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CHURCH�S AUTHORITY AND THE DISAPPEARENCE OF GOD IN GEORGE BERNARD SHAW�S THE
MIRACULOUS REVENGE SHORT STORY Zumrotun Lutfiah Universitas Dharmas Indonesia E-mail: [email protected] |
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Abstract This
research tries to investigate and elaborate the intention of Shaw in writing
such a hypocrite story which one side praise God, church and bible, but
another side mostly portrayed the disappearance of God. Late Victorian is
considered as the period which the presence of God is a must in every single
activity that the Victorian done because of their purpose to back to the
nature by considering God as the Holy creation through praising church.
However, Shaw shows a big contradiction between the reality on the Victorian
era with the elaboration of the short story by questioning the presence of
God even though it looks like the story is about praising the church. This
research is analyzed using qualitative descriptive method with historical
approach and historicism theory. The result of this study indicates that
church has the authority which is legitimate by the society even though the
society itself has a doubt on the presence of God and even disappearing God
in their life in society. Therefore, the power or the authority which is had
by the church is not absolute and can be replaced by other beliefs because
the reality which is faced by the society cannot always be understood by the
church. Keywords:
Victorian age, church authority, disappearance of God, historicism |
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Introduction
Victorian era is an era refers to the period of times
in the reign of Queen Victoria started from 1837 to 1901. The Victorian era or
Victorian age can be described as a period of dramatic change that brought
England to the highest point of development as a world power. This dramatic
change is caused by the dramatic transition from a way of life based on the
ownership of land to modern urban economy as the effect of industrial
revolution. The Victorian itself has several divisions in each period that are
early Victorian period (1830-1848), middle Victorian Period (1848-1870), and
late Victorian period (1870-1901). The early Victorian period there are three
things that is remarkable such the opening of Britain�s first railway,
Britain�s first Reform Parliament, and economic distress. In the middle
Victorian period it was a time of prosperity, optimism, and stability. While in
the late Victorian period England was confronted by the growing threats to its
military and economic preeminence (The Victorian Age, 2010).
In the late period of Victorian era, there is an
influential playwright and novelist named George Bernard Shaw. Shaw was born on
26 of July 1856 in Dublin, Ireland, United Kingdom and passed away on 2 of
November 1950 in England. Shaw moved to London on 1876 and on 1879-1881 Shaw
wrote five novels, four published serially in magazines. In 1884, Shaw joined
the Fabian Society which advocated gradual progress toward socialism. Beside as
a playwright and a novelist, Shaw is also an activist of socialism and a critic
because he joined in the organization of socialism and also wrote the critique
on the art, music, and drama. There are several works of Shaw which are
remarkable such as Widower Houses, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, An Unsocial
Socialist, Immaturity, and so on (Laurence, 2003: vii-ix).
The Miraculous Revenge is a short story by Bernard
Shaw which is written on 1885, but published on 1906 or five years after the
Victorian era has been ended because of the death of Queen Victoria on 1901.
This short story tells about the main character Zeno Legge
who is sent by his uncle, a Cardinal, to Wicklow, a
district area in Dublin, to investigate about the issue of miracle that spread
all over the country. The miracle that spread all over the country is about the
moving graveyard passing the river and leaving one graveyard that is owned by
Wolfe Tone Fitzgerald or known in the Wicklow�s
community as Brimstone Billy. The characteristic and the behavior of Fitzgerald
are same with Zeno that described as a dirty, drunken, and blasphemous
blackguard. That is why his uncle sends him to Wicklow
to investigate the cause of the moving graveyard and leaving one graveyard that
is owned by Fitzgerald which is considered and issued by people by a miracle.
In the end of the story, Zeno is detected as a spy who
is sent by a Cardinal from London to Dublin to investigate the case of miracle
in the graveyard in Wicklow. In the perspective of
priest and church the spy investigating about something in the authority of a
certain church is not appropriate. Moreover, the investigation is about a �bad�
thing (about a bad person who has dead). Therefore, before back to the London,
Zeno is doing something which can be categorized as a genuine thing because
Zeno dug the graveyard of Fitzgerald in order to move this graveyard in another
bank of the river which full of the people� graveyard. So, the miracle revenge
in this short story is all about a genuine because in the end of the story
described that the miracle was a gross imposture. Thus, the elaboration of the
Victorian era and the short story by Bernard Shaw entitled The Miraculous
Revenge.
