The King in Yellow

Content Warning: This section of the guide quotes outdated and offensive language around mental health conditions and suicide as well as discussing stigmatizing attitudes toward mental health and suicide.

The first four stories center around the mythos of the fictional play, The King in Yellow, creating a sense of creeping horror and disorientation by blurring what is real and what is not. Neither the protagonists of each story, nor the reader, can always distinguish reality from dream, hallucination, or otherwise extreme mental states. How the various characters may interpret their own experiences becomes a major theme of these stories.

In “The Repairer of Reputations” Castaigne interprets his reality entirely through the lens of the play The King in Yellow, and through willful self-delusion. Having read the play while recovering from a head injury, Castaigne accepts the premise of the play without question, and views every piece of information outside it as either confirmation of his belief, or a conspiracy to thwart it. Despite all evidence to the contrary—Hawberk insisting that Mr. Wilde is dangerous and erratic, Louis seeing a brass costume crown where Castaigne sees priceless jewels; Hawberk and Constance are still alive at the end—Castaigne insists on his version of reality.