The Nun Suzanne Diderot

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In The Nun, Diderot effectively utilizes language and comparison to depict what qualities make a good and bad nun and to subsequently characterize, the protagonist and narrator, Suzanne’s humanity over her religiosity. Suzanne’s friend Sister Ursule portrays the qualities of the good nun. When Ursule fell ill, she became concerned that her friend’s suffering resulted from “all the trouble she had taken, or by the care she had shown” (Diderot 86). While the other nuns treated Suzanne with cruelty, often failing to recognize her as a human being, her friend continually exhibited sympathy and also maintained her duties to the church. Almost like a Christ figure, she died internalizing Suzanne’s pain, allowing for Suzanne to continue her life in a better state when the …show more content…

In addition to her inappropriate physical advances toward Suzanne, who is in a compromised position of obedience, she inputs sinful thoughts to corrupt the young, innocent nun. Attempting to dissuade her from telling the confessor about her actions, the Mother Superior claims that there is “no sin [Suzanne could have] committed that [she] cannot pardon,” which takes some power away from institutions of the church and grants it to her (127). This Mother Superior abuses her position of authority by mistreating those beneath her and deliberately disobeys principles of the church, contributing to her representation as a bad nun. Rather than confine Suzanne to the stagnate role of good or bad nun, her thoughts and actions demonstrate how her character balances in between. When describing her distaste for religious life, she says she has “envied, and asked God for” the same disposition as her companions (80). Diderot juxtaposes one of the seven deadly sins with piety to highlight her duality. Suzanne’s revulsion derives from natural inclinations towards freedom and free will, which the cloisters

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