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Arlova
Richard is the leader of the Communist Party in a region of the unnamed country (with all the characteristics of Germany) where Rubashov is fomenting revolutionary activity, and where he is later arrested. Richard is a loyal Party member, but after the dictatorship takes power in his country and begins to stamp out Communist activity, he tries to support the cause in his own way rather than through relying on Party pamphlets and directions. Richard thinks that the official Party line, emphasizing its strength even when everyone in Germany knows that the Party has been almost entirely quashed, will inevitably be unsuccessful. For Rubashov at the time, though, such a decision is little more than treason, and he denounces Richard. Richard, too, will become an example for Rubashov of a life that Rubashov sacrificed on behalf of the guiding Party logic, and thinking of Richard makes Rubashov begin to question whether it was worth it.
Richard Quotes in Darkness at Noon
The Darkness at Noon quotes below are all either spoken by Richard or refer to Richard. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The First Hearing: 9 Quotes
“The Party can never be mistaken,” said Rubashov. “You and I can make a mistake. Not the Party. The Party, comrade, is more than you and I and a thousand others like you and I. The Party is the embodiment of the revolutionary idea in history. History knows no scruples and no hesitation. Inert and unerring, she flows towards her goal. At every bend in her course she leaves the mud which she carries and the corpses of the drowned. History knows her way. She makes no mistakes. He who has not absolute faith in History does not belong in the Party’s ranks.”
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Rubashov is speaking to Richard at the gallery in Germany, criticizing Richard for having thought to follow his own path by printing his own pamphlets rather than following the Party’s official message. Richard believes in the Party cause, but he also thinks that Party officials might make mistakes in spreading their message to Germany—mistakes that Richard is uniquely qualified to correct since he’s present on the ground. Here, Rubashov shows that the very idea that the Party can make a mistake is a contradiction in terms when one really subscribes to its own ideology. If the Party is the “embodiment Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Vol
The First Hearing: 11 Quotes
“Yet I would do it again,” he said to himself. “It was necessary and right. But do I perhaps owe you the fare all the same? Must one also pay for deeds which were right and necessary?”
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Rubashov has been thinking of how he sacrificed Richard, and about the taxi driver who seemed loyal to Communism (but whose friendly offering Rubashov dismissed in order to stay discreet). These memories are also interspersed with Rubashov’s conversation with No. 402, whom he asks for tobacco. Initially No. 402 says no, and Rubashov, irritated, decides that 402 owes him nothing. Then 402 does send Rubashov tobacco from the warder. Suddenly Rubashov is forced to question how easily he scorns and dismisses others who seem unable to serve his own needs. This, in turn, causes Rubashov to reflect on how he Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia e
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Richard Character Timeline in Darkness at Noon
The timeline below shows where the character Richard appears in Darkness at Noon. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The First Hearing: 9
...as he remembers sitting on the plush sofa in the art gallery. The young man, Richard, the leader of the Party in the town, came a few minutes late and noticed...
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Richard told Rubashov about Anny’s arrest while Rubashov stared at a “Last Judgment” painting behind him....
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...being locked into a cell. Rubashov thinks himself back to the gallery, where he told Richard that the pamphlets Richard had made were known to the Central Committee and they contained...
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Increasingly distressed and stammering, Richard said that the tone of the Party’s propaganda material was wrong. Rubashov ordered him to...
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Rubashov said that certain consequences would come from Richard’s decision. Reddening, Richard told Rubashov that he knew the material was full of nonsense, with...
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But Rubashov ignored Richard, saying that the last Party congress announced that the Party didn’t suffer defeat, it merely...
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Rubashov listed the various wrong-headed elements written in Richard’s pamphlets, stating that one cannot lead politics in passion and despair, and that one false...
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Richard raced outside as Rubashov was hailing a taxi, asking if that was a warning. Again...
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The First Hearing: 10
...the steambath torture and picturing it so that he’s not caught unaware. His memory of Richard and the taxi-driver comes to mind, and he smiles, thinking he’ll pay his fare. He...
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The First Hearing: 12
...old Belgian port, hunchbacked, smoking a pipe. It was two years after the affair with Richard and Rubashov’s own arrest: Rubashov had kept silent through the torture, denying everything coldly. He’d...
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The First Hearing: 14
...his loyalty and acquiesced to Arlova’s fate. Rubashov does know her fate, as well as Richard’s, Little Loewy’s, and his own. He wonders what the point of all this is. Flatly,...
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The Second Hearing: 3
...is just as sincere, or as little sincere, with him as Rubashov himself was towards Richard or Little Loewy.
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The Grammatical Fiction: 2
...medieval Popes had ruined the ideal of a Christian empire. It was the story of Richard and the Pietà that had prompted him to begin to realize this, but he’d never...
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