Concerning Monica’s Role in Augustine’s Conversion; ‘’What Augustine Did Not Confess’’

Concerning Monica’s Role in Augustine’s Conversion; ‘’What Augustine Did Not Confess’’[1]

December 12th, 2009


Saint Monica played a significant role in Saint Augustine’s conversion to Christianity. Nevertheless, I also believe Saint Monica being Saint Augustine’s mother was a significant factor in delaying his conversion. Was Augustine trying to resist his mother’s insistence on his conversion because he did not want to be the Mother-Son? Was he refusing to follow his mother because she was a female after all, considering the inferiority of women in Augustine’s time?

To answer these questions, we need to explore Saint Augustine’s childhood and boyhood in addition to his relationship with his parents. Exploring Augustine’s relationships with women will be extremely helpful to articulate women’s role in his time. Moreover, exploring the conditions of North African women in late Roman Empire will be highly beneficial in order to find out if the social view of women contributed to the delay of Augustine’s conversion.

Saint Augustine considered women inferior to men in regards of rationality and reason. We can find evidence for that in his works specifically his Confessions and City of God. We also can find evidence for the inferiority of women in general in North Africa in the late Roman Empire. Felecia McDuffie in her article Augustine’s Rhetoric of the Feminine in the Confessions: Women as Mother, Woman as Other quotes Peter Brown to assert the difficulty of studying Augustine’s psychological life because she thinks a psychological study of him requires one to combine ‘’ competence as an historian with sensitivity as a psychologist’’[2]. Considering this opinion, I will try to draw evidence from Augustine’s own works and the social history of his time to support my thesis.


Inferiority of Women in Augustine’s Works
Early on, in Augustine’s description of women in book one of his Confessions; he referred to women as passive creatures. When he talked about himself as an infant, he mentioned ‘’ the comfort of woman’s milk’’.[3] However, his usage of that phrase cannot be interpreted in a positive view of women because ‘’ He describes his mother and nurses as passive conduits through which God provides the food that gives him life’’.[4] Although Augustine saw women as tools to serve God’s will , he on the other hand saw them more like obedient servants who did not have much choice in living’’ unselfishly and naturally ‘’ according to ‘’the abundance’’ that God provided them with. [5] Apparently, Augustine did not seem comfortable in giving women credit for their service of God or for their care of their children; because he believed that they are only recipients of what God put in them.

Moreover, in Augustine’s depiction of women in his Confessions, he associated women with the lower faculties and desires in general. He considered his inability to control his desire for women as the major reason of him drawing away from God’s path. He even talked about that desire as a ‘’ metaphorical woman ‘’ who opposes ‘’ the law of God and the control of male reason’’. [6] Thus, Augustine thought of woman as a ‘’ dangerous other’’ whom he tried to avoid her temptation. [7]

Augustine was extremely explicit in expressing his awareness of the danger of women and in addressing it to other men as well. He wrote a letter that he addressed to a young man where he clarified: ‘’ What is the difference whether it is in a wife or a mother, it is still Eve (the temptress) that we must be aware of in any woman’’. [8] This statement is a perfect embodiment of Augustine’s attitude towards women as a major source of temptation that caused man’s downfall. This view was stretched out in Augustine’s works to include mothers too, as if Augustine thought that motherhood cannot change the original nature of women to which he referred as ‘’ the temptress ‘’.[9] Hence as Augustine became a bishop, he chose to distant himself from women and moved in ‘’ a monochrome, all-male world’’ as Peter Brown stated. [10] Furthermore, he set up strict regulations for his own clergy regarding sexual avoidance. He never visited a woman without a company in addition to preventing his female relatives to enter the bishop’s palace.[11]

Speaking of women as ‘’ the temptress’’ brings up Augustine’s understanding and interpretation of the fall of creation in The City of God, books 13 and 14. Augustine did not hold Eve responsible for the fall of humankind because he considered Adam as ‘’ the actual transmitter of original sin to the human race’’.[12] Augustine stated in the 13th book of The City of God:’’ the seed that flowed from [Adam] ‘’ is what made ‘’ this bitter sea, the human race’’.[13] He used the analogy of ‘’seed’’ to refer to the continuous growth of the seed of that sin among humans and through ages. The ‘’ bitter sea ‘’ on the other hand refers to the uncontrollable growth of man’s sin, which resembles the uncontrollable waves of the sea. Moreover, as the bitter taste of the seawater makes it undrinkable even though it is plenty, the ‘’ bitter sea’’ of human race is useless (because of the taint of sin) despite the magnificence of it in number.

Felecia McDuffie thinks that Augustine’s blaming Adam for the fall of man enforces the inferiority in which he viewed women ;‘’ Augustine’s assignment of responsibility for original sin to Adam lies not in any desire to exonerate Eve, but rather , in his belief in her inferior position’’. [14]Augustine blamed Adam for the original sin because the rational faculties of women according to him were in question. In fact, in the 12th book of The City of God Augustine asserted the fact that Eve was made out of Adam’s body which suggests her secondarily existence in contrast to his primarily existence.

Therefore, its unsurprising that Augustine in the 14th book of The City of God explained why the wily serpent goes to Eve first by stating ‘’ no doubt starting with the inferior of the human pair so as to arrive at the whole by stages, supposing that the man would not be so easily gullible’’.[15] Even though Augustine confirmed in his Confessions that Adam should have resisted Eve’s temptation and controlled it by his reason, he still thought of Eve as the inferior ‘’ human pair ‘’ through whom Adam fell and the entire human race did accordingly. Furthermore, Augustine confirmed that men are less likely to sin and be tempted since they are more powerful and in control than women are ‘’ the man would not be so easily gullible’’.[16]

Therefore, in the 13th book of his Confessions Augustine stated; ‘In the physical sense, woman has been made for man. In her mind and her rational intelligence she has a nature the equal of man’s, but in sex she is physically subject to him in the same way as our natural impulses need to be subjected to the reasoning power of the mind, in order that the actions to which they lead may be inspired by the principles of good conduct.’’ [17] Not only was Augustine objectifying women but also he was referring to them as sexual objects that man owns. Even though he claimed that women have equal rational faculties as men, he still thought of them as not actually equal in this regard. In fact, Augustine believed that women do not have ‘’ the reasoning power’’ that men have which he thought is ‘’ inspired by the principles of good conduct’’. [18] Augustine thought that women should be ‘’ subjected to the reasoning power of the mind ‘’ that men possess exclusively, in order to act according to ‘’ the principles of good conduct’’.[19]


The inferiority Of Women in Augustine’s Letters
E. Ann Matter in her article De Cura feminarum: Augustine the Bishop, North African Women and the Development of a Theology of Female Nature, she explores Augustine’s letters to women to draw conclusions about his relationship with women. In one of Augustine’s undated letters after he had become a bishop in 395, he wrote to a married woman (Ecdicia), whom complained about her husband’s adultery after her taking on an ascetic life upon which her husband did not agree. Augustine blamed Ecdicia and held her responsible for her husband’s unfaithfulness ‘’ since she drove him to take a mistress’’.[20] Matter refers to the conflicts aroused in the fifth century Christian society because of wives choosing to have ascetic lives. However, she does not refer to conflicts resulted from husbands’ choice to have ascetic life which suggests that wives, in contrast of husbands, did not have the right to complain about it. This leads me to wonder if Augustine would hold husbands who took an ascetic life responsible in case their wives had committed adultery. Since Augustine believed that women were meant to serve as means to satisfy men’s biological need, he would not hold men guilty for driving their wives to adultery when husbands do not satisfy their biological needs, because he would not think that men have to play this role with their wives.[21] This suggests the inferiority of women and the assumed (physical, intellectual and spiritual) superiority of men in Augustine’s eyes.

Augustine wrote twenty –three letters for women including letters of consolation (e.g. Letter 92 to Italica in the loss of her husband).[22] Some of Augustine’s letters to women contain religious and spiritual advice (e.g. Letter 147 to Paulina, On the Vision of God). [23] Those letters suggest the guiding role Augustine played with those women, a role that one usually plays with someone assumedly inferior to him in a way or another. Other letters Augustine wrote for women included letters for wealthy women who helped in spreading Pelagian ideas in North Africa, which suggests the theological purposes those letters served. Most of Augustine’s letters to women from 410 until 418 were addressed to rich noble women who took refuge in North Africa after the sack of Rome.[24] Some of those women (Melania the Elder, Albina, Melania the Younger, Proba and Juliana) brought wealth to the area in addition to ‘’ some theological positions’’.[25] These kind of letters suggest both the theological and the social purposes they served.


Saint Augustine and Women in North Africa

Rebecca Moore quotes the description of Olympias, a virgin and companion of John Chrysostom, in which the qualities religious men valued in women were mentioned ‘’a life without vanity, an appearance without pretense, character without affection, a face without adornment…an immaterial body, a mind without vainglory , intelligence without conceit , an untroubled heart , [and] an artless spirit ‘’.[26] Moore suggests that some authors use such models of women who transcend their gender, in order to communicate their theological ideas.[27] Those authors are concerned with the theological and philosophical reflection of those models more than the historical depiction of them.

Contemplating other qualities women were praised for in North Africa in the late antiquity, we notice the trend of valuing women who abandon their children in order to devote themselves to a religious vocation. The ascendency of Christianity in the Roman Empire caused asceticism as a vocational choice to flourish in the fourth and the fifth century. [28]Moreover, the association of sexuality with ‘patriarchal marriage’ made sexual repression admirable. [29] Nevertheless, Saint Augustine praised Monica for not leaving her children and sacrificing the ascetic life she wanted to pursue. At the same time, when Augustine praised Monica’s faith, he referred to it as a’’ strong faith of a man ‘’ which suggests the association of strong faith and masculinity in Augustine’s mind.[30] From this association I infer that Augustine regarded masculinity, in contrast with femininity, as the source of strong faith and close connection with God.

Augustine referred to the conditions of women in his time while talking about his mother: ‘’ Many women, whose faces were disfigured by blows from husbands far sweeter-tempered than her own, used to gossip together and complain of the behavior of their men folk‘’. [31] Augustine carried on and mentioned how women were surprised since they had not seen marks that show that his father had beaten Monica. [32]


Augustine’s Parents and His Conversion

W. Paul Elledget in his article Embracing Augustine: Reach, Restraint, and Romantic Resolution in the Confessions refers to William James’ definition of conversion as ‘’ a satisfactory response to the threat of pathological disintegration’’. [33] Elledget adds his explanation of Saint Augustine’s conversion as ‘’ an effort to resolve an oedipal conflict’’ which is resulted, in James’ opinion, from ‘’ unconscious forces’’ accompanied with ‘’ manipulation by other persons’’. [34] This opinion affirms the contribution of both internal factors ‘’ the unconscious forces’’ and external factors ‘’ the manipulation by other persons’’ to the conversion of Saint Augustine. Interestingly, both factors, the internal (concerning Augustine’s complicated relationships with women generally and his mother specifically) and the external (concerning the theological and social view of women in his time), are formulated by Saint Augustine’s relationship with his mother since she was the first female he was exposed to in his life.

Allison refers to the significance of Augustine’s conversion in filling the void of his father’s absence in Augustine’s life. He stresses that Augustine’s conversion served as a substitute to his ‘’deficient, weak, or absent father ‘’.[35] He replaced his parental figure with his parental God in order to fulfill his need for ‘’ a strong, principled, protective paternal figure’’.[36] At the same time, Augustine’s conversion as Allison asserts ‘’ offsets a powerful urge toward reestablishing or maintaining a sense of symbiotic union with the mother’’.[37] By embracing God; the Mother of all, Augustine satisfied his ‘’ impulse toward fusion with the mother’. [38] With Augustine’s unity with God as a Mother, he both succeeded in separating himself from his mother and in restoring his relationship with his original mother; God.


