Chapter 4 Summary

Chapter 4 finds Clamence and his companion in a quaint, stereotypically Dutch part of town, but Clamence is not seduced by such charm. Such easy enjoyments are open to anyone. Clamence, however, asserts that he can show his auditor the truth that lurks behind the pretty façade. This underlying environment is gray, wet, and devoid of people. Only the sky, full of doves, offers any company to the two men. Carried away by a metaphor suggested by the doves, Clamence demonstrates an inability to follow the thread of his own conversation. He uses this descending confusion as a loose segue into the subject of his lack of friends and then moves into suicide.

Clamence begins by asserting that he has no friends, only accomplices in some plot he alone understands. This realization of friendlessness came when Clamence began to contemplate suicide. His...