# Madness and Obsession in World’s End

> Theme guide for World’s End by Richard Jefferies.

Sternhold Baskette's monomaniacal pursuit of owning a city drives him to madness, while other characters exhibit obsessive behaviors over wealth, status, or revenge, suggesting that unchecked ambition leads to psychological ruin.

## Where it surfaces

- [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/iii): Sternhold's relentless drive to buy up land and build a new Belgravia, despite warnings and financial ruin, borders on obsession, while the vicar's passion for geology is seen as madness by neighbors.
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/iv): Sternhold's relentless drive to build his 'marble Rome' despite financial ruin and his refusal to borrow money suggest an obsessive, almost mad, fixation.
- [The Hero of Stirmingham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/v): Sternhold's lifelong obsession with owning a city culminates in a harmless madness, where he believes himself an autocrat and loses all method in his land purchases.
- [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/vi): Sternhold's obsession with founding a dynasty and his methodical, yet irrational, pursuit of a wife from a theatre suggest a form of madness.
- [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/vii): Sternhold's obsessive jealousy and Lucia's restrained fury drive the plot, with Aurelian's asylum and the threat of proving Sternhold insane central to the conflict.
- [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/viii): Aurelian's obsession with the inheritance leads him to plot Sternhold's insanity; Sternhold's jealousy is framed as madness.
- [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/ix): Sternhold's descent into madness and his obsessive pursuit of Lucia, culminating in an attempted murder, exemplifies this theme.
- [Chapter X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/x): John's monomania against Americans, his constant brooding over lost career, and his Machiavellian studies show a mind consumed by obsessive ambition bordering on madness.
- [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/xiii): The narrative suggests inherited insanity and obsessive scheming drive the conspirators' actions.
- [XIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/xiv): Marese's single-minded application of gas properties to his 'engine of destruction' reveals a obsessive, amoral fixation.
- [XV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/xv): Odo Lechester's hereditary lunacy, homicidal tendencies, and bizarre behavior (tinkering, tin whistle, mastiffs) illustrate the theme of inherited madness.
- [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/xiii): Marese's cold, calculated pursuit of wealth and destruction, even in the face of the horrific deaths of dozens.
- [Chapter XV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/xv): Aymer's horror at the city's chaos and his vision of the escaped lunatic reflect a growing obsession with the dark underbelly of society.
- [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/ii): Lady Agnes exhibits obsessive behavior over property and shows signs of mental instability—seclusion, nocturnal walks, and hallucinations with a sword.
- [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/iii): Agnes's anxiety and visions, including the noonday phantom, suggest a descent into obsession and possible madness.
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/iv): Agnes's dual existence and her fixation on the supernatural spirit at the Kickwell Pot suggest a mind unraveling under the weight of grief and ambition.
- [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/v): Aymer's obsessive dedication to his manuscript and his vision for Violet borders on self-destructive fixation.
- [The Approaching Nuptials](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/ix): Agnes is haunted by her phantom-lover, struggling to resist the temptation to commune with the spirit despite her impending marriage.
- [X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/x): Aymer is falsely labeled mad and confined; Odo Lechester describes his own long imprisonment and the obsession of his family to keep him locked away.
- [The Hole in the Wall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/xi): The asylum setting and Fulk's long confinement explore themes of madness and obsession.
- [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/chapters/xiii): Aymer is labeled a dangerous lunatic, and his desperate attempts to prove his sanity are central to the chapter.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/themes/madness_and_obsession
- Themes index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/world_s_end_se/themes