Markheim
A man murders a shopkeeper on Christmas Day and is confronted by a mysterious visitor who offers to help him escape, in Stevenson's tense parable of conscience and free will.
On Christmas Day, Markheim kills a dealer in his shop for money, then finds himself paralyzed by guilt and dread in the dead man's cluttered rooms. A stranger appears who seems to know everything about him and offers help with the crime. As the figure tempts him deeper, Markheim must decide whether he is a man already lost or one still capable of choosing his own soul.
What happens
On Christmas Day, Markheim enters a dealer's shop on the pretext of buying a gift, and instead murders the shopkeeper to rob him. Alone with the corpse in the dim, crowded rooms, he is overwhelmed by guilt, fear, and the menace of every reflecting surface and ticking clock. As he searches for the keys to the dealer's money, a visitor appears, a calm, knowing figure who seems supernatural and addresses Markheim with intimate understanding of his nature. The stranger, whom many read as the Devil, offers to help him find the money and escape, arguing that Markheim's life has been a steady decline into evil and that he will only sink further. Markheim resists this fatalism, insisting that he still possesses the capacity for good and the freedom to refuse further sin, even as he admits his many failures. A maid returns to the shop and rings the bell. The visitor urges Markheim to murder her too and complete his escape. Instead, Markheim experiences a moral awakening, refuses to commit a second killing, and resolves to surrender himself. As he makes this choice, the visitor's face brightens and the figure vanishes. Markheim opens the door to the maid and calmly tells her to fetch the police, for he has killed her master.
Timeline the story arc, beat by beat
- The murder Christmas Day crime
Markheim, posing as a customer, kills the dealer in his shop to rob him of money.
- Aftermath Alone with the dead
Surrounded by mirrors, clocks, and shadows, Markheim is gripped by guilt and the terror of discovery.
- The visitor A knowing stranger
A mysterious figure appears who understands Markheim completely and offers to help him escape the crime.
- The argument Tempting fatalism
The visitor argues that Markheim is doomed to sink ever deeper into evil, while Markheim insists he retains free will.
- The interruption The maid returns
The dealer's servant comes back and rings at the door, threatening discovery.
- The choice Refusing the second sin
Urged to kill the maid, Markheim instead chooses to commit no further evil and to give himself up.
- Surrender Calling the police
The visitor's face brightens and vanishes; Markheim opens the door and tells the maid to fetch the police.
Characters and how they connect
Markheim
Protagonist
A murderer paralyzed by conscience who, through a supernatural confrontation, reclaims his free will and chooses to surrender.
The visitor
Tempter
A calm, omniscient figure widely read as the Devil, who offers escape while arguing that Markheim is doomed to deeper evil.
The dealer
Victim
The shrewd shopkeeper Markheim murders for money, whose corpse anchors the haunted, guilt-ridden scene.
The maid
Catalyst
The dealer's servant whose return forces the story's crisis, since killing her is the price of Markheim's full escape.
Character map who connects to whom, and the themes that bind them
Themes what the story is really about
Free will versus determinism
The visitor insists Markheim is bound to sink ever deeper into evil, while Markheim asserts his freedom to choose otherwise. The story stakes its meaning on the claim that a person remains capable of moral choice.
Conscience and guilt
Markheim's overwhelming dread after the murder shows conscience as an ungovernable inner force. The haunted rooms externalize a guilt that no escape plan can silence.
The duality of human nature
Markheim contains both the murderer and the man who refuses a second killing. Stevenson explores the coexistence of good and evil within a single soul, a concern central to his work.
Redemption through renunciation
Markheim's salvation comes not from undoing his crime but from refusing further evil and accepting consequence. The story locates grace in renunciation and self-surrender.
Symbols & motifs
Mirrors
The shop's many mirrors force Markheim to confront his own reflection and conscience. They symbolize self-examination, showing him the self he can no longer evade.
Clocks
The ticking and chiming clocks press time and mortality on Markheim. They symbolize the moral reckoning that cannot be paused and the nearness of judgment.
The visitor
The supernatural figure embodies temptation and perhaps Markheim's own darker self, externalizing the inner argument over whether he is free or doomed.
Christmas Day
The setting symbolizes the possibility of grace and rebirth amid sin, framing Markheim's moral choice against the holiday of redemption.
Recurring motifs
Reflections and surfaces. Mirrors, glass, and gleaming objects recur to keep Markheim's own image and conscience before him throughout the haunted scene.
Sound and silence. Ticking clocks, footsteps, and the doorbell punctuate the stillness, repeatedly threatening discovery and marking the passage toward decision.
Light and brightening. The visitor's changing face, dimming as he tempts and brightening at Markheim's good choice, recurs as a register of the soul's moral state.
Conflicts
Man vs. self
Markheim's central struggle is internal, between the part of him drawn to further sin and the part that still longs for goodness and freedom.
Man vs. the supernatural
He contends with the visitor's persuasive fatalism, resisting a being who claims to know his doom and offers the easy path of more evil.
Good vs. evil
The story stages a contest over Markheim's soul, in which a single choice to refuse a second murder decides his moral fate.
Literary devices
- Symbolism
- Mirrors, clocks, and the Christmas setting carry the story's moral argument in concrete images, externalizing conscience and the pressure of judgment.
