MAN AND GOD
“The heart of Man is not compound of lies,
but draws some wisdom from the only Wise,
and still recalls Him"
(Mythopoeia - JRR Tolkien)
The relationship between an author and religion is a very intimate matter, every autor has thei own relationship and view of God and we are here to analyze all the different approaches to God.
John Donne
John Donne was one of the main authors of his period and in his works, we can easily find his connection with God and religion. To Donne, his love of God resides in phisicality: in one of his most famous works, “Batter my heart”, he literally asks God to shake his vital parts as he is a sinner and married to Satan, and he asks God to help him escape this sin. In this verses we can see a paradox made by the author: he wants to be set free and the only way to do this, is being a slave of God. This is an example of the unique relationship that John Donne has with the figure of God. He uses a strong vocabulary to represent an even stronger image.
Another thought of Donne can be perceived in his work “No man is an island”, in which God is represented as the author of a book that is humankind. He controlls everything that happens and makes that all the pages, that are the men, are together. Not even one page can be missing, because it needs to be entire to work in the right way. In this meaning, we can also understand the title because no man is isolated. He also declares that the union with God is made by death, that is like a bell tolling and everyone can hear it. This is a metaphor to represent the only future of every human being and how one day we will all connect with God.
John Milton
John Milton is the author of “Paradise Lost”, poem in which the main theme is religion and relationship between God and Satan. In fact, it is a religious epic poem and through the pages, we can read about the struggle against the evil and the hope for redemption.
The subjects of Satan and God and in contrast as Satan, desperate of power, leads an unsuccessful fight against God: his army confront the other fallen angels in hell. Satan feel equal to God only in intellectual power and this is important, because reason can make things look different.
For example, as he still is an angel, decides that hell is only a state of mind, as consequence to his fall from Heaven. At the same time, Lucifer admits that he can’t be as much powerful as God in force.
“What shall be right: farthest from him is best
Whom reason hath equall’d, force hath made supreme
Above his equals.”
Daniel Defoe
For Defoe God is the prime cause of everything even if man can decide his destiny making good decisions and actions. > (For example the island, in which Crusoe lived, was a prove for him, to see if he deserved the Divine Providence)
Robinson does not pray to God to be freed from the island but to be forgiven of his sins (salvation is only spiritual, not material)
The bible is a guide for fighting evil and not sinning. The bible also becomes a comfort
Samuel Richardson
Richardson talks about the relationship between man and god in the work Pamela where Pamela turns to Mr Williams, a priest, when she needs help and guidance
A print by John Boydell: it represents Pamela showing Mr Williams a hiding place for her letters.
Bram Stoker
Dracula's novel was written at a time when the relationship between man and god was lived in a different way. Dracula embodies anti-Christian values. He is a Victorian antihero. He is a foreigner and is far from values such as respect, honesty and chasity
William Blake
It is known that Blake was a christian man. In his lifetime he argued that the only way to understand Christ is because of knowledge. Some critics said that, he also thought that God and Christ were on the same level: God was not a supreme being placed outside of human capacity; in fact, he is something that is located in every human being. As he said in Raine 35 "There is a throne in every man, it is the throne of God", which means that everyone has a part of God and Jesus inside of them.
Anyway, Blake’s religious beliefs were clearly exposed in his poetry and works. They were unique and really eccentric. To him, the true God was Human Imagination and he said multiple times that he didn’t need to be saved, because he was his own Christ.
He was attracted by the spiritual world and in total contrast with regulated religion.
We can say that William Blake was a scholar of the bible, but at the same time he had some original ideas that in some way also created his own mytologhy. This particular idea can be found also in modern literature: J.R.R. Tolkien is a perfect example. He thought that what inspired him to create his stories was something that belongs in every human being. Why? The reason is that we all are object of God’s creation and, as he has this ability, we all have something that is similar. Our natural instinct obviously can’t be as powerful as His: as product of His work, we got the ability to subcreate in our world.
Somehow, this image has the same basis to Blake’s ideas: humankind is formed by some parts that belong to God.
We can relate to this quote by JRR Tolkien in his essay On Fairy Stories:
“Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.”
The frontispiece to the 1831 Frankenstein by Theodor von Holst, one of the first two illustrations for the novel
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley had an irreligious life: in the first place, she had a morbous attachment to her father and this kind of relationship was an important issue during her life, because he also had a non-religious life. Then, in her maturity she got into a relationship with a married man. as we can see with these features, religion was not an important part of her life.
It is believed that in her most famous work “Frankeinstein” there’s a moral allegory that represents a critique to science and a warning to humanity: they should be aware of God’s power and not take it as a joke. In the story, the author uses ideas that weren’t morally correct at the time, in contrast with the Judeo-Christian theology. Frankestein represents the way religion can direct people away from true morality and this characteristic relate to the time in which this piece of literature was written, but also to the modern period.
Mary Shelley’s religious beliefs are generally unknown, but from her works we can perceive her preference of spiritual and scientific ideas over the traditional christian ones.
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth has a panheistic view of nature because he identifies the natural univers with God. For this reason the communion with Nature is morally uplifting.
This is a work by Gustave Dorè called "I shot the Albatross" and represents the moment of the killing of the Albatross
Samuel T. Coleridge
He talks about the relationship between man and god in the rime of the ancient mariner. When he killed the albatross, he acted against god. He has to love all the creatures because they are all creatures of God. Nature is the manifestation of God. "Everything is define"