SOURCE: Saposnik, Irving S. “Stevenson's ‘Markheim’: A Fictional ‘Christmas Sermon.’” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 21, no. 3 (December 1966): 277–82.

In the following essay, Saposnik surveys the critical debate over the identity of the visitant in “Markheim.”

For a story of its relatively short length, “Markheim” has produced more than its share of critical confusion. Much of this confusion centers around the identity of the visitant, and whether it be God, angel, or devil. Most of the critics share the belief that it is a “good” spirit and base this opinion on the final brightening of its countenance into a “tender triumph.”¹ Some, on the other hand, are uncertain as to the nature of the visitant,² while others refrain from pinning a qualitative label on the visitant, and instead give a psychological identity, calling it Markheim's “unconscious self” and his conscience.³ There are several elements in the tale which indicate that the nonqualitative readings...