The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story

By the time Wojnicz reaches Görbersdorf, Thilo is already close to death. In a town that is now dedicated to the treatment of tuberculosis, Thilo shows the painful end that so many people are trying to avoid. His slow death is a cautionary reminder to the audience that the sanatorium may present itself as a health resort, but it is very much a treatment facility for a deadly disease. Wojnicz observes Thilo’s final decline up close. Gradually, Thilo is stripped of everything that once defined him. As he becomes weaker physically, his connections to the definitive aspects of his identity weaken. 

On a personal level, Wojnicz observes the way in which tuberculosis seems to denude Thilo of his gender. Laying in his dying bed, Thilo does not conform to the gender expectations that dominate society, particularly in the heightened misogynistic environment of the sanitorium. In this moment, Wojnicz relates to him more than ever. He glimpses the raw, pained humanity that lurks beneath the carefully constructed edifice of a healthy human persona. Thilo is too weak to pretend any longer, highlighting the constructed nature of sexuality in general rather than the ideas of inherent strength and weakness espoused by his fellow patients. This endears him to a protagonist who is defined by his rejection of any kind of fixed identity. 

Thilo becomes the first person in the novel for whom Wojnicz feels genuine sympathy and a connection rather than nostalgic longing or pity. Wojnicz is on friendly terms with the other guests in Opitz’s guesthouse, but it is only Thilo whom he happily visits. In doing so, he discovers a whole new way to see the world. Thilo is obsessed with landscape paintings. Notably, he favors art that does not center the human experience. Rather, humans are decorative additions to the dramatic landscapes that can be glimpsed as easily through the window as through Thilo’s collection of paintings. 

Moreover, the deconstructive way in which Thilo encourages Wojnicz to examine paintings helps Wojnicz to see the world in a new light. Wojnicz may never truly master this skill, nor does he share his friend’s deep passion for landscape art, but the revelation that new perspectives can be found is striking for Wojnicz. He has felt alienated and alone for so long that, with the help of his dying friend, he begins to hope that there might be a different world out there for him, so long as he is able to find a new perspective.

At the same time, however, Wojnicz must suffer from the inherent unknowability of the human character. During Thilo’s final days, he and Wojnicz develop an intense and meaningful relationship. Yet there is so much about Thilo that Wojnicz cannot know. Thilo’s sexuality, for example, is hinted at in numerous conversations, but only the arrival of Thilo’s lover György can remind Wojnicz that—unlike Wojnicz—Thilo has developed meaningful relationships that exist beyond the confines of Opitz’s guesthouse. Much like Wojnicz’s intersexuality, Thilo’s sexual relationships with men have caused him to be alienated and discriminated against by conventional society. Unlike Wojnicz, however, Thilo found someone to share in his alienation. György is, in effect, to Thilo what Thilo is to Wojnicz: the first suggestion of acceptance in a hostile world. The result is that Wojnicz feels a pang of jealousy that he cannot quite vocalize. After Thilo’s death, György asks Wojnicz whether he knows the whereabouts of Thilo’s favorite painting. Wojnicz lies, denying any knowledge of where the painting might be. He wishes to keep hold of the painting, clinging on to some part of Thilo that is personal, private, and just for him.

Wilhelm Opitz runs a small guesthouse in Görbersdorf. He caters to the people not wealthy enough to gain immediate access to the Kurhaus. This guesthouse has been a successful business venture for him, but this success has not carried over to his personal life. At the beginning of the novel, Opitz is already married to his fourth wife. The previous wives left him in acrimonious circumstances; his fourth wife is discovered dead early in the novel. 

The mysterious death of Frau Opitz is an immediate indication that there is darkness lurking in the town of Görbersdorf. Opitz’s muted reaction to her sudden death, however, is a subtle illustration of his callous attitude toward women and to life in general. Opitz’s wife was a Czech national who seemed out of place in Görbersdorf. In effect, she was little more than a housekeeper for Opitz, and her death means little to him because he treats all women as interchangeable inferiors rather than whole people. Wojnicz is traumatized by the sight of Frau Opitz’s corpse, and his humane suffering contrasts with Opitz’s indifference.

Opitz is linked to Görbersdorf’s dark secret as the representative of the local people and the living embodiment of the agreement they have reached with whatever lurks in the forest. Opitz cares more about his Schwärmerei than the moral ramifications of human sacrifice. His dedication to the local liqueur represents his willful ignorance: He wants to ignore the moral ramifications of what he and his community have done. He wants to strap himself to the chair, ignore the sacrifice, and then drink Schwärmerei to plunge himself into a nostalgic, intoxicated forgetfulness. Eventually, however, the sacrifice of Wojnicz fails. Fittingly, once Wojnicz frees Opitz from his chair, the forces in the forest select Opitz to be sacrificed. He failed to adhere to the terms of the arrangement, and he is killed by the same forces he tried to appease, a final reckoning against so-called “rational” masculinity in the world of the novel.