Question

What does this mean “I've somehow run myself into hell. There must be many entrances.” ?

Answer 1

This quote is from famous novel “Henry and Cato” by Iris Murdoch.

In one scenario, Henry was sitting in front of Titian’s great picture. His violently beating heart was slowly calming a little. He kept his eyes fixed on the picture as in an activity of prayer.

He thought that he can never speak of his heart to Colette, or to anyone. Then Henry exclaims “ I’ve somehow run myself into hell. There must be many entrances.” He understands that whatever has happened to him in past and these days are things like hell and it happened to him due to one or more reasons. It seems he is not happy with his life.

Then, he says to himself:

“I won’t write to Colette. I’ll send her a little air letter saying nothing, from Sperriton. Three weeks from now I shall be home in Sperriton and I shall be married and this whole nightmare will be over. I shall be with Russell and Bella—and Stephanie. And my life will be simple and I shall have simple duties: to make Stephanie happy, to live at peace, to teach my pupils, to drink martinis with my friends and tear along the freeway in my automobile. All the violence will be over. I shall be back again with the innocent ones, in the land of innocence, thank God.”

This shows that in his mind Henry is trying to avoid all the hellish situations and violence and returning back to the normal life.

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