English Literature

Religion and God are two topics that show up, intentionally or subliminally, in most pieces of literature. Because religion is present in some form in the lives of most people, it stands to reason that it is usually a contributing influence or driving force in the works of writers. Religion is not necessarily a positive presence in literature in fact, it frequently causes turmoil or angst in characters. The conflict of religion in humanity and the way that religious views and events affect people and their lives is often reflected in literature. It can be seen in references to actual religious figures or events, stories centered on the church or practices of a particular sect or denomination, or in the internal struggle of characters with religious values and morals within their own lives and relationships. Writers often choose to represent their own conflicts with religion or beliefs in the lives and feelings of their characters, making them wrestle with the same dilemmas. The theme of religion and the conflict that it can cause in both a characters life and soul are elements that all readers can recognize, understand and relate to. Again, religion and the emotional issues that come with family or ethnic history, personal belief conflicts or ethical dilemmas are all things that most people face in their lives at some point. So writers can express feelings or issues with religion in their writing and readers can sympathize with the characters wrestling with religious conflicts for the same reason religion is something that everyone has strong feelings about, be they positive or negative. In both A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and The Virgin and the Gipsy, James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence present characters for which religion plays a significant role in their lives. For Joyce, the character is a representation of himself as a young boy, dealing with religion against the backdrop of cultural divides in Ireland between Catholicism and Protestantism, and confronting issues of damnation and salvation while coming of age in the shadow of the Catholic Church. Lawrences characters are fictional, but also live with religious undertones as an influential part of their lives. These novels both present religion as a force that the characters struggle with as they try to find meaning and direction in their lives.

James Joyces character of Steven Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a self-portrait of Joyce himself growing up in Ireland. From the novels beginning, it is plain that religion was a source of emotion and conflict for Joyce and all the people of Ireland during this time, and that Joyce struggled as a boy to understand the issues and why so many of his fellow Irish and members of his own family are at odds over issues involving Catholicism and Protestantism. The fight that Stevens father and uncle have over Christmas dinner is a good example of the national conflict influencing family ties and causing tension within an otherwise tightly knit family. Steven had been looking forward to going home for dinner and begins as a happy family gathering, but as soon as the discussion turns to politics, his father and uncle start a heated argument. The argument centers on feelings for or against Charles Stewart Parnell. Parnell was a much-debated Irish figure because of his being rejected by the Catholic Church after having an affair. As a result, the Catholics in Ireland had strong feelings about aligning themselves for or against him, and whether or not one was in support of Parnell was seen as loyalty or disloyalty towards the Catholic Church. Stevens father and uncle argue about this, among other political and religious issues, and the argument becomes so heated with such offensive language that Stevens mother reprimands them both for speaking that way in front of Steven and tells them theyre ruining Christmas dinner, a reproach that doesnt stop either of them from yelling. During the argument, Steven is silent, trying to follow along with the debate and understand what it is that has his family so upset and why it matters. Its clear that young Steven doesnt understand why the people being discussed are worth so much discord in the family or the country. He doesnt understand the issues, and views religion as something that is dividing his family.

As Steven reaches puberty, he begins having lustful thoughts and sexual fantasies, which he scolds himself for doing because he recognizes it as a sin. But as his feelings grow, he stops caring so much. He cared little that he was in mortal sinHe wanted to sin with another of his kind, to force another being to sin with him and to exult with her in sin (105,106). He has spent so much of his childhood at religious school and church hearing over and over again how horrible it is to sin, that it becomes something he wants to experience. Once he starts appeasing his sexual desires with the prostitutes in the brothels, he realizes almost indifferently that he is damned and that there can be no atonement for him. As strongly as he has been taught to obey the Catholic Church, it is ironic that here he finds no refuge or solace in the ability to pray for forgiveness to absolve himself of sin. Instead, he feels that he is damned. His pride in his own sin, his loveless awe of God, told him that his offence was too grievous to be atoned for in whole or in part by a false homage to the Allseeing and Allknowing (111).

There are several passages in which religious stances and lessons are seen to contrast and be at odds with one another. Steven compares himself to the sentence of Saint James, feeling that his giving in to carnal sin was a gateway for him to commit many other sins that he could never atone for, yet later he feels pious and almost reborn in his newfound devotion to God and his religious studies. He hears a sermon in which he is reminded of the power of, the holy Catholic Church against which, it is promised, the gates of hell shall not prevail (128) but the rest of the sermon is a detailed description of the physical, emotional and spiritual torture suffered by those damned to hell. It is easy to see why Steven has mixed feelings and confusion about his devotion to the church and doubts about his own salvation when he is receiving mixed messages from the Catholic fathers that are supposed to be his authority figures and religious teachers.

