, combined with opium, shaped the narrator's dreams.
- [The Affliction of Childhood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/the-affliction-of-childhood): The chapter is built on the narrator's memories of his sister, the nursery, and the Bible stories, showing how past experiences shape present emotions.
- [The Glory of Motion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/i-the-glory-of-motion): De Quincey recalls these events from a distance of 'some twenty or more years,' and notes how the mail-coaches 'tyrannise over my dreams,' linking past experiences to present memory.
- [The Palimpsest of the Human Brain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/the-palimpsest-of-the-human-brain): The central theme: the brain as a palimpsest where all past experiences are preserved and can be revived.
- [Memorial Suspiria](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/memorial-suspiria): The narrator invokes the past as a 'secret exhibition,' and the mother's letter serves as a tangible link to memory and maternal love.
- [The Apparition of the Brocken](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/the-apparition-of-the-brocken): The narrator recalls a childhood affliction that returns in memory like April showers, linking past grief to present experience.
- [The Daughter of Lebanon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/the-daughter-of-lebanon): The daughter yearns for her native hills and the memory of her twin sister, with whom she wandered among the cedars in childhood.
- [The Princess Who Overlooked One Seed in a Pomegranate](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/the-princess-who-overlooked-one-seed-in-a-pomegranate): The parable and personal reflection illustrate how past errors and griefs echo across time, resurging unexpectedly.
- [Who Is This Woman That Beckoneth and Warneth Me from the Place Where She Is, and in Whose Eyes Is Woeful Remembrance? I Guess Who She Is](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/chapters/who-is-this-woman-that-beckoneth-and-warneth-me-from-the-place-where-she-is-and-in-whose-eyes-is-woeful-remembrance-i-guess-who-she-is): The narrator grapples with memories of a past life or preexistence, and the woman's face is described as looking at 'some unknown past,' making it 'awful.'

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/themes/memory_and_the_past
- Themes index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/suspiria_de_profundis_se/themes