Augustine and Rejecting the Femininity of Mothers
Saint Augustine was aware of the significance of the role Saint Monica played in his life at all levels. Thus, he wrote to her memory at Cassiciacum: ‘’ To her merit I believe I owe all that I am ‘’.[39] Saint Augustine confessed that all what the success he gained in his life both at the secular and the spiritual level is because of his mother. Therefore , he owed his mother not only what did he become but also what he was ,because what he was is what formulated and resulted in what he became later on in this life. Furthermore, this saying indicates that Augustine believed that he could not repay his mother what she sacrificed and gave to him. If someone owes another something or part of what he is, he probably will be able to repay him/her back. However, Augustine asserted that his mother made him who he was including what he was and what he will be which suggests that he believed that he could not repay her what he owed her. Aristotle talked justified the fact that sons cannot repay their parents ‘’for they cannot become parents of their parents’’.[40]

In spite of that, Augustine always viewed women as the dangerous’’ other ‘’except for mothers whom he placed in a distant ‘’realm ‘’ which was closer not to humanity but to divinity.[41] In fact, even though Augustine viewed God as a Mother, he tried to take away the earthly feminine dimension of mothers when talking about God the Mother. McDuffie suggests that Augustine was not able to ‘’ transcend what he saw as the ordering of creation and wary of the danger of woman as other’’.[42] Thus, Augustine seemed to ‘’masculinize or idealize the female figures he considers virtuous’’ throughout his works. [43] In brief, Augustine not only did place women in a lower rank in the ordering of creation, but he also ‘masculinized’ the traits he found positive in women generally and mothers specifically.


Conclusion

Displaying some of Augustine’s works (texts and letters) and their interpretations in addition to Augustine’s life and the inferiority of women at all levels in North Africa in his time, I infer that Augustine didn’t feel particularly at ease in following his mother‘s call for his conversion. For someone like Augustine who is both religious and logical and who looks down to women as all men in his time , it would not look right to follow a woman in a crucial matter like religion. Therefore, I conclude that Monica being Augustine’s mother , also considering the fact that he didn’t have a parental example figure, attributed in a way or in another in delaying Augustine’s conversion to Christianity.


Bibliography

Biddinger, Mary. "Saint Monica and the Itch ." The Laurel Review , 2008: 20-21.
Cameron, Michael. "Don't We Have Any '' Church Mothers'' ?" U.S. Catholic , 2006: 41.
E.Dittes, James. "Augustine : Search For A Fail-Safe God To Trust ." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion , 1986: 57-63.
E.Dittes, James. "Continuities Between The Life And Thought of Augustine ." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion , Oct56: 131-140.
Elledge, W.Paul. "Embracing Augustine : Reach,Restraint, and Romantic Resolution in the Confessions." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion , 1988: 72-89.
Gay, Volney. "Augustine : The Reader As Selfobject ." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion , 1986: 64-75.
Hamm, Dennis. "Monica's Prayer ." America , 1998: 31.
J.O'dnnell, James. Augustine.A New Biography . New York : HarperCollins Publishers , 2005.
Matter, E.Ann. "De cura feminarum : Augustine the Bishop , North African Women, and the Development of a Theology of Female Nature ." Feminist Interpretations of Augustine , 2005,Vol 36,no.1: 87-98.
Moore, Rebecca. "O Mother , Where Art Thou ? In Search of Saint Monica ." Feminist Interpretations of Augustine , 2007: 148-166.
Quinn., John M. Companion to the confessions of St. Augustine. New York : Lang, 2002.
R.Nielsen, Cynthia. "Notes And Comments,ST.Augustine On Text And Reality ( And A Little Gadamerian Spice)." The Heythrop Journal , 2009: 98-108.

[1] (J.O'dnnell 2005) Referring to the general idea mentioned in the book of what Augustine did not confess.
[2] (Mcduffie 2007, 99)
[3] Ibid (99)
[4] Ibid (99)
[5] Ibid (99)
[6] (Mcduffie 2007, 106)
[7] Ibid (106)
[8] Ibid (106)
[9] Ibid (106)
[10] Ibid (106)
[11] Ibid (106)
[12] Ibid (104)
[13] (Mcduffie 2007, 104)
[14] Ibid (104)
[15] Ibid (104)
[16] (Mcduffie 2007, 104)
[17] Ibid (105)
[18] Ibid (105)
[19] Ibid (105)
[20] (Matter 2005,Vol 36,no.1, 209)
[21] In his Questions on the Heptateuch, dated 419, he says women were made to serve men.
[22] Ibid (204)
[23] Ibid (211)
[24] Ibid (206)
[25] Ibid (206-207)
[26] (Moore 2007, 147)
[27] Ibid (148)
[28] Ibid (152)
[29] Ibid (152)
[30] (Moore 2007, 149)
[31] Ibid (154)
[32] Ibid (154)
[33] (Elledge 1988)
[34] Ibid (74)
[35] (Elledge 1988, 74)
[36] Ibid (74)
[37] Ibid (74)
[38] Ibid (74)
[39] (Quinn. 2002, 498)
[40] (Quinn. 2002, 513)
[41] (Mcduffie 2007, 101)
[42]Ibid (117)
[43] Ibid (117)

Unveiling Roskolinkov’s Philosophy

Unveiling Roskolinkov’s Philosophy

Introduction

In Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment, Rodion Raskolinkov is a poor intellectual man who is a former law student and who is depressed and unable to pay his rent. He is preoccupied with philosophy and its theories and thinks that he will contribute to the world’s great works. He has the urge to prove, to himself before others, his superiority to common people. He decides to kill Alyona Ivanovna, an old moneylender who was harassing him and other people about their loans. He finds good justifications to kill the woman and he makes his plans to do so. It ends up that he kills the woman along with her sister, Lizaveta, whom he was surprised to find there.

Before Raskolinkov confesses his crime, he goes through a tough psychological and philosophical inner conflict. Porfiry Petrovich, the detective that investigates the murder case, is one of the factors that aroused that conflict and helped in bringing it to its end, the confession. Petrovich plays some psychological games and uses his knowledge of criminals’ psyche to make him confess voluntarily. He reveals some of his psychological tricks in Part IV Chapter V:

What is it, to run away! A mere formality; that's not the main thing; no, he won't run away on me by a law of nature, even if he has somewhere to run to. Have you ever seen a moth near a candle? Well, so he'll keep circling around me, circling around me, as around a candle; freedom will no longer be dear to him, he'll fall to thinking, get entangled, he'll tangle himself all up as in a net, he'll worry himself to death! He’ll keep on making circles around me, narrowing the radius more and more, and—whop! He'll fly right into my mouth, and I'll swallow him, sir, and that will be most agreeable, heh, heh, heh!

(161)

In spite of that, Petrovich embodies the intellectual side of Raskolinkov which is challenged by his spiritual side which is embodied in Sonia. When Raskolinkov is greatly exposed to both Petrovich and Sonia his inner conflict reaches its climax, which causes him to realize his self-deception and unmask it accordingly. I think Raskolinkov’s conflict is one of the most intense and complex psychological conflicts that can occur within a human being, because it holds contradictory philosophical theories or views along with his complex self-deception.


Thesis

Thinking about Raskolinkov and the different aspects of his personality has motivated me to write about the various philosophical views that were occupying and conflicting his mind. I’m especially interested in juxtaposing Nietzsche’s Superman Theory and Utilitarianism with Kant’s philosophy of morality. I argue that the excessive opposition of the contradictory theories which preoccupied Raskolinkov in the same strength is what caused him to be aware of his self-deception and to decide to confess afterwards.

In addition, I will examine the degree of his self-deception and whether self-deception is more likely to occur only partially or mildly within intellectual individuals in comparison to common people; or, on the other hand, whether it occurs more intensely within intellectuals and makes it overwhelming to their minds. Is that why it doesn’t last long because of their ability to analyze and interpret what is going on in their subconscious mind? It’s hard to make a conclusive determination regarding this issue, but I will argue that self-deception occurs more intensely within intellectuals and that it doesn’t last long because of its complexity and their cognitive abilities to observe the processing and the functioning of their minds.


Rationalization to Support Self-deception

Depressed, desperate and in need of money, Raskolinkov decides to kill the old moneylender. He justifies that desire with the uselessness of that woman. Not only that, but he thinks that she is harmful to people since she is abusing people’s need for money.

He thinks that he will do good to people in two ways: First, by killing her and killing her abuse with herself. Second, he will do good by taking her money and improving his own living conditions, helping his poor mother and finishing his studies and writing his great works that will improve the whole world. So, we see Raskolinkov repeating to himself throughout the course of the novel “she is only a louse!” But the question here is, why did he keep saying that to himself if he really believed that his justification is an unquestionable one? If a person believes that something is morally justified or right, he wouldn’t have such an inner conflict even if it were an implicit one. In other words, a person who knows consciously and subconsciously that what he is doing is right wouldn’t need to remind himself of that or to prove it over and over again. When Raskolinkov confesses to Sonia (his spiritual guide and the voice of his conscience, also called Sofia), he repeats the same sentence to her: “I only killed a louse, Sonia, a useless, vile pernicious louse.” Apparently he was instinctively uncomfortable with the idea although he could find logical justification for his crime. Indeed, he rationalized his crime to disguise his self-deception and escape his guilt.


Awareness and guilt

The observations that Dostoevsky depicts in Raskolinkov’s monologue while committing his crime suggest the fact that he was fully aware of what he was doing. Nothing in the novel refers to him being unconscious or even emotionally stimulated while committing the murder. And yet we don’t see him as a person who has sadistic tendencies. While committing his crime, we can see him as a kind of neutral actor, as if he were playing a role in a scene without being emotionally involved in it. This is the “unconscious reading” which Daniel Goleman refers to in his article, “Insights into Self-deception,” in which the mind selectively ignores facts and emotions that cause psychological tension:

“The evidence includes the startling phenomenon known as ‘unconscious reading’, in which, as psychologists at Cambridge University in England have shown, a person unconsciously registers the meaning of words that are presented to him in such a way that has no conscious awareness of having seen them at all” (1)

After he had killed the woman’s sister, Lizaveta, Raskolinkov started to become anxious, but not to the level that you would expect from an extremely sensitive person as how he is depicted: a person who gives all his money to a family whose father tragically dies and whom he meets only once; a person who gives all the money he had to a girl who wanted to sell her body to be able to eat! A person as compassionate as this should have had a nervous breakdown (or something similar) after murdering that poor innocent victim. But that didn’t happen since his mind blocked that upsetting emotional experience from his awareness. Actually, Raskolinkov himself was surprised that killing Lizaveta didn’t affect him to the level that it should have. And this is when he started to become aware to some extent of his self-deception. He says: “Poor Lizaveta! Why had she to turn up? … It is strange though; I wonder why I hardly ever think of her, as though I had not killed her…” (III.5.234)


Unmasking the unreal motive

The fact that he doesn’t use the woman’s money or anything of her possessions seemed quite weird even for him. And here is where he realizes the failure of the rationalization of his crime. So, he starts to support his rationalization theory by thinking that what bothers him is not the fact he killed the woman, but the fact that he wasn’t a good killer, since he didn’t benefit from it! So, basically Raskolinkov tries to cover up his self-deception with another self-deception! But actually in this point, when he realizes that he doesn’t care to use the woman’s possessions for personal matters, his self-deception becomes more complicated since he starts to question his true motives for that crime. After a long while of wrestling with contradicting assumptions, he decides that he didn’t want to kill the lady herself. Instead, he wanted to kill the concept of life’s injustice and people’s abuse of one another. “I didn’t kill a human being. A principle! I killed a principle!” (78), he says.

“The old woman was a mistake perhaps, but she's not the point! The old woman was merely a sickness … I was in a hurry to step over … it wasn't a human being I killed, it was a principle! So I killed the principle, but I didn't step over, I stayed on this side … All I managed to do was kill. And I didn't even manage that, as it turns out.” (217)

He felt that the existence of that woman in itself was not right, and he thought he could correct that mistake. Basically, he was self-deceived in believing that he had the right to correct the mistakes of life and the flaws of reality. So, I would argue that one of his motives, which also caused his self-deception, was satisfying his ego since he wanted to some extent to rebel against social injustice. Moreover, it might be a natural result of believing in Nietzsche’s Superman Theory.