There are several researches about the works of George
Bernard Shaw such as a research done by Lindaa Haapala in 2018 from Karlstad University which discussed
about the medical science from the works of Shaw entitled Frankenstein.� However, the research which discusses about
Miraculous Revenge by Shaw is never done before. The only one research which
has correlation with Miraculous Revenge is a dissertation entitled �George
Bernard Shaw and European Theatre� which is written by Hayrullah
Yanik in 2008 from Azerbaijan University of Language.
The dissertation talks about the works of Shaw�s literary works in general
which one of them is Miraculous Revenge. The dissertation mostly discusses
about the works of Shaw which is portraying the reality of Victorian era which
is not always in term of positive but in negative aspect. In addition, in term
of plays or drama and even theatre all of the plot of the story which is
presented is about the greatness of the kingdom. However, this is not the
reality which is faced by the society and then Bernard Shaw appears with the
works which is mostly portraying the reality of society in Victorian era.
Therefore, based on the previous study above, this
research can be categorized as new research in term of Shaw�s works which is
related to Miraculous Revenge short story. Moreover, the reason of choosing
this short story appears because of the curiosity of the writer in knowing the
reason why Shaw is showing this kind of story which is in short looks like
praise the church and bible. However, in the other hand, the story also shown
the contradiction of the reality in the Late Victoria and the disappearing of
God and church but focus on the logic. So, this paper tries to investigate the
reason of the author writing this kind of short story in the late Victorian
era.
In addition, this paper also use the theory of
historicism to elaborate the analysis of the Miraculous Revenge short story by
investigating the history of Victorian era and the church. The analysis will
focus on the reason church can be categorized as the powerful institution and
the doubt or disappearing of God in society in Victorian era despite the portraying
of the Victorian era the Holy of God is a must in every aspect of society�s
life.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
As the elaboration above, this paper�s analysis will
be in the form of historical analysis by using the historical approach and
using the theory of Historicism in elaborating the analysis. Historical
analysis can be described as a method of the examination of evidence in coming
to an understanding of the past and it is particularly applied to evidence
contained in documents (Historical Analysis, 2011). So, by seeing this
definition can be shortly understood that historical analysis is an analysis of
the past or understanding the past by seeing the document as evidence. However,
in the context of literary studies historical analysis has different definition
even though the fundamental understanding and meaning is same with the
historical analysis in general.
In the literary studies, there is disparity among
historical approach with literature history, historical literature, and
historical novel. Historical approach mostly appropriate to be used to analyzed
historical literature and historical novel. However, literary works that are
not having dominant historical context also can be analyzed using this approach
because the point of historical analysis is about finding the indications that
are hidden. Therefore, historical approach is considering the relevance of the
literary works as social documents because by an imagination literary works is
a representation of an era and the reflection of an era. In the historical
approach, literary works can be used as medium to understand the wider cultural
aspects because historical approach is related to the historical competency in
general such as traditional literature with the great kingdoms, modern
literature with the movement of social, politics, economy, and culture in
general. (Ratna, 2015: 65-66).
In another explanation of historical approach or
historicism approach can be described as follows. Historicism is often
encountered in discussions on the method of the social sciences and even often
used without critical reflection or even taken for granted. In fact,
historicism is an approach to the social sciences which assumes that historical
prediction is their principal purpose by discovering the �rhythms� or the
�patterns�, the �laws� or the �trends� that underlie the evolution of history
(Popper, 1957: 3). So, in short, historicism approach tries to investigate the
characteristic of something and relate to the history by the underlying events
of history.
