The Shudder of the Thought

This chapter attempts to understand how Turner had arrived in his decision to rebel—and thus, to kill—and what gave him the conviction to see the enterprise through. The Confessions contains little information regarding that aspect of Turner's thought, though it does provide a few clues. The chapter shows that the Turner whose invisible decision exists in the text's cleft is not a tragic hero. Everything that Turner has revealed of himself in the first part of The Confessions underlines not tragic heroism, but faith. But Turner was no gloomy fanatic, according to this chapter, which goes on to describe Turner as the “knight of faith” embodied in the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard.