Divine Authority In Margaret Atwood's The Castle

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The novel stages the critique of divine authority becoming corrupted by human institutions such as the court systems. Within the society K. lives there is very little evidence of any religious views amongst individuals, all of these individualities are supressed by the corruption amongst the government, everyone is made to believe that the only that has power over an individual’s destiny is a higher authority, not God or a higher deity. K. states that the “government is corrupt” and never fails to voice his opinion because he is a firm believer that his destiny should be decided by someone of divine authority, in K.’s case being “God”, rather than someone abusing their power. These individuals governing over the society K. lives in are referred …show more content…

the end result is an execution in favour of the government because K.’s outburst of opinions are looked down in the eyes of power. The individuals residing within this society are “scared” of the total government control and therefore abide to all laws and act as if they are “blind” in a hope to escape the consequences. The Castle poses the same problems and is a remarkable tale that is just as relevant today as it ever was and reinforces the view that in the game of life the cards are stacked against us. The novel begins with K. arriving at a settlement that resembles a medieval fiefdom which consists of a central castle inhabited by a secretive society of apathetic and insensitive aristocratic officials. K. is not accepted or rejected, he exists in a state of limbo, a kind of in between where his belonging is always pending. This idea is closely tied with the idea of liminality, where an individual’s identity is neither fully one nor fully the other. K. arrives feeling alienated but soon realizes that all the individual’s rights of knowledge to the outside world are

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