Historicism firstly developed from the end of the
eighteenth century as the reaction against the philosophy of rationalism. In
addition, historicism also appears to reforms and policies advocated by various
author of the Enlightenment and it opposed a program of preservation of
existing institution and even return to extinct institution. This kind of
condition is caused by the reason that they appealed to the authority of
tradition and the wisdom of ages. Furthermore, the main purpose of historicism
is the ideas which inspired by the American and French Revolutions and kindred
movements in other countries and historicism champions proudly called
themselves as antirevolutionary and emphasized the rigid conservatism (Mises,
2007: 198).�
Then, the fundamental aim of historicism theory is the
proposition that apart from the natural science, mathematics, and logic,
because historicism believes that there is no knowledge but provided by history
(Mises, 2007: 199). In addition, Hayden White as a theorist of history and
historiography explicitly refutes that the charge of textualism itself is
ahistorical because he argues that all of history is textual in some level
(Blackwell, 2013: 123). Moreover, historical understanding in term of
historicism requires the contextualization even if the latter is problematized
in certain ways and seen as necessary rather than sufficient condition of a
self-critical historiography that acknowledged the importance of
self-understanding in attempt to make an assumption to work critically through
a relation to the past (Blackwell, 2013: 124). So, the main point of
historicism is a theory which is focusing the elaboration of the analysis on
the relation between the texts of the literary work to the text of history.
Research Method
This research will be conducted and elaborated by
using qualitative descriptive because the aim of this research is
investigating, describing and elaborating all the data in the form of
descriptive form. In descriptive qualitative research there is no purpose to
test the certain hypothesis but it just describe some variable and condition
based on the data naturally (Arikunto, 2007:234).
Therefore, this research will be analyzed and elaborated in the form of
description of the data which is found in the Miraculous Revenge short story
based on the approach and theory which is used in this research in accordance
to the research method.
Research method itself can be described as a way to
gain knowledge about particular object so that it must be in accordance with
the nature of object�s existence as stated by the theory (Faruk, 2012:55). The
research method of this research consist of two steps
which are data collection and data analysis. Then, the data which is used in
this research is in the form of word, clause, sentence, condition and situation
from the Miraculous Revenge short story which tell about the church as powerful
institution in society and also about the doubt of the God�s presence or the
disappearing of God.
The method and technique of data collection is
basically a set of methods or techniques which are an extension of the human
senses because the aim is to collect empirical facts related to the research
(Faruk, 2012: 25). The first step is data collection which is begun by reading
more than once Miraculous Revenge short story. Then, the data is collected
based on two types of the problem in this research that are the church as
powerful institution in society and also the doubt of the God�s presence or the
disappearing of God in the short story. Beside the short story, the data of
this research also taken from other source like books, journals and articles which
is related with the problem of this research.
The second step is data analysis which can be
described as a set of methods or research techniques which are an extension of
the human mind because its function is not to collect data but to look for
relationships between data that will never be expressed by data themselves
(Faruk, 2012:25).�� In data analysis, the
data will be analyzed in the form of qualitative descriptive by using
historical approach and using historicism theory based on the background and
the problem of this research which is related with the church authority and the
doubt of God or God�s disappearance of Miraculous Revenge short story.
Result and Discussion
In this discussion will be elaborated about the finding of the data that
related to the church or anything that related to the church from the short
story by Bernard Shaw entitled The Miraculous Revenge. There are several
data that are found in this story that have a relation with church and
Victorian era. Then, those data will be analyzed and elaborated as by seeing
the historical context as the main point of the historicism theory which is
emphasized the relation of the text in a work with the textual history or with
history. Therefore, in this discussion the data will be related to the
historical context of Victorian era as the representation of the theme that is
found in this short story. The first analysis of this paper is showing the
analysis of the church�s authority in the Shaw�s short story.
The first data about the authority of church is as follow:
An unpleasant smell of salt fish made ask her what dinner consisted of.
She assured me that she had cooked all that could be permitted in His
Holiness/s house on a Friday. On my asking her further why on a Friday, she
replied that Friday was a fast day. (Shaw,
1906: 1).
On the quotation above can be seen that the dogma of Church in the term
of Christianity cannot be faded because it is like a partially lifestyle as
human in the Christianity context. In addition, the quotation above along with
the Victorian era�s society concerning on Church or religion that even in the
single aspect of our life it is necessary to follow the church. Furthermore,
the traditional culture and morality in England are based on the patriarchal
village family of all degrees who have a conception that the father worked, the
mother aware to the house, the food, and the clothes, and from the parents the
children learn the crafts and industries necessary for their livelihood and on
Sundays they went together great and small to the worship in the village church
(Young, 1954: 39).
Based on the quotation of Young itself can be correlated with the
quotation of the short story that the aspects of life is lead by Church in
order to get the true happiness in the society and in God�s side. In simple
analysis, this quotation shown that in every aspect of life even in the single
thing such as preparing a food for dinner will be run by the dogmatic church in
order to be a good parish. In addition, those kind of attitude is also a kind
of ideology which is had by the society based on the dogmatic of the church and
bible. Ideology itself can be understood as a theory or set of beliefs or
principles especially one on which a political system, party or organization
based (Walter, 2008). Therefore, the dogma of church and bible which is
manifested such in the elaboration on the first data above also becomes an
ideology because it is a set of beliefs which is based on religion in the
Christianity context.
The second data will be shown as follows:
�But what you have done, you cannot undo. Kindly inform the night porter that I am gone to visit my uncle, the
Cardinal Archbishop. Adieu.� I strode past them, and left them whispering among
themselves. (Shaw, 1906: 2).
Based on the quotation above can be concluded that the church�s authority
also makes some people take an advantages of it. Like in the quotation above
the main character used his uncle who has an authority in church in making the
people who judged him badly move away from him. Moreover, in 1846, the
educational system in England is amazing because the children are under the
monitorial system. The British and foreign school society backed Lancaster and
simple Bible reading and also the National Society for Promoting the Education
of the Poor in the principles of the Established Church stood for Bell and the
Catechism (Young, 1954: 93). By seeing the quotation of Young itself can be
concluded that the understanding of the church�s authority is started from the
early age of the children and this kind of condition makes them believe that
the reality of their environment will be lead by the church. Moreover,
education can be considered as the root of the understanding of an ideology.
So, this kind of condition which is described in the second data that
explicitly can be seen that the education about the church and the bible as the
basis of the children in having an understanding of church which leads them in
the future to have an ideology directly without any other conception.
The third data can be seen as follow:
�I need not tell you that even a miracle may do more harm than good in
this country, unless it can be proved so thoroughly that her powerful and
jealous enemies are silenced by the testimony of followers of their heresy.
Therefore, when I saw in a Wexford newspaper last week a description of strange
manifestation of the Divine Power which was said to have taken place at Four
Mile Water, I was troubled in my mind about it. So I wrote to Father Hickey,
bidding him give me an account of the matter if it were true and if not to
denounce from the altar the author of the report, and to contradict it in the
paper at once. This is his reply. He says well, the first part is about Church
matters: I need not trouble you with it.��
(Shaw, 1906: 4).
The quotation above showed the reality of the society in Victorian era
that in every aspect of life will be seen by the society from the church�s
perspective. This condition can be seen as along with the condition of the
parish itself who claimed themselves as the part of church in everything. In
addition, in the evangelical theology rests on a profound apprehension of the
contrary states that are of Nature and of Grace, one meriting eternal wrath,
and the other intended for eternal happiness. Naked and helpless, the soul
acknowledges its worthlessness before God and the justice of God�s infinite
displeasure, and taking hold of salvation in Christ, passes from the darkness
into light which makes more fearful the destiny of those unhappy beings that
remain without (Young, 1954: 12). By seeing those two quotations above from the
short story and the concept of evangelical which is related to the church can
be seen that everyone in Victorian beside placed themselves as human also as
ardent Christianity in order to get the acknowledged from the society of their
presence in the society.��
The following data can be seen below:
�And Zeno, in Heaven�s name be discreet. Try to act like a man of sense.
