[Abstract] This paper attempts to explore the novel The Thor(6)
2013-08-04 01:10
导读：There he becomes to realize that he is a man, can never be God, and he is made for Meggie. He breaks his vows. He will miss Meggie as long as he lives, but he still will not leave his Church, for he b
There he becomes to realize that he is a man, can never be God, and he is made for Meggie. He breaks his vows. He will miss Meggie as long as he lives, but he still will not leave his Church, for he belongs to the Church all along. He really suffers a lot, because of his conflictive mentality. When Meggie has his son—Dane, she does not tell him the truth. He considers that she gives birth to a great son for Luke, which makes him so envious. As Dane is determined to be a priest, Meggie has to send him to Ralph. In the letter, she says to Ralph, “ ‘I charge you with his well-being, his happiness. What I stole, I give back. It is demanded of me.’ ”[18] But he still doesn’t know Dane is his son until Dane’s accidental death, which wears him down thoroughly.
At last, he comes to realize that he is wrong, “Pride, ambition, a certain unscrupulousness. And love for Meggie flowering among them. But the crowing glory of that love he had never known.”[19] Meggie is the mirror in which he is forced to view his mortality, but he never pays attention to it until he dies. Only in death will he find the peace he cannot find here in this life. He hurts Meggie profoundly and loses his excellent son. He loves Meggie deeply, but he can’t treat love as his faith as Meggie does. He cares God more. So he creates an extreme tragedy for Meggie and himself.
3.2 The other men’s faith in The Thorn Birds
When he falls in love with Fiona, Pakeha has been married already, and he has been an important politician. Though Fiona loves him deeply and so does him, “Divorce was out of the question for him. He was one of the first people of his race to attain political greatness”[20]. He has to choose between his people and Fiona. The same as Ralph, he chooses the former, which really stifles Fiona’s faith and deprives her of her zeal for life.
Meggie has eight brothers, two of whom dies young, but none of the ones left alive seem to have any intention of ever getting married. They treat their mother with a tender, absorbed care no amount of indifference on her part can banish. But they are frightened of the power a woman might have over them. They would rather devote all their silent love to the fertile land—Drogheda. “The land brings them men’s self-confidence and dignity; the land compensate them for the lack of mother’s love; the land gives them rich nourishment of life.”[21] They love the land deeply, which weakens their intention of marriage.
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Luke is infatuated with money beyond any other thing, including love, and he thinks he does not need women at all. At heart he loves hard cash far more than what it may eventually buy him. The reason he leaves no stone unturned in his effort to marry Meggie is that he feels like getting her property. As Meggie evaluates him before she leaves,
“ ‘You haven’t any intention of spending it, have you? You want to adore it, like a golden calf. Admit it, Luke, you’re a miser. And what an unforgivable idiot you are into the bargain! To treat your wife and daughter the way you wouldn’t dream of treating a pair of dogs, to ignore their existences, let alone their needs!’ ”[22]
Because of his faith for money, Meggie is only a transient figure in his mind, let alone love.
How can a man resist a chance like that to be noble? Just as Ralph chooses the Church, Pakeha chooses his people. Meggie and her mother think they don’t care. They will take what they can get of the men. They will have their children to love at least. However, if they can’t keep their lovers, how can they keep their sons? That is just what God cannot allow, so both of them lose their sons at last. Generally speaking, to most men, if they have to make a choice between two important things, one of which is love, love usually comes a very bad second, while women always choose love as their faith throughout their life.
3.3 The voice between Meggie and Ralph
Ralph has thought that Meggie would not be a rebel, and all her life she would obey, moving within the boundaries of her female fate. But on the contrary, she would rather be a rebel to shoot for her love, and to be loyal to her faith. And she does so, going forward in spite of its loads, its grieves, its pain. However, she still can’t convince Ralph to marry her; her voice for love still can’t cover Ralph’s voice for religious authority. Ralph really loves Meggie, but living in the environment full of men’s power, love is impossible to be his first choice. In his mind, religious authority is more important than love, though he is unlikely to be happy by giving up love. He can’t forget Meggie and can’t forget his love. He does it even as he knows he does wrong. Not that his awareness of the evil in him stops him for a second; only that he pays for his material advancement in pain and self-torment. No matter how mixed his feeling is, he will never think that to accept Meggie’s love is worth a try. In some way, Meggie faint voice can’t have Ralph awake to the importance of love, let alone the society. Naturally, women’s voice is incapable of surmounting men’s. So love tragedies often come to women, including Meggie, for their faint voice can hardly change anything.
