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Summary
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Axe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Work and Identity
Guilt and Repression
Corporate Greed and Exploitation
Summary
Analysis
An unnamed Narrator working at a small firm begins a report addressed to his unnamed Superior, who has ordered the Narrator to fire four employees within the company for financial reasons. The Narrator reminds the Superior that he has been told to ask the employees to resign before he fires them so that the company doesn’t have to provide severance pay. If the employees resign of their own will, the company will not only save money but also avoid any “unpleasantness” that might arise from letting the workers go.
At the beginning of the story, which is also the beginning of the Narrator’s report to his Superior, the Narrator uses detached, professional language to describe the task he has been given: to fire several employees and ideally get them to resign so that the firm doesn’t have to pay severance. His tone implies that he is unbothered by his Superior’s decision to fire the workers, including his assistant, and that he agrees with his boss’s cost-saving measures. The Superior’s questionable ethics, along with the Narrator’s lack of commentary on them, introduces the idea of corporate greed and exploitation as a significant factor in the plot.
Active
Themes
The Narrator goes on to describe W.S. Singlebury, his clerical assistant and one of the employees he has been ordered to fire. Singlebury is an elderly, single man who has worked for the company for years, far longer than the Narrator. Singlebury, a dedicated worker, enjoys routines and order. He wears the same outfit on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, reserving a different one for Tuesdays and Thursdays. He works in a small cubby-hole adjoining the Narrator’s office, a space he keeps tidy and methodically arranged. Whenever the Narrator needs to know the date, Singlebury is the only worker who can cite it with certainty. Though Singlebury’s workload is heavy, he doesn’t complain; his entire life revolves around his job.
As the Narrator describes Singlebury, the assistant he must fire, a different side to the Narrator emerges. Though he doesn’t expressly say that he disagrees with the Superior’s business practices, he does stress that Singlebury is a model worker, one the firm will be sorry to lose. Singlebury, he says, is exceptionally organized and hardworking. By describing Singlebury’s merits at length, the Narrator reveals that he isn’t unbothered by the Superior’s orders after all; rather, he is repressing his feelings about having to fire Singlebury. The cubby-hole, an important symbol, serves to highlight the ways in which Singlebury is both imprisoned by and neglected within the firm.
Active
Themes
Still addressing the Superior, the Narrator continues the report by describing a problem with humidity in the building, which creates a strange smell; he can’t say why, but he associates this odor with the fact that he must fire the employees. Singlebury tells the Narrator that the odor isn’t in fact related to humidity. Rather, it is “the smell of disappointment.” He relates a story about how the office building was requisitioned during World War II. Wives of missing soldiers would wait there to receive word about their loved ones. The bad news they received produced the smell that still lingers decades later. The Narrator is surprised to learn that Singlebury has worked at the office for so long.
Active
Themes
The Narrator turns to what happened when he carried out the orders to fire the employees. Two young women, having heard rumors of their dismissal, aren’t bothered because they’ve already found other jobs. Mrs. Horrocks, who works in the filing department, is offended and inquires about severance pay. Before the Narrator approaches Singlebury, Patel, another worker in the office, warns the Narrator that firing Singlebury is equivalent to killing him. But Singlebury, to the Narrator’s surprise, takes the news calmly. When his last day approaches, he invites the Narrator to his home for dinner.
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The Narrator and Singlebury take the Underground to Singlebury’s neighborhood, an outlying district in London. Singlebury lives in a single room with a shared bathroom and no kitchen, so Singlebury has to go to a nearby restaurant to pick up dinner. After they eat, the two men have a curious conversation about the relationship between the mind and the body. The Narrator concedes that one can affect the other, but Singlebury makes a stranger claim, arguing that they are one and the same. “The mind is the blood,” he insists. Singlebury walks the Narrator to the bus stop, and before they part ways, he reveals how much his dismissal has upset him. He wonders how he will manage and hopes he has performed his duties to the company’s satisfaction. The Narrator, embarrassed, is grateful that the bus arrives soon.
After Singlebury is gone, the Narrator is surprised to discover how much work his assistant was doing. He begins staying late in order to maintain the office’s operations. Noting that Singlebury’s cubby-hole is exactly as it always was, he fears that the man might come to work despite his dismissal. Rumors about Singlebury committing suicide begin to circulate in the office. The Narrator calls them unfounded, but he nevertheless asks his wife, a social worker, to look in on Singlebury. She visits his apartment, but he isn’t there, and none of his neighbors have seen him. On the Friday of that week, Patel quits because he claims the strange smell in the office is making him sick.
On the same Friday that Patel quits, the Superior summons the Narrator to his home for a party. The Narrator isn’t pleased because he suspects it’s a reward for firing the workers, which he views as an injustice. As the evening of the party winds to a close, the Superior checks to make sure the Narrator carried out his orders, and the Narrator sarcastically uses Singlebury’s words from earlier, telling his boss that he hopes he performed his duties—that is, the dismissals—to the company’s satisfaction. As the Narrator leaves, he begins to feel his resentment shifting into anxiety. When two of the Superior’s servants hand him his coat, the Narrator sees that the collar is covered in blood. The illusion fades, but he still feels uneasy.
The Narrator’s nervousness grows over the weekend, and the following Monday, he stays at work during after-hours. The strange smell permeating the office has grown rancid. When he returns to the office after getting a late meal, it feels different, primarily because of the small sounds echoing in the dark, empty space. He begins climbing the stairs and experiences the uncanny sensation of being watched. By the third floor, he hears footsteps following him. The Narrator claims he isn’t surprised and in fact has been expecting them.
After reaching his floor, the Narrator pauses at the door to Singlebury’s cubby-hole, which he must pass through to get to his office. In that moment, he sees Singlebury at the end of the hallway, walking toward him in a strange manner, his head bobbing wildly from side to side. At first, the Narrator assumes Singlebury is drunk. But when he enters the cubby-hole and Singlebury follows, the Narrator sees that Singlebury’s throat has been slit and his head is almost entirely severed. Singlebury’s eyes are filmy, reminding the Narrator of an animal carcass. Horrified and physically ill, the Narrator hurries inside his office and locks the door behind him, leaving Singlebury alone in the cubby-hole.
The Narrator sits at his desk and tries to work on a file related to getting rid of the strange smell in the office, but he is too distracted by the sound of Singlebury looking through his desk drawers in the adjoining room. Instead, the Narrator decides to write his report to the Superior—the document the reader has been reading all along. After reasoning that the figure of Singlebury is either a ghost or an actual man whose blood is now seeping under his door frame, the Narrator concludes the report by stating that he is currently writing with his back to the door to the cubby-hole. That way, he won’t learn the truth.