Nietzsche and Raskolinkov’s Rationalization


Raskolinkov was self-deceived in believing that he could do things that others are not allowed to do since he is a genius and that makes him superior to the regular laws. He believed that he could transcend common laws and act according to what he thought best for humanity. When he was thinking of killing the woman, he was inclined to think that his life is worth more than hers and more than all harmful people like her. In spite of that, he did have instinctively some uneasiness with this theory although he found it logically convincing. And that was because of tension that was caused by the occurrence of self-deception within him. Applying Nietzsche’s theory was the mechanism Raskolinkov used to rationalize his decision to kill the lady. And questioning how the Superman Theory works in reality was the backup support of his complex self-deception. Did Raskolinkov find it workable in reality or did he find it conflicting with human nature?

This is what he said in Chapter 5 of Part Three:

“… I don’t contend that extraordinary people are always bound to commit breaches of morals, as you call it … I simply hinted that an extraordinary man has the right … that is not an official right, but an inner right to decide in his own conscience to overstep… certain obstacles, and only in case it is essential for the practical fulfillment of his idea…” (270)

Was Raskolinkov Utilitarian?

From the Utilitarian point of view, Raskolinkov’s murder was morally acceptable since he was seeking his happiness and his profit. Upon this foundation he calculated the whole notion of murdering the woman. He thought of killing that “louse” as “the best of the worst” if I may say. In other words, he thought that killing her is definitely better than letting her harm all of those people she was harassing. I like to think of Utilitarianism as counting the benefits versus the harms, weighing them and finally going with the heavier side of the scale. Thus, the consequence of the action is what determines if it’s morally accepted or not. This is what Jeremy Bentham states as Mill quoted him in Utilitarianism: “It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.” 

So, this is what Raskolinkov claimed to do when he considered both his own happiness and others’ too. Moreover, he claimed to protect himself and others from the pain that could be caused by the moneylender. That’s how he wanted to achieve the ultimate goal of Utilitarianism; giving people hope and taking away their fear. So, that was Raskolinkov’s other rationalization mechanism in supporting his self-deception.


Intellect vs. spirituality

Applying or examining the utilitarian theory along with the supernatural (Nietzsche’s) is what caused Raskolinkov to be self-deceived about his motivation to commit the murder. Those theories represent the logical or the intellectual dimension of his personality, which is the only side that had control over his conscious mind when he decided about the murder. So, we can assume that he was challenging those theories along with the concepts of reason and intellect they represent since they worked as the assistance of the “mental exotica” that Alfred Mele refers to in Self-deception Unmasked (4). When Petrovich confronts him and discusses with him the article that Raskolinkov wrote about the psychology of criminals, the discussion stimulates him to illustrate his views on the privilege that extraordinary people have in examining their theories in reality. Raskolinkov believes strongly in his philosophical views and can’t hide his devotion to them. So, the intellectual dimension of the action played a significant role in serving his “motivational profile “and his rational explanatory.

This is what Alfred Mele referred to as the “unifying view” of self-deception:

“the FTL analysis of lay hypothesis testing suggests a ‘unifying’ view of self-deception– specifically, the view that, in all cases of self-deception, straight and twisted alike, a tendency to minimize errors that are costly, given the person’s current motivational profile, plays a central explanatory role.” (98)

On the other hand, Raskolinkov wasn’t comfortable with expressing the spiritual dimension of his personality. And that was markedly depicted in his denial of his love to Sonia and in the fact that he refused to take the cross from her, which was a symbol for redemption and salvation. That emotional state stimulated his psychological tension even more and made emotion central in his self-deception.

This is what Raskolinkov said to Sonia when he bowed to her in Chapter 24: “I did not bow down to you; I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity.” (337)

Mele states that “As Douglas Derryberry observes, there is evidence that ‘emotional states facilitate the processing of congruent stimuli’ and that ‘attentional processes are involved in [this] effect’” (99). He also refers to what Ronald de Sousa argues, that “for a variable but always limited time, an emotion limits the range of information that the organism will take into account, the inferences actually drawn from a potential infinity, and the set of live options among which it will choose” (99).

Emotion played that role in Raskolinkov’s self-deception when he believed that by killing the moneylender he was, like Sonia, sacrificing his life for his family, by helping them financially, and for humanity as whole, by getting rid of the harmful lady. That wasn’t realistic since everything in reality was saying that he was sacrificing for himself (contrary to Sonia who devoted her life to take care of her family). Raskolinkov’s main concern was his theories and whether they are applicable in real life or not. Actually, he didn’t try to help his family or sacrifice anything for them because he was more concerned about the conflict of theory and life in the human soul, as he claimed.

So, as both the intellectual and the spiritual side of Raskolinkov were highly reinforced by the existence of Sonia and Petrovich in his life, and as he was motivated to claim that he was challenging the concept of reason or intellect versus faith or spirituality in both real life and in man’s psyche, his emotions caused his self-deception to become more complex.


Kant’s Philosophy and Unmasking Raskolinkov’s Self-deception


The fact that Raskolinkov tried to examine Nietzsche’s theory and Utilitarianism proves his implicit attempt of denying and challenging Kant’s philosophy (a kind of defensive mechanism). Maybe he believed instinctively in Kant’s philosophy but he might have thought that applying it in such a crazy world would be merely foolish. And that’s what caused the tension between his conscious and subconscious mind. So, he decided to deny and ignore Kant’s categorical imperative and used self-deception to block it. Thus, he didn’t bother to identify the maxim of his action and universalize it afterwards, because he would find his murder morally impermissible since the world would be a mess if people kill whomever they think is a “louse”!

Was Raskolinkov aware of the fact that he was really violating the “morality of human beings” by committing his murder? The morality that Kant referred to in Chapter II of the Metaphysics of Morals by saying: “The greatest violation of a human being’s duty to himself regarded merely as a moral being (the humanity in his own person) is the contrary of truthfulness, lying.” (183)

I argue that Raskolinkov subconsciously knew that he was deceiving himself to avoid confronting his guilt. The whole notion of the existence of his self-deception served as a self-defense mechanism to avoid the discomfort of feeling guilty.

I think what happened between Raskolinkov and Sonia when he was in her room confessing his murder is a good example to discuss the self-deception issue. Although he kept saying to Sonia at the beginning that he thinks that he didn’t do something wrong because he only killed a louse, we see how it’s difficult for him to confess. He even uses a third person pronoun to do that, which reveals the moral guilt that he subconsciously suffered: “He… did not want to…kill Lizaveta. He…killed her by accident … he meant to kill the old woman.” (393)

Then, he starts to unmask his false motivation for the murder while talking to Sonia about it: “‘Let me tell you: if I'd simply killed because I was hungry,’ laying stress on every word and looking enigmatically but sincerely at her, ‘I should be happy now. You must believe that!’ ” (429).

So, he realizes that he didn’t kill her for the money. And he suggests that he was occupied by the thought that Napoleon would do the same thing to be able to start his career and contribute to the world’s accomplishments. He says in the same scene:

“It was like this: I asked myself one day this question- what if Napoleon, for instance, had happened to be in my place, and if he had not had Toulon nor Egypt nor the passage of Mont Blanc to begin his career with, but instead of all those picturesque and monumental things, there had simply been some ridiculous old hag, a pawnbroker, who had to be murdered too to get money from her trunk (for his career, you understand). Well, would he have brought himself to that, if there had been no other means? Wouldn't he have felt a pang at its being so far from monumental and... and sinful, too? Well, I must tell you that worried myself fearfully over that ‘question’ so that I was awfully ashamed when I guessed at last (all of a sudden, somehow) that it would not have given him the least pang, that it would not even have struck him that it was not monumental... that he would not have seen that there was anything in it to pause over, and that, if he had had no other way, he would have strangled her in a minute without thinking about it! Well, I too... left off thinking about it... murdered her, following his example. And that's exactly how it was! Do you think it funny? Yes, Sonia, the funniest thing of all is that perhaps that's just how it was.” (430)

His conversation with Sonia is more like an inner monologue in which he questions all his motives and all possibilities that occurred to him while and before committing the murder. Raskolinkov goes on to question the possibility of challenging or examining the Superman Theory:

“I too know it wasn't a louse,” he answered, looking strangely at her. “But I am talking nonsense, Sonia,” he added. “I've been talking nonsense a long time... That's not it, you are right there. There were quite, quite other causes for it! I haven't talked to anyone for so long, Sonia... My head aches dreadfully now.” (432)

Here we can see how confused he is about whether to take responsibility for his crime or not. At the same time, we see that he accepts to surrender to his moral guilt by admitting his awareness that she is not “a louse” without being able to give logical reasons for that. He finally confronts this guilt but he suffers because he doesn’t know how to interpret that instinctive feeling of guilt.

I would like to assume that the source of his guilt is “annihilating his dignity as a human being” that Kant refers to, in Chapter II of The Metaphysics of Morals, when talking about lying versus truthfulness:

“By a lie a human being throws away and, as it were, annihilates his dignity as a human being. A human being who does not himself believe what he tells another (even if the other is a merely ideal person) has even less worth than if he were a mere thing; for a thing, because it is something real and given, has the property of being serviceable so that another can put it to some use. But communication of one’s thoughts to someone through words that yet (intentionally) contain the contrary of what the speaker thinks on the subject is an end that is directly opposed to the natural purposiveness of the speaker’s capacity to communicate his thoughts, and is thus a renunciation by the speaker of his personality, and such a speaker is a mere deceptive appearance of a human being, not a human being himself.” (182)

So, I argue that Raskolinkov believed instinctively in treating people as ends and that one’s right actions should be independent from the consequences of that action. It was hard for him though to admit his failure in challenging his ability to stick to reason and to ignore his spirit, because accepting that failure would include accepting guilt. But Raskolinkov shows all his cards here, and by admitting his crime to Sonia he confronts his guilt and starts to live at peace with it.

In this statement in Part 5, Chapter 4, we see him taking full responsibility for his crime as a result of the intensity of his self-deception that he unmasks:

“I know it all; I have thought it all over and over and whispered it all over to myself, lying there in the dark... I've argued it all over with myself, every point of it, and I know it all, all! And how sick, how sick I was then of going over it all! I have kept wanting to forget it and make a new beginning, Sonia, and leave off thinking. And you don't suppose that I went into it headlong like a fool? I went into it like a wise man, and that was just my destruction. And you mustn't suppose that I didn't know, for instance, that if I began to question myself whether I had the right to gain power- I certainly hadn't the right- or that if I asked myself whether a human being is a louse it proved that it wasn't so for me, though it might be for a man who would go straight to his goal without asking questions... If I worried myself all those days, wondering whether Napoleon would have done it or not, I felt clearly of course that I wasn't Napoleon. I had to endure all the agony of that battle of ideas, Sonia, and I longed to throw it off: I wanted to murder without casuistry, to murder for my own sake, for myself alone! I didn't want to lie about it even to myself. (424)

He goes on to reach his last conclusion before deciding to pay the price for the life experiment he did on himself and face his destiny in Siberia:

“Understand me! Perhaps I should never have committed a murder again. I wanted to find out something else; it was something else led me on. I wanted to find out then and quickly whether I was a louse like everybody else or a man. Whether I can step over barriers or not, whether I dare stoop to pick up or not, whether I am a trembling creature or whether I have the right...” (434)

Apparently, Raskolinkov’s tension was caused by contradictory concepts of morality in his conscious and subconscious mind. Consequently, in order to eliminate his inner conflict, he blocked the concepts he had in his subconscious mind that knew that it’s immoral to kill even harmful people.

