Genre
A short story
Setting and Context
The place is London, while the time is not mentioned.
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person narration
Tone and Mood
The tone is both worrying and funny. The worrying is provoked by the possibility that the stranger might poison London’s river with the bacteria of cholera which would be followed by many deaths. The funny mood of the story is represented in the very end when the bacteriologist says what really was in the tube the stranger had stolen.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the bacteriologist, and the antagonist is the visitor.
Major Conflict
People sometimes forget that they are not omnipotent, and death might be right after the corner, or in a glass of water; thus the conflict stands in realizing how really miserable people are comparing with nature.
Climax
The climax comes when the visitor breaks the tube and its contents are poured on him.
Foreshadowing
That the visitor had stolen the tube with living bacteria of cholera (at least he thought so) foreshadowed big troubles for the citizens.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The story alludes to famous French anarchists – Ravachol and Vaillant.
Imagery
The imagery is used in descriptions of appearances.
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
The pale-faced man nodded. His eyes shone. He cleared his throat.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“Yes dear,” came a remote voice (a remote voice is metonymy for Minnie – the bacteriologist’s wife)
Personification
“He would wait ready to be drunk in the horse-troughs, and by unwary children in the public fountains; he would soak into the soil, to reappear in springs and wells at a thousand unexpected places” (he is personification for the bacteria of cholera)
