There is perhaps no greater joy in life than finding one’s soul mate. Once found, there is possibly no greater torment than being forced to live without them. This is the conflict that Paul faces from the moment he falls in love with Agnes. His devotion to the church and ultimately God are thrown into the cross hairs with the only possible outcome being one of agonizing humiliation. Grazia Deledda’s The Mother presents the classic dilemma of having to choose between what is morally right and being true to one’s own heart. Paul’s inability to choose one over the other consumes his life and everyone in it.
Paul’s infatuation with Agnes seems to have caught his mother by complete surprise. Their seven years in the village seemed to only strengthen her belief that Paul was a great man worthy of the praise and admiration that others bestowed upon him. It seemed the perfect fit for both of them “for they were so happy in the little village that seemed to her the most beautiful in all the world, because her Paul was its saviour and its king” (Deledda 31). If not for the mother’s need to protect Paul, his affair with Agnes may have continued on longer. Her devotion to her son and to God could not go on silenced however. Paul’s feelings of guilt forced him to see his error and to quite seeing Agnes in order to serve only God. “He was a priest, he believed in God, he had wedded the church, and was vowed to chastity” (Deledda 57). His love toward Agnes did not dissipate however and he sought to find ways to forget about her.
After having his mother deliver a message to Agnes stating, “do not expect me again” (Deledda 81), Paul seeks to consume his mind with Antiochus and his desire to become a priest. As the village priest, Paul intend...
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...nd again falling victim to his own indecisiveness.
Antiochus’ desire to become a priest, the exorcism of Nina Masia, and the journey to see King Nicodemus are all events that Paul uses to keep himself from his true love. Throughout The Mother, Paul fights his human desires and tries desperately to cling to the established man-ordered rule of celibacy in the priesthood despite the fact that it is not ordained by God. He swore his oath before his own aspirations could be known and before he could realize that his love is not serving the church, but Agnes. He lacks the ambition to be a good priest because the choice to become one was not his own. No matter the role that has been thrust upon someone by society, Deledda shows that it is inconsequential to avoid one’s true calling in life.
Works Cited
Deledda, G. (1928). The Mother. New York: The Macmillan Company.
Gray, Erik. "Indifference and Epistolarity in The Eve of St. Agnes." Romanticism 5.2 (1999): 127. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 2 May 2014.
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