The Diary of a Madman Section 20: 34 February, the year 349 Summary

  • Poprishchin says he can't stand it any longer. What has he done to deserve these beatings and water torture?
  • He imagines himself flying away to some fantastical landscape, where he sees his house in the village with his mother sitting inside. He begs her to shed a tear on her son's sick head and save him. We feel like doing the same right now.
  • He ends his last entry with a question: do you know that the Dey of Algiers has a bump just under his nose? (The Dey of Algiers was the name of the ruler in Algiers under the Ottoman Empire.)
  • And that's that.