Darkness at Noon

Ivanov provides the clearest Christian allegory in the book, sarcastically proposing to write a “Passion play in which God and the Devil dispute for the soul of Saint Rubashov” 152). In Ivanov’s formulation, the Devil is the “fanatical” proponent of logic, while God takes the side of “industrial liberalism” (152). Ivanov’s proposed drama also clarifies his oath, “the devil take you,” which he says repeatedly to Rubashov, whom he wants to bring back to the side of pure reason. This allegory also resonates with Rubashov’s reading of Faust as he waits in the art gallery to meet with Richard Faust’s story is that of a man who sells his soul to the Devil for intellectual knowledge; a story which echoes what we see of Rubashov’s own pursuit of knowledge and understanding. It is not surprising, then, when No. 402 tells Rubashov he is a “devil of a fellow”. Though this description is presented as an attempt at friendship, the relationship between Rubashov and No. 402 is also contentious: outside of the prison walls, Rubashov and No. 402 would be enemies, and No. 402 clearly believes that Rubashov is morally bankrupt. 

Other references, however, link Rubashov to Christ. During his first morning in prison, as he contemplates his toes and his certainty that he “shall be shot,” he is reminded of a Bible verse that “compared the feet of Christ to a white roebuck in a thornbush” (12) and is “almost perfectly happy” (12). And at the end of the book, in Part Four, when Vassilij is listening to his daughter read a newspaper account of Rubashov’s trial, he murmurs Bible passages to himself that he has memorized from the narrative of Christ’s Crucifixion, one of which likens Vassilij himself to Peter, who denies knowing Christ in the same way Vassilij will deny knowing Rubashov.

The Pietà is an artistic representation of the Virgin Mary mourning a dead Christ and as such is one of the many Christian motifs in the book. The Pietà Rubashov sees in a German art gallery is blocked from full view by Richard’s head. Symbolically, then, Rubashov’s inability to see the “full picture” is the result of his moral failure to confront the humanity of those he betrays on Party orders. The part of the drawing that Rubashov does see, and remembers until his death, is of “the Virgin’s thin arms up to the elbow” (41) and her “folded hands” (46) in supplication and lamentation. Rubashov is first reminded of the Pietà when he sees only the arms and hands of the prisoner in the cell across from his receiving his food from the guards, but its significance is most strongly connected to Rubashov’s memory of his betrayal of Richard and to the other motifs in the book that complete the picture of Rubashov’s compromised moral vision.

The portrait of No. 1 first appears in Part 1, Chapter 2: it is hanging above Rubashov’s bed as he awakens to the sounds of officers pounding on his apartment door. It also hangs above the bed of the porter, Vassilij, and above the beds of every citizen in the country, as evidence of their allegiance to the Party.

The portrait of No. 1 is regularly juxtaposed with an older picture of the Party founders—the bearded men whose beliefs brought about the revolution. Unlike the portrait of No. 1, the photograph of the Party founders is significant in its absence. When Rubashov looks for it, most notably on the wall of Ivanov’s office, it is missing; in its place, a “light patch” (89) that Rubashov finds himself longing to touch.

In Vassilij’s room, the portrait of No. 1 is paired with a photograph of Rubashov himself. By the end of the book, during Rubashov’s public trial, the photograph of Rubashov is also notable for its absence. Next to the portrait of No. 1 is, instead, a rusted nail. Like Rubashov in Ivanov’s office, Vassilij sees the photograph that is no longer there and mourns the loss of what it represents.