As we’ve seen in Raskolinkov’s case, it’s harder for highly intellectual people to self-deceive themselves, because they are more able to analyze and interpret the signs of inconsistency they get from their subconscious mind. Raskolinkov’s self-deception didn’t last long. He became aware of his self-deception primarily because of the dreams that he had and he thought that it had implications of his self-deception (i.e. when he dreamt of beating the horse so vigorously). So, Raskolinkov was somehow trying to protect his self-image by rationalizing his motives to kill the old moneylender, and he directed his tension to his subconscious mind which couldn’t bear it for long.


Self-deception as means for self-knowledge

As life won the battle against the loss of theory, Raskolinkov is now aware of the fact that he has to submit to faith in redemption in order to quiet his philosophical doubts. He knows that he is guilty but he also knows that he can’t break moral laws with logical justifications. In other words, he knows that he can’t let the intellect dominate him to the detriment of spirituality. Ironically, by killing the old woman, Raskolinkov acquired self-knowledge and knew that he can’t exist except as a real human being accepting the weakness of both his reason and his spirit.

This is what Sofia’s wisdom spirit spoke to him in Chapter 4 of Part 5: “You must accept suffering and redeem yourself by it; that’s what you must do … For broad understanding and deep feeling you need pain and suffering. I believe really great men must experience great sadness in the world.” (480).

Raskolinkov makes his last choice: to be a human being and to do whatever it takes to be so. In this sense he embodies what John Stuart Mill refers to when he says “It’s better to be a human being dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.” (10)


Conclusion

By opposing his nature, questioning his humanity and examining his philosophical theories, Raskolinkov ironically by killing the old lady gains the self-knowledge and the inner harmony he seeks. He accepts his suffering because he realizes that it is his way to true redemption and real inner peace.

Raskolinkov’s self-deception was very intense because it covered up his real motivation with multiple “inner lies” as Kant would call it. And whenever he fabricated a new motive for his crime, his super-active subconscious mind would unmask it and prove its fallacy. I believe that it’s less common among highly sensitive intelligent people to endure self-deception because its intensity can affect their sanity. Those kinds of people would seek self-knowledge even if they realized that it would cost them severe mental discomfort. And this is what Dr. Julie Kirsch refers to in “What’s So Great about Reality?” when she talks about the value of truthfulness which doesn’t need to be rationalized:

“however, should someone ask me, ‘what’s so great about reality? Why do you value the truth over illusion?’ I must rest content with [the] reply ‘I just do’; for in such cases there can be no further justification” (426)


Bibliography

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. .London : Penguin Books, 1998 Penguin Classics edition.

Beyer, Thomas R. Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Middlebury College Press, JR, 2002.

Goleman, Daniel. Insights into Self-Deception. New York: New York Times, May 12 ,1985

Kant, Immanuel. The Moral Law; Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Trans. H.J. Paton. London: Routledge Classics, 1991.

Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism. The University of Adelaide Library: Electronic Texts Collection, 1998.

Zahid, Anas. Thus quieted Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zorba. London: Tuwa Media & Publishing Limited, 2007.

Mele, Alfred R.Self-deception Unmasked. Princeton New Jersy : Princeton University Press, 2001

Kirsch, Julie. What’s So Great about Reality? Toronto: Canadian Journal of Philosophy. Volume 35, Number 3, September 2005

Pope’s objectification in The Rape of The Lock and the Improper Transformation

November 11th, 2009

Pope’s objectification in The Rape of The Lock and the Improper Transformation


In Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, there is a unique approach in treating the external and the internal worlds of the characters in his poem. Pope presents his characters as representative of the society of England in the 18th century. Thus, his characters also serve as tools, which enable him to accomplish his critical view of his society. Moreover, Pope’s depiction of things and people is multi-dimensioned, which helps him communicate his critique of the society more effectively. Each component of Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, including motifs and themes, is transformed into its opposite, the opposite of the assumed meaning in its historical and cultural context. This very approach of Pope has different levels in the poem, which gives his poem deeper dimensions and various interpretations. In this paper, I want to explore how Pope’s usage of his transformative technique becomes problematic since the transformed object is different from the transformer object in its nature. Neither does Pope transform something internal to another internal thing, nor does he transform something external into another external thing. For example, Pope transforms the religious symbols and moral values (assumedly components of the internal world) in Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, into consumed items (assumedly components of the external world). Instead of transforming those assumedly spiritual objects into other spiritual objects that relate to the internal world of the characters, we find Pope transforming spiritual objects into consumable materialistic ones and vice versa. This approach raises questions concerning the purpose of Pope’s usage of his transformative technique. I argue that neither does Pope use this technique unintentionally nor does he fail in communicating the right kind of transformation he had in mind. In fact, Pope uses this incorrect or improper kind of transformation in order to communicate the confusion about the external and the internal worlds to his readers to enforce his satirical critique of the society. In other words, Pope twists meanings, values, words, images and objects in his poem in order to support his view of the society as confused, indecisive about its priorities and immature.

In The Bible in the Poetry of Pope and Swift, Tichy notes that Pope is skillful in the way he uses ‘‘Biblical material’’ because he applies it to ‘‘a situation far removed from the original in every important way’’ (Tichy p.13). Pope never gives clear clues to what he means even when using religious material or symbols. Tichy’s suggestion can be noticed in Pope’s style in a broader sense, specifically in the way he uses words to mean different meanings far from their original meanings. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word rape means ‘‘the unlawful compelling of a woman through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse’’ (Oxford). Using the word rape, which is usually used for the forceful action of sexually penetrating a woman, accompanied with hair lock, suggests a sexual aspect of raping the hair lock since it implies a form of penetration. Nevertheless, the rape here is a different kind of rape. In fact, it is even a deeper because it is associated with Belinda’s reputation, which is as valuable as her own honor. Payne quotes James Turner when he talks about one of the sources of the ‘‘vertiginous pleasure’’ of The Rape of the Lock which is the way ‘‘a single word can serve as the pivot of the whole interpretation, the hinge between the most polite and the most scandalous meaning’’ (C.Payne p.5). Pope chooses his words very carefully to make them as effective as possible in contributing to the different interpretations he wants to give to his poem. Thus, a single word in his poem can turn the meaning upside down and mean the exact opposite.

Pope applies this approach of placing materials in situations that are ‘‘far removed from the original’’ throughout his poem especially with his images. For instance, the image of the Cross Necklace in Canto II suggests one of Pope’s approaches in treating exotic objects. Pope takes away the true spiritual and religious meaning from the Cross Necklace and makes it a decorative adornment women use to attract men. Pope uses this image to satirize the fact that people changed the meaning of the cross and not only did they change it but also did they make it meaningless and empty. In fact, the Cross Necklace not only did not have anything to do with religion but also did have a sexual implication, which made Belinda more attractive:

‘‘On her white breast a sparkling Cross she wore, which Jews and infidels adore’’ (Pope II,11,7-8) . Since Jews and infidels would not really care about the true value of a cross, Mentioning them here suggests that men adore Belinda’s breasts not because she has a cross dangling between them, but because of her ‘’white breast’’. Whiteness of skin was considered a very appealing characteristic that everyone, including men, sought after (Astell).Describing a breast as white not only does it have an aesthetic aspect to it, but also does it suggest a woman’s sexuality.

Since breasts is related to the concept of motherhood, it is important to know about the connection between breasts and femininity generally and motherhood specifically. In fact, the concept of motherhood was transformed in the early 18th century since it was associated with weakness towards children and lack of femininity for women. Most wives did not breastfeed their children because they did not want to lose the sexual dimension of their identity. They hired nurses to play that role in order to persevere their feminine attraction that assured has their power over their husbands. Thus, writers claimed that women had to choose between their sexual identity and their maternal identity since they thought both identities could not go together. Women who breastfed their infants were considered less attractive than other women. Later in the century, this view of motherhood had changed and mothers were highly appreciated for their motherly and domestic tasks. Moreover, motherhood became associated with purity and chastity. Alexander Pope seems to use this notion in his transformative technique. In The Dunciad in his portrait of the novelist Eliza Haywood, he depicts the character’s lustiness even though she is a mother who is supposed to be chaste according to the criterion of that time of the century. He tries to imply that motherhood did not reflect chastity in that time (Perry p.192).

In her A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, For the Advancement of their true and greatest Interest, Mary Astell depicts women giving value to things which ‘‘if obtain'd, are as flitting and fickle’’ instead of giving it to ‘‘a Proposition that comes attended with more certain and substantial Gain’’ . Astell claims that gaining this proposition can ‘‘improve your Charms and heighten your Value’’. Astell distinguishes between two values resulted from women beauty, a superficial fading value and a profound lasting one. In fact, she associates the fading value with the ‘‘outward’’ beauty and the permanent value with the ‘‘inward’’ beauty. She argues that the ‘‘inward’’ beauty is what survives sickness and old age and remains immortal.

Pope in Canto V expresses the same notion when he emphasizes the falsity and superficiality of the ‘‘outward’’ beauty of a woman’s face if it’s not accompanied with ‘‘good sense’’, for sensibility is true ‘‘Virtue’’.

‘‘How vain are all these Glories, all our pains,

Unless good sense preserve what beauty gains: 

That man may say, when we the Front-box grace, 

Behold the first in Virtue, as in Face! ’’ (Pope V,15-18)

In Anon’s Description of Wanton Women, he refers to some of the customs women of Pope’s The Rape of the Lock follow in their appearance like the locks’ curls, using cosmetics and the revealed breasts.

‘‘You paint your face, you curl your Locks, 

you let your Breasts go bare, 

So that a man may almost see,

what underneath you wear: ’’ (Anon.)

Anon addresses women and blames them for arousing men’s desires by wearing makeup, making their hair and wearing revealed clothing. The expression he uses when describing the way they dress up ‘‘let your breasts go bare’’ implies the carelessness of those women and the looseness of their manners. The next part of the poem confirms this implication ‘‘So that a man may almost see, what underneath you wear’’. Indeed, it communicates that women revealed their breasts on purpose to show ‘‘what underneath’’ which suggests the seductiveness of the women’s behavior. The most striking point comes when Anon criticizes women for dressing this way in church:

‘‘And in the Church you make such a shew, 

We cannot serve God for looking at you; 

O these women, wanton women, 

What do they mean to do?’’ (Anon.)

Anon juxtaposes the church with the bare breasts to convey people’s confusion about values, the same notion Pope communicates when juxtaposing the cross with the necklace. Anon accuses women for showing off their beauty in churches, which is supposed to be a scared and a spiritual place, and distracting men with their bare breasts, which are supposed to be revealed in intimate situations, from serving God. Placing the sensual where the spiritual or the virtuous should be, suggests the notion of confusion about the internal and the external values among the society, which is one of Pope’s major objectives in his literary career.

Moreover, another illustration from Thomas Cross’s New additions unto yovths behaviovr 1650, has two figures of women; one in which a woman wears a long-sleeved dress with straight hair entitled as Virtue, and the other in which a woman wears a dress that reveals her breasts wearing makeup and with curled hair entitled as Vice. This illustration suggests the 18th century overall social association of the way women dress and their moral status. Women who dressed up more conservatively were considered more virtuous than women who dressed up nastily. This assumption among the 18th century society suggests that people think that the external speaks the internal truth. This belief is problematic in a society that is obsessed with superficial appearance because this kind of view equates people’s essence and inner selves with what they wear and possess.

Literary works usually reflect the conflicts and the ways of life of the time in which they are written. The existence of the notion of confusion about the internal and the external values in more than one literary work in the 18th century England confirms the existence of that confusion among people in that time. Therefore, it is unsurprising that The Rape of the Lock is not a literary work that depicts people in or through themselves, but instead it depicts people through objects or through their possessions. I agree with what Christa Knellwolf notes that Pope objectifies his characters and that he ‘characterizes’ objects and makes his characters as a background for his objects. In fact, Pope seems to replace the role of characters by the roles of objects in his poem in order to communicate that confusion. Knellwolf confirms that ‘‘Much of Pope’s poetry is primarily a description of lifeless objects while human subjects are metonymically characterized by the countless objects which are described as background to their actions’’ (Chico p.2). Actually, Pope intentionally depicts objects as if they are speaking for his characters in order to contribute to his character’s confusion even more. This is my main key in exploring Pope’s approach in his treatment of materialistic objects, which is extremely helpful in examining Pope’s transformative technique.

