'Worshipper of the Image' Summary

Antony, a poet struggling to find inspiration, stumbles upon a death mask in an antique shop. This mask, which he names 'Silencieux,' bears a remarkable likeness to his wife Beatrice. As Antony becomes increasingly obsessed with the mask, he begins to neglect his family and his art. His love for Beatrice, long suppressed, transforms into a consuming passion for Silencieux, a silent, inanimate object. He sees the mask as an embodiment of Beatrice's beauty, a perfect and eternal version of her. His obsession leads to isolation and ultimately to a deep psychological descent into madness, as he loses himself in a world of fantasy and morbid desire. In the end, Antony's love for Beatrice, once a source of inspiration, becomes his undoing, leaving him a broken and solitary figure consumed by his own dark desires.