Exploring Morality and Faith in Brian Moore’s Black Robe
Included within the anthology The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction,1[1] are the works of great Irish authors written from around three hundred years ago, until as recently as the last decade. Since one might expect to find in an anthology such as this only expressions and interpretations of Irish or European places, events or peoples, some included material could be quite surprising in its contrasting content. One such inclusion comes from the novel Black Robe,2[2] by Irish-born author Brian Moore. Leaving Ireland as a young man afforded Moore a chance to see a great deal of the world and in reflection afforded him a great diversity of setting and theme in his writings. And while his Black Robe may express little of Ireland itself, it expresses much of Moore in his exploration into evolving concepts of morality, faith, righteousness and the ever-changing human heart.
The short excerpt from Black Robe included in the anthology comes from the beginning of Chapter 8 of the work. This passage, an approximate midpoint of the novel, serves to articulate the story’s tone, to introduce main characters and their relationships, and to present ideas that play are essential to the whole work’s main themes. The excerpt begins when Father Paul Laforgue, at this point alone, is in hiding from Iroquois who have at this point overtaken his meager camp. The first image Moore here invokes is that of a lynx as at creeps up upon the Savages who have taken custody of Laforgue’s meal as well as his treasured few belongings. The man watches from his hiding place, as the lynx, which Moore names the Father’s “surrogate”(p. 150), unknowingly tests the safety of Laforgue’s current situatio...
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...or Huron. And soon our enemies will know our weakness and wipe us from the face of the earth” (p. 243). Laforgue does not answer to this, because he has no answer. Although a now doubtful, tested, and broken man, Laforgue will keep his faithful vow to baptize, even as he is now uncertain of the merit of this and of his religious life as a whole. Moore writes of Laforgue’s final thoughts in the story, “A prayer came to him, a true prayer at last. Spare them. Spare them, O Lord” (p. 246). But, like Father Laforgue and his beliefs, the Native American’s and their ways of life will forever be changed, and they will not be spared.
Notes:
[1] Toibin, Colm, ed. The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction. New York: Penguin Books, 2001.
[2] All further references to Black Robe will be cited as part of the complete work: Moore, Brian. Black Robe. New York, NY: Plume, 1997.
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McCann et al. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1994, 95-109).
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