In The Rape of the Lock, we find Pope transforming dead objects and making alive as if they were people whose voices we can hear.

‘‘Thrice rung the bell, the slipper knocked the ground, 

And the pressed watch returned a silver sound.’’ (Pope I,)

Pope personalizes the sound resulted from the slipper which had been dropped on the floor, as if it were a human door -knocking sound. In fact, Pope seems to give that slipper a feast by which it knocks on the floor and declares its existence. In addition, he refers to the echo of the ‘‘the pressed watch’’ as if it were a person whom had given the sound and returning it back. Objects cannot return sounds because they cannot produce other sounds verbally in response to the original sounds. Furthermore, the act of returning something requires understanding of the act of giving that occurred beforehand and thus requires an act of will from a rational being. This linguistic analysis of the verb return asserts my suggestion that Pope personalizes the watch.

To know how Pope viewed materialistic objects in his time in comparison to other authors in his time, we should display some opinions concerning consumable objects in the 18th century. John Plotz in his article Discreet Jewels: Victorian Diamond Narratives and the Problem of Sentimental Value quotes A.de Barrera in her description of jewels as ‘’representative signs of wealth’’ and that they contain ‘‘the greatest amount within the smallest compass’’ (Plotz p.329) . Not only is Barrera referring to the monetary value of jewels in the 18th century, but also is she referring to the intangible and the cultural value of them in peoples’ minds. Thus, this quotation indicates the significance of jewels in determining the social classification of people. Women who wore jewels were seen as wealthy, were categorized with the aristocratic class and were treated according to the expectations of their class.

Hence, the economic value of jewels had been transformed in 18th century England into a social value which made Plotz think that ‘‘something more elusive, and perhaps more transcendent, resides in the objects or things’’ (Plotz 330). Some cultural studies on the early twentieth century suggested that ‘‘the notion of the boundary between thing and person’’ should to be taken into consideration (Plotz 330).This suggestion implies the confusion and the shifting of ‘‘conceptions of selfhood’’ and the world (the internal vs. the external) in the 18th century England (Plotz 330). The so-called ‘‘boundary’’ between things and people had been overlapped since the ‘‘location of selfhood’’ and what distinguished between one’s self and the external world was undetermined (Plotz 330) . People treated things more like persons in the sense that they saw things as representative of peoples’ inner selves. Therefore, this account of things suggests the problem the 18th century people had in regards of ‘‘the vexed boundary’’ between self and world (Plotz 331). People did not know what things have within themselves and whether their knowledge of those things came from their inner selves or from the actual world. Peter Galliston in his ‘‘Images of Self’’ describes a set of ‘‘Rorschach cards’’ and asserts that the way we describe those cards ‘‘is exactly to say who you are (on the inside)’’ (Plotz 331). As a result, we can conclude that the trend of people identifying themselves with materialistic or consumable objects was widespread. In fact, Galliston’s quote suggests the fact that materialistic objects were looked at more as means of self-expression.

If Pope thought of people’s usage as a means of self-expression, why would he satirize people’s obsession with their appearance that harshly? If he could see the positive side of personalizing objects, why would not he sympathize with people’s way of expressing themselves through objects? I think Pope in The Rape of The Lock both uses his objects to express his characters and objectifies his characters to emphasize his objects. Nevertheless, to reconcile these two literary objectives we should keep in mind that Pope accomplishes these objectives through his transformative technique, which serves his broader goal of communicating his critique of the immature confused society

In order to see how Pope uses his transformative technique in The Rape of the Lock to imply his view of society, we need to explore the different levels of Pope’s transformative technique in addition to displaying different ways in approaching that technique throughout the poem. Pope’s transformative technique in The Rape of the Lock has different complex levels, concerning both concrete things and abstract meanings. At a simple level and concerning concrete objects, we see Pope satirically giving value to objects that are superficial, materialistic and consumable, and taking away value from things that are truly meaningful and profound. Deborah C. Payne refers to Pope’s technique when mentioning ‘‘the poem’s indictment of misplaced values, decayed classicism, rampant consumerism, or even theological despair’’ (C.Payne p.4). This misplacement of values and meanings, which Pope uses throughout the poem, is what I refer to as the transformative technique. When you misplace something that means that, you misunderstand its essence and its function, which leads you to transforming its meaning.

At a more complex level and concerning abstract meanings, Pope by writing his poem on a trivial incident and giving it a serious significance ‘‘what mighty contests rise from trivial things’’ (Pope I,2) , he uses the same transformative technique. He does that in order to communicate his critique of what people cared about in that time and what they considered important to be read and written. Pope publicly discusses an incident that is supposed to be private, in order to transform the meaning of privacy into its opposite, publicity. By doing so, Pope duplicates his theme and flips his poem to make it an embodying tool of the luxury superficial society. ‘‘Pope made public what should have been kept private under normal conventions of courtesy and class; he was embarrassing his social superiors ,whom he did not know and probably never met, by publishing a poem that only furthered his own career’’ (Weinbrot p.316) .

Pope chose to write about a trivial social incident because he assumed that it would attract people’s attention more than any serious topic would. Actually, Pope thought people in general in England 18th century did not have serious interests and tended to care about shallow materialistic issues. Pope’s assumption is affirmed by some cultural studies on the 18th century readership, female readership specifically, which was mainly founded on ‘‘a bourgeois print industry of ladies’ magazines and advice manuals’’ (C.Payne p.5). As a poet who lived among such a society, Pope had to find a way to draw reader’s attention without ignoring his literary role in displaying a critique of the society. Choosing the topic of his poem, Pope proves his unique ingeniousness, because he makes that topic serve his poetic objective; satirizing the immature society.

Pope also uses the transformative technique to communicate the theme of exaggeration in the British society, which contributes to Pope’s critique of it. We can see that theme in Belinda’s reaction of the rape of locks of her hair. Belinda gets sick and thinks that she will lose her reputation. Here we see another example of the transformative technique whereby Pope uses the theme of reputation as an equivalent to the meaning of virtue.

Another example of Pope’s transformative technique is female roles in the poem were essential and more than complementary components which was uncommon in his time. This ‘‘‘‘elevates ’’ these female settings ’’, which contradicts their roles in most epic frameworks,’’ which are usually relegated to a ‘‘low’’ generic form such as the romance, through the simple act of inclusion in an epic framework’’ (C.Payne p.7). Moreover, Pope greatly handles his ‘transformational power’ that Payne refers to, in his description of Belinda who becomes ‘the site of aesthetic elevation’ (C.Payne p.7). Belinda’s beauty does not exist in the poem to characterize a female figure, but to be used as a complementary background to the fancy setting. Therefore, Pope satirizes the fact that Belinda’s lovely face in addition to her ‘‘graceful Ease’’ and ‘‘Sweetness’’ have the power to make us forget about all her faults.

‘‘Yet graceful Ease, and Sweetness void of Pride, 

Might hide her Faults, if Belles had Faults to hide: 

If to her share some Female Errors fall, 

Look on her Face, and you ‘‘forget ’em all.’’ (Pope II,p.15-18).

Belinda is objectified here as if she is a painting that no one cares if it has flaws in the back of it as long as the flaws do not appear in the front of it.

Pope transforms the meaning of themes and values in his poem as a way to embody a vivid depiction of his society and give a space to the reader to comment on it and criticize it with him as well. The poem does not function as a didactic or straightforward criticism regarding the social conditions. Instead, Pope implicitly criticizes the society by depicting the ironic paradoxes it holds within itself. He leaves the comment to readers to enable them to become active participant in giving the poem its multi dimensions.

To make his readers more involved, Pope uses juxtaposition to support his transformative technique. For example, the image of the Bible in Belinda’s dressing table represents the ironic contrast of religious symbols (the Bible) and exotic items (the dressing table and other exotic items on it). This juxtaposition serves as a supportive component to enforce the concept of transforming the Bible, which is supposed to be a sacred and a spiritual item, into an artificial and materialistic item. Tichy also mentions the fact that ‘‘Bible in his (Pope’s) non-religious poems are mainly three…1.) Characterization, 2.) Courtly compliment and 3.) Satire, wit and humor ’’ (Tichy, p.24). Tichy confirms that most of Pope’s allusions have the third kind of purposes in order to accomplish his critical views. Pope presents religious symbols satirically to criticize the society and their careless attitude towards profound values. The same thing can be seen in the image of the cross on Belinda’s charming breasts. The cross becomes a decorative adornment and the fact that is worn as necklace on revealed breasts gives it a strong sexual implication. Again, Pope satirically mocks how people take away the value of the cross and give it to the cold metal instead.

Other examples of Pope’s transformative technique can be seen in the roles of the characters of Belinda and the Baron who were supposed to be lovers. Instead, Pope transforms them into warriors who are fighting each other in a real war. The same thing can be said regarding the scissor that is transformed in the poem to be a weapon that the Baron uses to attack Belinda’s reputation by raping some locks of her hair. A scissor, which is a more feminine object because it is associated with feminine tasks, becomes a weapon and also is found in a female purse. Pope implies the irony of a female having a scissor in her purse instead of any other beauty or cosmetic items. Hence, even the supposedly cosmetic items have been transformed into a weapon, which is associated more with masculinity. Pope suggests the confusion between sexes and the difficulty in distinguishing their roles during that century.

Clarissa lends the Baron her scissor to which Pope refers by ‘two-edged weapon’:

‘‘Drew with tempting Grace  

A two-edged Weapon from her shining Case; 

So ladies in Romance assist their Knight 

Present the Spear, and arm him for the Fight. 

He takes the Gift with reverence, and extends 

The little Engine on his Fingers’ Ends. ’’ (Pope III,p.127-132)

Furthermore, Pope implicitly mocks the fact that even love in the 18th century society is not the romantic or the pure love with which we are familiar. It is a war between lovers to possess more of the other side (the locks in this case). A male lover is not a knight anymore, but a fighter in the war of love. Wolfgang E.H. Rudat talks about lovers being warriors and ‘the warrior becomes the lover’ (Rudat p.89).

The confusion among the 18th century society can also be seen in gender roles and gender identifications. Looking at some 18th century newspapers, we find some ads of beauty products for both males and females (e.g. The Only Delicate Beautifying Cream for Gentlemen and Ladies, which was for the face, neck and hands). Men took care of their appearance as much as women did. They sought those cosmetics products to keep their skin ‘‘soft, fine, white and smooth’’. Men were comfortable to seek these attributes or characteristics, which are usually associated with femininity; because of their confusion of what identified genders.

By using his transformative technique at all its levels, Alexander Pope succeeded in communicating his critique of the society as immature and unable to distinguish between the borders of the internal and the external worlds. Since The Rape of the Lock is a poem of objects more than anything, displaying Pope’s approaches in using his transformative technique with materialistic objects was extremely helpful in understanding how his technique works. Examining Pope’ attitude towards consumed objects enabled us to understand that Pope does not have a problem with people’s expressing themselves through their possessions. Nevertheless, he does criticize his society for being confused and unable to distinguish between the profound things that supposed to be valued and the superficial things that are supposed to be neglected. In other words, Pope does not find consumable objects bad in themselves, but he finds these objects bad when they limit people and possess people’s identities. Thus, Pope criticizes people in his society because he thinks they become tools to serve their vanities, instead of having their vanities serve them. Pope objectifies them in his poem in order to stimulate them to rebel against the boundaries of the objects in which they are confined. In fact, Pope objectifies his characters in order to free them from being slaves of their vanities.


Works Cited

Anon. "A Description of Wanton Women." Copy from: Bodleian Library (1690): 1 sheet ([1] p.).

Astell, Mary. "A serious proposal to the ladies, for the advancement of their true and greatest interest." Copy from: Yale University Library (1694): Wing / 9:06.

BROWN, DENNIS. "The Rape of the Loch Desire between Couple(t)s." Critical Survey 1-16.