- Allegory
- The encounter with the tempter dramatizes an inner moral debate, so the story functions as an allegory of conscience and free will.
- Stream of consciousness
- Markheim's racing fears and rationalizations are rendered in close interior detail, immersing the reader in his guilty mind.
- Irony
- A murder committed on Christmas Day, the feast of redemption, sharpens the contrast between the crime and the grace Markheim ultimately seeks.
- Ambiguity
- Stevenson leaves the visitor's nature open, devil, angel, or projection, so the reader must weigh whether redemption is supernatural or self-made.
Important quotes
“The clocks began to strike in many quarters, some in the bass, some in the tenor, in an ecclesiastical music of striking.”
“Evil and good run strong in me, haling me both ways.”
“I see clearly what remains for me by way of duty. I thank you for these lessons from my soul.”
“The features of the visitor began to undergo a wonderful and lovely change.”
The ending resolves the story's debate over free will in favor of moral freedom. Throughout, the visitor argues that Markheim is on an irreversible slide into evil and offers to help him escape, even urging him to murder the returning maid to complete his getaway. Markheim refuses. He recognizes that while he has done much wrong, he still possesses the power to choose not to sin further, and he resolves to surrender himself rather than kill again. At this moment the visitor's face, which had grown darker as he tempted, undergoes a beautiful change and the figure vanishes, a sign that Markheim's choice has saved rather than damned him. Whether the visitor was the Devil defeated, an angel testing him, or a projection of his own conscience, Stevenson leaves deliberately ambiguous. What is certain is that Markheim opens the door to the maid and calmly tells her to fetch the police, confessing that he has killed her master. His redemption lies not in escaping punishment but in embracing it, choosing truth and consequence over the easy descent the visitor offered. The story affirms that even a murderer retains the freedom to reclaim his soul.
Common misreadings
MythThe visitor is clearly the Devil.
ActuallyStevenson keeps the figure ambiguous; it may be the Devil, an angel, or a projection of Markheim's conscience, and the brightening face suggests it is not simply evil.
MythMarkheim escapes punishment for his crime.
ActuallyHe chooses to surrender, telling the maid to fetch the police, finding redemption in accepting consequence rather than evading it.
MythThe visitor helps Markheim get away with the murder.
ActuallyThe visitor offers escape but at the price of a second killing; Markheim's salvation comes precisely from refusing that offer.
Test yourself
1. On what day does Markheim commit the murder?
The Christmas setting sharpens the irony of murder on the feast of redemption and frames Markheim's moral choice.
2. What does the visitor urge Markheim to do when the maid returns?
The visitor urges a second murder to secure escape, and Markheim's refusal is the moral turning point of the story.
3. How does Markheim ultimately resolve his crisis?
Markheim finds redemption by refusing further evil and accepting consequence, choosing surrender over escape.
On Christmas Day a man named Markheim kills a shopkeeper to steal his money. Alone with the body in the cluttered, mirror-filled rooms, he becomes terrified and guilty, jumping at every clock and reflection. A strange visitor appears who seems to know everything about him and offers to help him find the money and get away. The visitor says Markheim is the kind of man who will only get more and more evil, so he might as well give in, and even tells him to kill the maid when she comes back. But Markheim refuses. He decides that even though he has done a terrible thing, he can still choose to do right, so he will not kill again. The visitor's face turns beautiful and he disappears, and Markheim opens the door and tells the maid to go get the police, accepting punishment for what he did.
Ask the story
Ask anything and get an answer grounded in the text: why a character acts, what a symbol means, how this compares to another work. This story is in the public domain, so the tutor can quote the text directly.
AI tutor in development
Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know
Nice work.
Compare & connect the story universe
The Boarded Window
Both trap a lone man with a corpse and let dread and conscience build through a tense, enclosed scene of psychological horror.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Both probe a mind in extremis and leave the reader weighing reality against the desperate inner life of the condemned.
Chickamauga
Both examine how the human mind frames violence and guilt, one through a murderer's reckoning, the other through a child's blindness.
The Law of Life
Both bring a man to a final reckoning where he must accept a hard truth, London through acceptance of death, Stevenson through acceptance of guilt.
Discussion & essay prompts for class, or your next paper
💬 Discussion questions
- Who is the visitor in Stevenson's Markheim
- What is the meaning of the ending of Markheim
- How does Markheim explore free will and determinism
- How does Markheim explore the theme of free will versus determinism?
- How does Markheim explore the theme of conscience and guilt?
- What is the central conflict in Markheim, and how does it shape the ending?
✎ Essay prompts
- Analyze how Robert Louis Stevenson develops the theme of free will versus determinism in Markheim. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
- Examine the significance of mirrors in Markheim. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
- How does Robert Louis Stevenson use symbolism to shape the reader’s experience of Markheim?
- Some readers assume that the visitor is clearly the Devil. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.
Key questions students ask
- Who is the visitor in Stevenson's Markheim
- What is the meaning of the ending of Markheim
- How does Markheim explore free will and determinism
- What do the mirrors and clocks symbolize in Markheim
- Why is Markheim set on Christmas Day
- What are the main themes of Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. Quotations are from Robert Louis Stevenson's Markheim (1885), which is in the public domain.