Exploring Love and Religion in 'A Burnt Out Case'

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Throughout A Burnt Out Case, the theme of love is continually delved into and dissected. Many characters allow their love for things like religion, women, or vocation to lead them astray from what others would consider the “morally right” path. Religion was also a common motif, it’s pros and cons being portrayed through the words and actions of characters like Father Thomas, Doctor Colin, Querry, and Rycker. These two concepts went hand-in-hand to deliver the powerful overall theme; Love is dangerous. The theme makes itself known particularly well in the life of Rycker. Rycker, a devout Christian man and a former seminarian, fancies himself the lone island of informed Catholicism amid a sea of ignorant and blind belief. He loves the sound …show more content…

One of the former believers was resolute atheist Doctor Colin. He claimed that while the Leproserie was under the control of the Fathers, it was not their faith that brought the healing, but the cures and treatments of modern medicine. Greene expressed this in saying, “I know that little fellow,’ the Superior said. ‘He always came to me for sweets.’ ‘He’s infected alright.’ Doctor Colin said. “Feel the patches here and here. But you needn’t worry.’ he added in a tone of suppressed rage, ‘we shall be able to cure him in a year or two, and I can promise you there will be no mutilations.” (Greene pg. 199) The Doctor knew that their theological sweets and sugared sermons would not prevent children from inheriting their parent 's disease, and it gave him rage when the Fathers would act as though their futile prayers could change the fate of a child whose only hope was scientific discovery and …show more content…

She seems torn between being a good wife/colon, and the desire to return to her family and hometown and leave Rycker altogether. “Love is dangerous” applies to Marie in the way that she was party to a loveless marriage with a man who neither respected her nor valued her boundaries. This lack of affection caused her to become attached to the first man that showed her any kindness: Querry. Her unrequited love for him caused her to claim that her budding child was a product of Querry in an attempt to rid her body of Rycker’s presence. She thought that by saying the baby was Querry 's’, she wouldn’t have to face another Rycker in the form of her child. This proves to be a very significant accusation when it prompts the dramatic slaying of Querry by

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