C.Payne, Deborah. "Pope and the war against Coqettes or Femininism and The Rape of the Lock Reconsidered-Yet Again ." Eighteenth Century 1991: 3-24.

Chico, Tita. "The Arts of Beauty:Women’s Cosmetics and Pope’s Ekphrasis." Eighteenth-Century Life 24 05 2002: 1-22.

Cross, Thomas. "New additions unto yovths behaviovr 1650. Of some letters as also a discourse upon some innovations of habits and dressings; against powdering of hair, naked breasts, black-spots, and other unseemly customs." Early English books tract supplement interim guide (1672): Copy from: British Library.

Markley, Robert. "''Beyond Consensus : The Rape of Lock and the Fate of Reading Eighteenth-Century Literature.''." New Orleans Review (n.d.): 68-77.

Oxford, English Dictionary. lDictionary.com, LLC. 2009. <http://dictionary1.classic.reference.com/bookstore/oed.htm>.

Perry, Ruth. "Colonizing the Breast : Sexuality and Maternity in Eighteenth-Century England." Eighteenth Century Life 16 Feb 1992: 185-213.

Plotz, John. "Discreet Jewels : Victorian Diamond Narratives and the Problem of Sentimental Value ." Blackwell, Edited by Mark. The Secret Life of Things.Animals ,Objects, and It-Narratives in Eighteenth-Century England . Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2007. 329-354.

Pope, Alexander. The Rape of The Lock . Boston,New York : Bedford Books Edited by Cynthia Wall, 1998 by Bedford Books.

Rudat, Wolfgang E.H. "Pope's 'Agreeable Power of Self-Amusement ' and the Separate Narrative in The Rape of The Lock ." Wascana Review 1978: 89-97.

Tichy, H.J. ( Henrietta J.). The Bible in the Poetry of Pope and Swift. New York : New York University , 1947.

Weinbrot, Howard. "Fine Ladies ,Saints in Heaven and Pope's Rape of The Lock : Genealogy ,Catholicism,And The Irenic Muse." Augustan Subjects Issue : v.32 (2) 2000: 315-317.

A Philosophical Dimension of Imaginary Pilgrimages in Visual Art

December 3rd 2009

A Philosophical Dimension of Imaginary Pilgrimages in Visual Art


The painting Trowbridge discusses (Hans Memling’s Scenes from the Passion of Christ, 1470) in his presentation represents an annual celebration in the 15th century, which is the procession of Bruges on the Biblical dramas displayed on the city street. The imaginary pilgrimage tradition came to sight to serve religious purposes. Pilgrims used special guidebooks to assist them in imagining the religious dramas at different holy sites. They also used the books to say the prayers they thought required to receive ‘’ the indulgences promised at each location’’ (Trowbridge). The tradition of imaginary pilgrimage that Trowbridge expresses in his presentation titled "Envisioning Jerusalem in Bruges: Theater, Art & Devotion in the Late-Middle Ages”, raises deep philosophical questions regarding the external world and the notion of time and place.

Since the series of dramas bound together in the painting did not occur in the same place or in the same sequence of time, imaginary pilgrimages suggest the possibility of crossing the boundaries of place and time. In this sense, I can say that those pilgrimages reformulated or redefined the notion of time and place to enable them to experience the religious dramas and transcend the restrictions of place and time. Those pilgrims imagined themselves in places in which they could not be in real life and imagined themselves living in times in which they could not live in their lifetimes. In other words, the pilgrim’s imagination overpowered the limits of time and place. From this, I infer that those pilgrims had a different view of the external world including place and time, which is worth examining here.

To be involved in an imaginary pilgrimage indicates that the pilgrim believes in the first place that his perception of the external world is what makes it the way he believes it is. He should believe that the way he perceives those religious dramas as truly happening in the same time he is envisioning them is what makes them truly happening in that time. If one does not perceive a glass in the room he is in, he will not believe that the glass is there because according to him it does not exist at all. The same thing applies to imaginary pilgrimages when pilgrims experience being in a place that their physical bodies are not actually in and being in a past period that they cannot live in. Because the pilgrims perceive the events through their imagination, they do believe in the existence of them. This perception makes the events true to them according to Descartes’ philosophy ‘’ the things we conceive very clearly and very distinctly are all true ‘’. (Descartes 33)

On the other hand, this brings up Hume’s claim that our belief in the external world is not rationally justified. Imaginary pilgrimages encourage pilgrims to ignore the actual external world of their time and place, and create an imaginary external world that becomes true because they perceive it. Surprisingly, here I find Descartes’ claim that ‘’things we perceive clearly and distinctly are all true’’ asserts Hume’s claim that our belief of the existence of the external world is dependent on our perception of its existence. According to Descartes, because those pilgrims perceive those religious dramas ‘’clearly and distinctly’’ they are true even if they don’t exist in the pilgrims’ external world which supports Hume’s claim of the irrationality of our belief in the external world.

It is quite incredible to find Descartes and Hume conversing about metaphysics on a frame of a painting from the15th century art.

Works Cited

Descartes, Rene'. Discourse on Method. Indianapolis/ Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1998 Translated by Donald A.Cress.

Trowbridge, Mark. "Jerusalem Transposed : A Fifteenth-Century Panel for the Bruges Market ." Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 2009: Vol 1 .Issue 1.

Dante’s Beatrice in Light of Sufism

Introduction:

The question of the Arabic influence on the medieval European literature was especially illustrated in Miguel Asin Palacios’ (a Spanish historian) La Esxatologia Musulmana en la Divina Commedia that was published in Madrid in 1919. Placios explored the similarities between the Divine Comedy and Arabic traditions. In fact, the similarities he referred to indicated ‘picturesque, descriptive, and even episodic similarities ‘. Palacios believed that Dante was inspired by the two Islamic literary works; the Isra, Muhammad’s journey through hell, and the Mirage, Muhammad’s ascension from Jerusalem to heaven that were depicted in Arabic in Abul-‘Ala’ al-Ma’arri’s (973-1057)’Treatise on Pardon’’ (‘’Risalat al-Ghufran’’) and in Ibn Arabi’s two works; ‘’ The Book of the Nocturnal Journey toward the Majesty of the Most Magnanimous’’ (‘’kitab al-Isra’ ila Maqam al-Asra’’) which is in manuscript, and ‘’The Book of the Meccan Conquests’’ (‘’kitab al-futuhat al-Makkiyah’’) which is in print. Between 1260 and 1268 , king Alfonso X the Wise encouraged translating Arabic works to Latin which resulted in producing ‘’Historia Arabum’’ by Archbishop Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada of Toledo ,that is a translation of the Mi’raj legend using the Islamic traditions (Hadith) as its source. Since Brunto Latini, under whom Dante received his literary training, was a Florentine ambassador to the court of Alfonso in 1260, he might have read some of those stories about Muhammad’s ascension to heaven. This possibility is strongly confirmed by the fact that Brunetto Latini’s main works, the ‘’Tesoretto’’ and the ‘’Tesoro’’ show a deep Arabic Influence due to his visit to Toledo and Seville where the translation of Arabic literary works was in its climax. Between 1297 and 1300, another work by St.Peter Paschal, bishop of Jaen and friar of the new Order of Mercy, entitled ‘’Impunaci’on de la seta de Mohomah’’ quoted the book called ‘’Miragi’’ and mentions the ‘’sirat’’ which is ‘’ a thin line or straight path constituting the bridge between hell and heaven’’; an equivalent of Dante’s Purgatory. That indicates that the legend of Mi’raj was widespread throughout Spain and the whole West including Italy. After the death of Palacios in 1944, a translation of an Arabic work‘II Libro della Scala’ depicted the story the ascension of Muhammad to heaven. In fact, historians believe that versions of this work had been going around in Europe in Dante’s lifetime.


Thesis:
In fact, Sufi traditions and literature are known to have contributed to the foundation and the development of the Arabic literature. After historians had questioned the possibility of the Arabic literature influencing medieval European literature, they were inclined to specifically question this possibility. According to Annemarie Scheimmel, the interaction between Sufi ideas or themes and European literature in Middle Ages can be seen in the works of the Catalanian mystic and scholar Ramon Lull (d.1316). In addition, the legend of Rabi’a al-Adawiyya, the great woman saint of the 18th century, was used as a ‘model of Divine love’ in a 17th century French’ treatise on pure love’. General information about’ rites of the dervishes’ were known because of The European travelers to Middle East in the 16th and 17th century. In 1638 a Sufi poem by the great Egyptian mystic Ibn al-Farid was translated and edited by the learned Fabricius of Rostock University. Furthermore, some classical poems were translated many, which were colored by the Sufi flavor.

In the case of the Divine Comedy, the impact of Sufi literature on European literature was fed by the increased association between Dante and Mysticism in general. This association is especially related to the possibility of the Sufi impact on Dante’s views of God and love in his Commedia. The Sufi impact is strongly confirmed and enhanced by the projection of the ultimate goal of the Pilgrim in Paradiso, the Vision of God, which is also the goal of the Sufi seeker (Murid) in his spiritual journey or his (Path). Since God’s love for Sufis is the source of all kind of love because it’s the ‘original love’, they believe that human love leads to its source, God’s love. Thus, human love for the Sufis is a means to the unification with God because according to their traditions the beloved is identified with God. In other words, the beloved is the means through which the Self of the Divine is manifested and with its assistance His revelation is accomplished. On the other hand, Dante treated Beatrice as his source of inspiration, his guide in his mystical voyage to unification with God and as the manifestation through which God revealed Himself to the pilgrim, in addition to her being his lure.

In light of these facts, I will argue that Dante’s treatment or portrayal of Beatrice in the divine comedy is parallel to the Sufi’s belief that human love leads to divine love. I will display some of Dante’s poems addressed to Beatrice in both the La Vita Nouva and the Divine Comedy, as well as some Sufi poems to illustrate the parallelism between Dante’s portrayal of his beloved and the Sufi poet’s.


What is Sufism?

According to Annemarie Scheimmel in her Mystical Dimensions of Islam says that Sufism is the ‘’accepted name for Islamic mysticism ‘’, but she points out that it’s hard to agree on one definition of Sufism since ‘’nobody venture to describe it fully’’ because it varies according to what the Sufi experiences. So, she referred to the origin of the term Sufi that Hujwiri talked about in the mid-eleventh century:

‘’ Some assert that the Sufi is so called because he wears a woolen garment (ja’ma-I suf), others that he is so called because he is in the first rank (saff-I awwal), others say it is because the Sufis claim to belong to the ashab-I Suffa (the people of the Bench who gathered around the Prophet’s mosque). Others, again, declare that the name is derived from safa’ (puri ty).

But most definitions of Sufism focused only on one aspect of the concept and ignored the ‘threefold meaning of tasawwuf ‘which is to the shari’a, the Muslim law, the tariqa, the mystical path, and the haqiqa, the Truth. That is according to Lapidus:

’’It is the spiritual quest that leads to direct experience of the reality of God’s being’’

Sufi traditions evolve around the pursuit of spiritual truth that enables the Mystic to reach unification with God, which is his ultimate goal. According to the Sufis, there is neither veil nor barrier between man and God. The seeker can reach that unification with God through the spiritual striving and thirst for the ultimate truth . The spiritual striving causes the seeker to go through mystical stages and states that enable his self-transformation to emerge on the Mystic path. One of those states is (fana), Annihilation in the Essence .That state according to the Sufis ’’ must be a momentary experience, still ‘colored’ by the individual archetype.’’ Sufis use the symbol of the ‘path’ to refer to the mystical experience they go through before their union with God. Sufis need a guide in their spiritual journey who can help them to know God, this guide is considered‘A heavenly’ messenger which can be found In the Divine Comedy in Beatrice’s role as the Pilgrim’s guide during his journey. However, the ultimate truth, According to Al-Ghazzali, can be attained through man’s heart because the capabilities of the intellect are quite limited when it comes to eternal truth. Thus, Al-Ghazzali referred to the heart as a mirror that reflects the divine light.