The main characters in The Virgin and the Gipsy are sisters Yvette and Lucille. Though their father is a church leader and rector, there is ironically little religious instruction or influence in the home. All members of the rectors family are described as hating one another and resenting each other. The girls openly admit to each other that they despise church activities and choir participation and scheme to avoid it whenever possible. They lie to their grandmother, a woman that is represented as being hateful and spiteful instead of being a wise family matriarch, and mock their Aunt Cissie. The family is depicted as being miserable in spite of the fathers strong involvement in the church, there is clearly no religious influence at home leading the girls to behave gracefully, honestly or morally.

In spite of the lack of religious influence or pious behavior, Yvette and Lucille refer to themselves as godly and Christian several times and still feel, in spite of their arrogance and indifferent treatment towards their family members, that they are holy, pure women. When they meet the gypsies for the first time, they are set apart from her in a religious light instead of an ethnic one the six fresh-faced young Christians hung back rather reluctantly from this pagan pariah woman (473). The girls have done nothing overtly Christian and have no real religious devotion, nor do they know anything about the womans religious ties, but they and their companions are separated from the gipsy woman by their different religions. When they leave the gipsy woman, Yvette explains why she gave the woman extra money for telling her fortune with another religious inference You have to be a bit lordly with people like that (476). Again, she refers to herself as being aligned with God and holy, while insinuating that the woman is baser, lower or farther from God than she is by calling her people like that. Immediately following the fortune telling, it is revealed that Yvette took money that was supposed to be for a church collection fund and spent it on herself. This selfish theft is the furthest thing from Godly behavior, but she is still referred to as having lordly airs (477). It is as though Yvette doesnt want to be bothered to actually devote herself to God or her faith, but still feels justified in aligning herself with the church and calling herself a Christian in spite of her sinful behavior because her father is a rector and she views herself in a higher social standing than those around her.

There is also a presence of religious prejudice in the novel evidenced by the Jewish woman that Yvette meets while visiting the gipsy man. She is referred to only as the Jewess and is described with many of the stereotypes that were commonly associated with Jewish people. She has a big nose, is wealthy and cares a great deal about money. When the rector learns that Yvette has befriended the woman, he is more offended that the woman is Jewish than the fact that she is having an affair while still married, in spite of his own wifes infidelity and abandonment. This shows clear prejudice based on religion, a view that was considered socially acceptable.

Perhaps the most obvious presence of religion in the novel is the flood at the end. Yvette is told by the fortune teller to watch for water and is almost swept away when the reservoir breaks and the river overflows its banks. The flood destroys the house and kills the grandmother, and would have killed Yvette too if she wasnt saved by the gipsy man. He is a member of a group to which Yvette feels superior, but she has been drawn to the man throughout the novel and it is his quick action that saves her. They take shelter in her upstairs room because it is secure and will withstand the flood, much like Noah took shelter on the ark. The flood destroys the rest of the house, symbolically washing the house and family clean of the anger, resentment and negativity that had lived there in the hearts of the family members towards each other. Again, this mirrors Gods causing the flood to wipe out the sin and evil in the world. Though the novel ends shortly after this event, the reader is given a sense that with the death of the grandmother and the flooding of the home, the family is going to be forced to begin again, both in the material and the spiritual sense.

In both these novels, religious ties and devotion, or the lack of it, influences the actions of the characters. There is struggle with personal guilt over sins committed and sins committed with no guilt apparently felt at all due to selfish self-justification. Steven dealt with an offer to join the priesthood shortly after feeling that he was damned to eternal hell for the sins he had committed, and chose to reject it. Yvette came to see the power of God only after a natural disaster nearly claimed her life. The two had very different perspectives on God, with Steven acknowledging that religion and the Catholic Church were a driving force in his life, his family and his country. Yvette rejected the teachings of the church and any sort of devotion in favor of personal pursuits in spite of her fathers religious occupation. They would seem to be complete opposites in terms of influenced or unaffected by faith. But in the end, both had their lives changed by religion and its effects on them as people and their actions. Religion, be it fervent devotion or complete rejection, has the ability to affect anyone and change the course of anyones life. This is the reason that writers include it in their works of literature, and why readers relate to it time and time again.