Summary

In Chapter 12, one of the students asks the Greek teacher if the human soul is “ruined by its foolish, bad attributes” (97).

In Chapter 13, the Greek teacher has a dream involving an unknown person delivering him a letter in Braille, which he cannot read. He notes the visual clarity of his dreams, so different from his waking experience of the world. Despite his growing blindness, he feels “no agony” (99) when he realizes he has been dreaming.

The Greek teacher writes to a former friend, Joachim Gründel, who has recently died. Joachim had had many operations as a child, and spoke openly about his friend’s inevitable blindness. They often had “wide-ranging and freewheeling conversation[s]” (101). While on a hike with the Greek teacher, Joachim suffered a fall and was hospitalized. In the hospital, Joachim noted that his ill health meant that he “possesses...