‘’ when one’s heart is purified, the ‘’light of divine secrets’’ is reflected in the mirror of the heart “Al-Ghazzali

Human and divine love in Sufism and in the Commedia:


Since Sufis believe that God is the Root of everything, they accordingly believe that everything in the universe is part of god’s love. In fact, they see that ‘all things are lovers’, and accordingly each being seeks union with its ‘true Beloved’, God;’’ they seek the Infinite Root’’ . The Sufi thinker, Ibn Rumi has expressed this very concept in the following poem:

God’ s wisdom in His destiny and decree has
made us lovers of one another.
That foreordainment has paired all parts of the
world and set them in love with their mates.
Each part of the world desires its mate, just like
amber and straw.
Heaven says to the earth,’’Hallo! Thou drawest
me like iron to a magnet! ‘’…
The female desires the male so that they may
perfect each other’s work.
God placed desire within man and woman so
that the world might find subsistence through their union.

Therefore, according to Rumi all beings are mates that attract one another and each mate seeks the union of the other because they are all interconnected to God’s being as if they are pieces in one puzzle!

This very concept of the oneness of the source of love and goodness is seen in the Commedia too. Dante says to St. John:

And I : By the arguments of philosophy
And by authority that descends from here
Such Love has clearly stamped its seal upon me.
For the good, to the extent imperfect sense
Grasps its goodness, kindles love; the brighter
The more we understand its excellence.
To the Essence then in which lies such perfection
That every good thing not immediate to It
Is nothing more than Its own ray’s reflection-
To it, above all else, the mind must move
Once it has seen the truth that is the proof
And argument that so compels man’s love.

(Par. XXVI, 25-39)


Dante here describes God’s love as the source of all goodness in human beings. In fact, he refers to God as the ‘Essence’ of Eternal light from which all other rays come from. Man becomes good because of his Source of goodness, he becomes even better since love enkindles through him even more. This is how the circle of love goes on and on since it grows like the Source of it, Eternal Light.

Although Sufis believe that there are two kinds of love ‘true love’ (‘ishq-I haqiqi) and what they call ‘derivative love’ (ishq-I majazi), they still believe that all kind of love leads to God’s love even if humans are not aware of it ‘’since whatever exists is His reflection or shadow ‘’. Therefore, whenever a human being channels his love it will ultimately lead him to God. Rumi says in Sufi Path of Love:

‘’All the hopes, desires, loves, and affections that people have for different things-fathers, mothers, friends,, heavens, the earth, ,gardens, palaces, sciences, works, food, drink-the saint knows that these are desires for God and all those are veils, then they will know that all were veils and coverings ,that the object of their desire was in reality that One Thing.’’

Rumi here describes human love as if it is the crust of a fruit while God’s love is the core or the Essence of that fruit because the crust (human love) always and ultimately leads to its core (Divine love) since it branches out of God’s love. Thus, Rumi also sees human love as a kind of rehearsal of the Divine love or a practice for It. He states:

“ The warrior gives a wooden sword to his son so
that he may master it and take a sword into battle.
Love for a human being is that wooden sword.
when the trail reaches its end, the object of love will be the All-Merciful.”

The same idea is seen in what Beatrice said to Dante:

“Well do I see how the Eternal Ray,
which, once seen, kindles love forevermore,
Already shines in you. If in your way
Some other thing seduce your love, my brother,
It can only be a trace, misunderstood,
Of this, which you see shining through the other.”

(Par. V, 7-12)


Beatrice describes Dante’s intellect as a shining being from which the eternal light springs. She refers to Dante’s mind as his source of love since it is what made him observe and appreciate God’s grace in his creation and accordingly to yearn for His love. Dante’s mind, before anything else, is created by God and to Him it returns but it’s first purified by Dante’s journey through Hell and Purgatory. Nevertheless, Beatrice draws the Pilgrim’s attention to the fact that he might see light in objects that would seem to him to be the Eternal light because of his imperfect mind. Thus, she asks him, as in the Sufi poem, to seek the true source of Eternal Light, the Creator, instead of seeking Its rays, His Creation.

Although Sufis are aware that women only reflect God’s Attributes of’’ Beauty, Mercy, Gentleness, and Kindness’’, they still insist that this reflection can only be attained when those beloveds are seen as means of transformation into ‘True Love’, God’s love. So most Sufi poets although inspired by beautiful women, knew that it was only God’s reflection manifested in them. That was the case with Ibn Arabi when he wrote ‘The Interpreter of Desires ‘to his beloved, Nizam, by her beauty and her ‘’ spiritual attainments and eloquence’’ he was taken. One of the commentators on Ibn Arabi’s works suggests that Nizam to Ibn Arabi was like Beatrice to Dante by stating:

“If Nizam was to him (and manifestly she was nothing else) a Beatrice, a type of heavenly perfection, an embodiment of Divine love and beauty, yet in the world’s eyes he ran the risk of appearing as a lover who protests his devotion to an abstract ideal while openly celebrating the charms of his mistress.’’ 

Dante also realized that the goal of his journey is not to be united with Beatrice but to be united with God who was manifested in Beatrice as God can be found in his Creation too. In fact, Rumi talks about God’s manifestation in all things and how God can be worshiped in all forms since his love is ‘formless’ and as it exist in ‘all forms’. Some people might forget the essence or the goal of their worship but as they go on along the road they become aware of the real goal and eventually forsake the fake goal. So, according to Rumi, even if one is not aware that God is the goal of his path, he will eventually realize that he is walking towards Him because all roads lead to God since the branches of a tree always lead to one trunk .Rumi says:

‘’ When you go to a friend’s form, you go for the
sake of your companionship with him.
Hence in meaning you have gone to the
formless, even if you are unaware of your goal.
So in reality God is worshiped by all things, for
they all travel their paths in search of joy.
But some have turned their faces toward the
tail. The head is the root, but they have lost it. “

With regard to the previous poem and the conception of forms and formlessness Ibn Arabi, (an Arab Sufi thinker who was born in 1165 in Murcia, Spain and died in 1240 in Damascus),believed that seeking and striving for ‘love of wisdom ‘ is what leads to what he called the “knowledge inherent in God” (‘ilm laduni’). That knowledge, he believed, can be attained through God’s revelation, which can be manifested in different forms whether in things or people. It didn’t matter to Ibn Arabi in what form God revealed himself because he followed the essence of His love, not the form of it. He saw God in all forms and in everything. He talked about his belonging to the ‘religion of love’ when he said:

“I follow the religion of Love,
Now I am sometimes called
A Shepherd of gazelles
And now a Christian monk,
And now a Persian sage ‘’

Peter lamborn Wilson commenting on this poems says : ‘’ When Ibn Arabi says his religion is love, he is not talking about some aimless generalized sort of caritas, but about Eros, and this is so because he sees God in the girl he loves, not in an abstract principle. Religions deal in abstractions rather than in the thing itself; those individuals who see and ‘taste’ the palpable manifestation of the divine no longer care to quarrel over vague generalization .’’

So, according to Ibn Arabi the Divine Self was embodied in his beloved, and that made the conception of the Divine not vague anymore. Ibn Arabi loved a fourteen years old girl, Nizam Ayn al-Shams (‘’Harmony Eye-of-the- Sun’’), who was the daughter of a Persian Traditionist named Mkinu’ddin al-Isfahani. Ibn Arabi met with her in Mecca in 598 A.H. He identified her with God when he addressed her in his poems which meant that he was a follower of the Sufi tradition of ‘’ vision of God in created things’’ since he was an opponent of the orthodox mysticism which was devoted more to the ‘’vision of things in God’’. Palacios in Islam and the Divine Comedy found many similarities between Ibn Arabi and Dante and they even thought that Dante got the idea of his Commedia from Ibn Arabi’s works. He suggests that images, ideas and symbols used by both Dante and Ibn Arabi are common. They both used ‘numerical values, letters and ideological values’ in addition to describing god’s manifestations by ‘similes of light (diffusion, illumination, reflexion and irradiance)’. Furthermore, they both had the same picture of the realms beyond the grave and the same way of decorating the afterlife (Araf Vs. the prototype of the Limbo, the Gehenna Vs. the model of Inferno, the Sirat of the Purgatorio, the meadow between Purgatory and hell, the Terrestrial Paradise Vs. the eight gardens) . He argues that Illuministic Sufi teaching is found in the Divine Comedy since it presents the metaphysics of light. So, he suggests that it’s impossible that this parallelism is only a coincidence since Ibn Arabi had introduced the concepts of life after in his Futuhuat 25 years before the birth of Dante, and Dante depicted it with ‘topographical details’ which are identical to Ibn Arabi’s.

An Italian troubadour poem from the thirteen century was found, without any reference to its writer, showing the Arabic influence of courtly love on European poetry, which indicates that, the exchange between the two cultures was occurring.

In her face I have seen [sic] the moon,
smiling with her radiant look. Did she
Appear to me, I ask my eyes, while I was
awake or in a dream?
That look is a true mystery! It makes my
Body sick, but it also cures it.

The poem sounds like most Arabic courtly love poems in describing the physical features of the beloved and associating those features to nature elements (the beloved face as the moon or the sun, her cheeks as roses). In addition to talking about the beloved eyes and her gaze as the mystery of love, and about her lips as the ultimate desire of passion there are also the emotional states that the lover falls in due to his intense emotions that affect his body too.

Here is one of Ibn Arabi’s poems from his ‘The Interpreter of Desires ‘that deals with almost the same concepts of the previous Italian poem with further modification:

In my heart, fire of passion
in my mind the full moon of darkness sets.
Oh musk! Full moon! branches above the dunes!
how green the branches ,bright the moon, fragrant the musk !
Oh smiling mouth whose taste I loved!
Salvia, redolent of white honey!
moon that appeared to us veiled
in the very blush of shame upon its cheek!
had she unveiled, what torment!
and for this reason, still veiled.

We can notice here the repeated expressions used in courtly love; fire of passion, torment of love, addressing the moon to complain about the killing gaze of the beloved.

On the other hand, Dante himself used some of those components of courtly love in his works that expressed his love to Beatrice by describing her beauty and relating it to nature’s beauty and magnificence. In the XIX of Vita Nuova, Dante described Beatrice as follows:

Her colour is the paleness of the pearl,
In measure suited to her graciousness;
She is the highest nature can achieve
And by her mould all beauty tests itself.
From out her eyes, wherever they may move
Come spirits that are all aflame with Love;
They pierce the eyes of any one that looks
And pass straight through till each one finds the heart;
Upon her face you see depicted Love,
There where none dares to hold his gaze too long.

In another chapter of the Vita Nouva, Dante identified Beatrice with Virgin Mary (Divinity) when he talked about her virtues that were the cause of her being taken to the heavens where Dante thought she belonged:

The gentle lady who through her virtue
Was placed by the highest Lord
In the Heaven of humility where Mary is

(Vita Nouva XXXIV) 


Moreover, the way Virgil described Beatrice in the Inferno can be considered to indicate some of the Arabic courtly component as well since he described her as being “so blessed, so lovely…her eyes surpassed the splendor of the star’s’’ (canto II, 53-55)

Furthermore, Dante described the effect of Beatrice’s beauty and smile on him as he was entering the heaven of Saturn and how it could blind him since the brilliance of it was increasing as he was ascending through the spheres of heaven. The Pilgrim said that her ‘brilliance’, which indicates her divinity too, made him as weak as a branch that can be easily cracked.

She did not smile. Instead her speech to me
began: "Were I to smile, then you would be
like Semele when she was turned to ashes,
because, as you have seen, my loveliness –
which, even as we climb the steps of this
eternal palace, blazes with more brightness –
were it not tempered here, would be so brilliant
that, as I flashed, your mortal faculty
would seem a branch a lightning bolt has cracked." (Par. XXI)

According to the above examples we can see that the way Dante portrayed Beatrice is very similar to the way Arab poets treated their beloved. We can see a more specific Sufi influence on his poems by displaying more examples.

The Pilgrim in Paradiso talks about losing his consciousness when seeing the Eternal Light, God’s manifestation in things. In fact, The two conceptions of Sufi traditions; seeing God’s manifestation in created things and things in God (God speaking to people by things and in things) are represented in the two gazes in Paradiso XXXIII in which the ‘illuminating light’ (god) meets the gaze of the ‘’illuminated light’ ‘’ (the pilgrim, and also every person yearning for god)’’. The ‘’illuminated light’’ refers to God’s manifestation in created things, light. And the ‘illuminating light’ refers to man as a representation of God. That gaze’s meeting produces the ecstasy that Sufis refer to as the Annihilation in the essence. That’s why it was said that ‘’ Dante-pilgrim ,looking at God-as-light, interprets himself as a person –stared –at-by-the-light, as a looking individual –who-is-being –looked-at, a knowing-person-who-is-already-known’’.

“But on how much my words miss my conception,
which is itself so far from what I saw
That to call it feeble would be rank deception!
O light Eternal fixed in Itself alone,
By itself alone understood, which from Itself
Loves and glows, self-knowing and self-known”

(Paradiso XXXIII)

Moreover, the higher state of the Annihilation that Sufis speak of is the state of ‘Permanence’ or ‘baqa’ in which the mystic ‘‘returns ‘from Unity to multiplicity’’. That’s why it’s called bliss (Sanskirt ananda) because it involves no such ‘’ split between consciousness and form’’. This very state is what can be interpreted from what Dante describes about his vision of God:

‘’What then I saw is more than tongue can say.
Our human speech is dark before the vision
The ravished memory swoons and falls away.
As one who sees in dreams and wakes to find
The emotional impression of his vision
Still powerful while its parts fade from his mind-
Just such am I, having lost nearly all
The vision itself, while in my heart I feel
The sweetness of it yet distill and fall. ‘’ (Pardiso 33, 55-63)

And it is the state he refers to by the very end of the poem by:

Here my powers rest from their high fantasy ,
But already I could feel my being turned-
Instinct and intellect balanced equally
As in a wheel whose motion nothing jars-
By the Love that moves the Sun and the other stars.

(Paradiso XXXIII)


The Pilgrim reaches that state of Permanence because he achieves his full perfection when united with God. That achievement of perfection is reflected in the flash of light that blinds the Pilgrim and makes him speechless and unable to express what he is experiencing.

In addition, the concept of God as three is used by Sufis in their poems to represent the multi -sided nature of the self of the Divine, which is associated with the beloved or created things in general. Ibn Arabi in the poem below identifies his beloved with God and sees her as three:

My beloved is three-
Three yet only one;
Many things appear as three,
Which are no more than one.
Give her no name,
As if to limit (her to) one
At sight of whom
All limitation is confounded”

Ibn El-Arabi (1165-1240)

The same Sufi concept is seen in the last canto of Paradiso, when the pilgrim sees the divine light (a created thing) as three circles that represent God:

Within the depthless deep and clear existence
of that abyss of light three circles shone –
three in color ,one in circumference :
the second from the first, rainbow from rainbow ;
the third, an exhalation of pure fire
equally breathed forth by the other two.

Making the Divine love a concrete conception is found in both the Divine Comedy and Sufi poetry. We can see it in the Commedia in the following part:

“Long as the feast of Paradise shall be,
So long shall our love’s bliss shine forth from us
And clothe us in these radiant robes you see.
Each robe reflects love’s ardor shining forth;
The ardor, the vision; the vision shines down to us
As each is granted grace beyond his worth.
When our flesh, made glorious at the Judgment Seat,
Dresses us again, then shall our persons
Become more pleasing in being more complete.
Thereby shall we have increase of the light
Supreme Love grants, unearned, to make us fit
To hold His glory ever in our sight.
Thereby, it follows, the vision shall increase;
Increase the ardor that vision kindles;
Increase the ray its inner fires release.

( Paradiso XIV)

The concept of God’s love, which is abstract, is embodied and manifested here through the image of light. God’s love is what makes souls shine, not their earthly deed. That divine light embraces them as if it were their robes that cover more than they would expect and more than what they think deserve. The souls ask God who is manifested in that Eternal Light to shine upon them in the Judgment Day when they regain their unmerited bodies in addition to their souls that are shining originally because of His light. The souls become full of gratitude because of this act of grace and accordingly their love for God increases even more. This view of love as a divine manifestation or a divine object, rather than an abstract, is seen in most Sufi works. And this is what A.A.Affifi discusses Ibn Arabi’s theory of love by stating:

“Ibbnul ‘Arabi’s pantheism is clear, when he says that the ultimate goal of love is to know the reality of love and that the reality of love is identical with God’s Essence. Love is not an abstract quality superadded to the Essence. It is not a relation between a lover and an object loved. This is the true love of the ‘’gnostics’’ who know no particular object of love..

In fact, even the conception of death among Sufis is related to the goal of their mystical path. Indeed, they think of death as the bridge through which they finally become united with their Beloved, God. Annemarie Schimmel in the Mystical Dimension of Islam talks about the meaning of death ‘’ Death means the annihilation of the individual qualities, the lifting of the veil that separates the primordial beloved from the lover created in time.

Sufi poets say in that regard;

“Death is a bridge whereby the lover rejoins the beloved “Rabia

“ when you see my funeral, don’t say,’ what a separation!’ it is time for me to visit and meet the Beloved. Since you have seen my descent, then do see my rising.’’ Rumi

We see Dante views death in the same way as Sufis do because he longs to be united with his Beatrice in whom God is manifested. In La Vita Nouva and after the death of Beatrice, Dante envies ‘all who die’ because they are closer to her than he is which means that they are embraced by God’s gentleness. He even invites Death to come take him because in it he takes ‘refuge’ from the suffering of longing for Beatrice in whom he sees God.

Then I call on Death,
As to a sweet and gentle refuge:
And I say: ‘Come to me’ with such love,
That I am envious of all who die.

(Vita Nouva XXXIII)


Beatrice as a Sufi theme:


Houris (spiritual and beautiful women in heaven found in Islamic traditions) play a big a role in the mystical path of the seeker as depicted in Sufi traditions, which is similar to the role that Beatrice plays in guiding Dante to his vision of God in Paradiso. Since Houris in the Quran were merely depicted as ‘’ instruments for carnal delights ‘’ and since it wasn’t possible to ignore those verses that talked about the sensual joys of them, Sufis decided to substitute the houris by one celestial bride who served as ‘‘a spiritual being whose love is chaste and whom god appointed to each of the blessed.’’ That spiritual bride was depicted in Sufi literature as ‘’ as a heavenly spouse ‘’who is mainly a ‘’ guardian angel’’ that inspires the Sufi to seek spiritual perfection and love for god on earth till he is united with Him in heaven. Sufis confirm the conception of the celestial brides by referring to Muhammad’s saying ‘’ he who loves and remains chaste unto death, dies a martyr ‘’ which sheds light on the importance of the role of the beloved in the Sufi’s reaching spiritual wisdom and spiritual perfection. Therefore Sufis view women in general in an extremely idealized angelic way even their own wives. In fact, they see woman as their ‘companion or sister in asceticism ‘instead of seeing her as the ‘sexual mate’. This ‘idealistic romantic conception’ of woman became a new’ trend’ that was expressed in both the European and Arabic literature. Examples of literary works that reflected that trend are; Ibn Daud’s of Ispahan (Book of Venus) of the 9th century, Ibn Hazm’s of Cordova (Necklace of the Dove) and (Character and Conduct). That means that the Islamic treating of love was common in both the East and in Spain and both in prose and poetry.

Dante’s ultimate goal of his voyage to the heavens is to be united with Beatrice, which is the same as the Sufi wish to be united with spiritual brides in eternal bliss. According to the Sufis, celestial brides are the main source of inspiration and through them they see visions of God with whom they yearn to unite with. Sufis see the beauty of God in the bride’s beauty, as; spiritual brides are what Sufis initially travel their path for till they realize that the brides are only guides to the real Beloved. Rumi addresses man who seeks God and tells him that spiritual brides will ‘boil up from his heart’ as he goes on his path towards God.

‘’Oh impotent man, when you become a man of God, brides will boil up from within your heart.
Like the moon, Venus, the sun and the Pleiades, peris will show their faces within the well of your eyes.
Drink down what we say, for these are Love’s instructions-instructions will not profit you much in the grave.’’ Rumi

On the other hand, Dante describes the one who is able to look at Beatrice as a ‘pilgrim’ which suggests the Sufi perspective of pilgrimage as the Path on which the Sufi walks till he’s united with his beloved, whether God in the beloved or the beloved in God. He says in the La Vita Nouva:

“Beyond the sphere that circles most widely
Passes the sigh that issues from my heart:
New intelligence, that Love
Weeping instills within it, drives it upwards.
When it is near where it desires,’ it sees a lady, who receives honour,
And is a light, that by its splendor
The pilgrim spirit can gaze upon her.

(Vita Nouva XLI)


Dante also refers to Beatrice’s role in his inspiration of writing his Commedia in his commentary on this same poem when he says : ‘’if it pleases Him by whom all things live ,that my life lasts a few years, I hope to write of her what has never been written of any woman ‘’. So, he asks god that he lives a few more years to honor his guardian lady by writing her a magnificent work that no writer could dedicate greater than it for his beloved, which came to be ‘The Divine Comedy’.

As a matter of fact, the way Dante presented Beatrice in the Commedia was balanced ‘’between love and knowledge’’ , her love that guided him to the knowledge of God that made Dante loves her even more since she led to that Divine knowledge . Dante thanks Beatrice for saving him from being lost in Hell .He says:

“O lady in whom my hope shall ever soar
And who for my salvation suffered even
To set your feet upon Hell’s broken floor;
Through your power and your excellence alone
Have I recognized the goodness and the grace
Inherent in the things I have been shown.
You have led me from my bondage and set me free
By all those roads, by all those loving means
That lay within your power and charity.
Grant me your magnificence that my soul,
Which you have healed, may please you when it slips
The bonds of flesh and rises to its goal.’’

( Paradiso XXXI)


The Pilgrim here refers to the fact that Beatrice descended to Hell to save him and he appreciates how she suffered to do so. He also mentions how she helped him to realize God’s greatness and grace in things, which led him to recognize that God is the one whom he should yearn for. That knowledge, that she guided him to, was the reason for him being released from seeking God’s creation instead of its Source, the Creator. So, the Pilgrim is full of gratitude for her since she dragged him out of his confusion and clarified the ultimate goal of his Path, which is union with God.


Conclusion:

It is evident from the many examples displayed that Dante used Beatrice as means to perceive God through his creation the same ways as the Sufis. In comparing Dante’s Commedia with Sufi poems it is possible to see the similarities in using Gods love as the ultimate goal.

Although this is not conclusive proof of confirming my suggestion of what Dante meant or tried to refer to or is what the reason behind him saying the way he did. The only thing we can assure and prove is the common conceptions and images of both European and Arabic literature that are resulted from their interaction. And since Arabic poetry is listed as a great source for Sufi literature, it can be claimed that Sufi literature had a significant influence on the European literature. Palacios says in Islam and the Divine Comedy: ‘’the mysticism of the Sufis drew its inspiration from the lives and writings of the romantic poets of Arabia.’’ And the Divine Comedy being a remarkable literary fingerprint in the Medieval Europe caught some of that Sufi flavor in its conception of romantic love as guide to the Divine love. Reading through Sufi poetry, I can see how Beatrice’s name could be replaced in those poems whether the addressed beloved is God or a female ideal. Whether it was Ibn Arabi’s Nizam or Dante’s Beatrice, she is before everything a bridge to the spiritual knowledge that leads to God’s love!

She smiled, showing her side teeth.
Lightning flashed.
I couldn't tell which of the two
split the darkness.
Isn't it enough she said
I am in his heart
where each moment he sees me,
isn't it, no?

(Ibn Arabi)


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