Do not dispute with Hickey on matters of religion. Since you are my nephew, you
had better not disgrace me.� (Shaw, 1906: 6).
Based on the quotation above, can be seen that a good man in the
perspective of church in the Victorian era is a man has a sense and does not
act ridiculous which makes the people around him disgrace or even disgusting
because it is appropriate to be seen. In addition, Sunday services without any
form of prayer or worship are to be preserved, the parish would attend, in its
best clothes, to hear a lecture of something such as botany or economic, and
receive prizes for virtuous behavior. Moreover, the day of rest and gladness
would be ended by dance expressive of the social and fraternal emotions, and
only soft drink would be served (Young, 1954: 105). So, by seeing the quotation
above about Sunday service can be seen that the act that is shown in the
church�s perspective is normal while for the people who are abnormal will be
excluded from the community by seeing them as harm on church�s Holiness. This
condition along with the case of Fitzgerald and Zeno which is considered by
people around them as abnormal because they do what they want without thinking
of the church�s dogmatic.
Thus, those two quotation above are the result of the dogma of the church
which becomes an ideology in leading the people who believe in the dogma of
church and the power of church seeing the existence of people around them by
using the rules of the church because it is like an automatic attitude which
had by them in seeing the people in their environment. Furthermore, as the
description of Young in the Victorian era about church in those two quotation
above also emphasize that the perspective in seeing people is based on the
perspective of church because its power.
The last data can be seen as follow:
�I am indeed the Cardinal spy, and I have already reported to him that
the miracle is a genuine one. A committee will wait on you tomorrow to verify
it.�
�����
�Let me tell you before you leave my house for good,� said father Hickey,
who seemed to have become unreasonably angry, �that you should never have
crossed my threshold if I had known you were a spy, no, not if your uncle were
his Holiness the Pope himself.� (Shaw,
1906: 12).
Based on the quotation above can be seen clearly that the respect of
other people toward someone beside seen from their attitude also from their
genetic and environment. Moreover, when the genetic of the people is a man who
has an authority in church in highest position, they will be respected by other
definitely. This condition can be caused by the Bible that becomes their
directive because in the history of Church also along with the pledged of Bible
who dominate the life of Christianity. The view of the state about pledged by
the Bible was also furthered by clergymen in all the leading churches because
the late Victorian period was a time when traditional religious beliefs were
being transformed by Biblical criticism and Darwinian science. Thererore, there
were several people who choose to reject the Christianity or being an atheism.
In addition, Bishop Durham named Brooke Westcott stated the term about the
social aspects of Christianity which in this term they emphasized that the
particular church had not only a spiritual but a social mission that is pledged
by every page of the Testament, Old and New, to fight the battle of the poor
(Ausubel, n.d.: 56-57). So, by this kind of pledging Bible the people will be
more careful in doing an act because they are related with the church as the
Holy institution in Christianity�s life.
The second thing of the analysis in this paper is the reason which is had
by the author in creating this kind of short story which describes about the
power of church, but another side also implicitly put the contradiction of a
man in seeing the power of church by act based on his logic. Zeno as the main
character in short story is implicitly doing what he wants which is based on
his logic without any hesitation and caring about his environment which is
praising the church because of its authority. This kind of condition can be
seen as the representation that the presence of God is being neglected. Based
on the history of Victorian era, there is a period in Victorian literature that
neglected the God and considering the God is not exist and they focus on the
logic thinking in everything that they done. This condition is like a
contradictory between the presence of God and the disappearance of the God if
it is seen from the historical context of late Victorian because the
intellectual interests of the late Victorian also can be described as the
traditional conception of man�s nature and place in the world (Shrimpton,
2018). In short, the late Victorian invites the Victorians to back to the
nature or praise the nature by considering the nature as the source of idealism
in every single step that they passed. Then, the Victorians also try to
considering the presence of God as the reflection of their claim about back to
the nature because they know from the dogma of the Church and Bible that the
universe as the symbol of nature is a kind of God�s creation.
Moreover, by
seeing the historicism theory which emphasize the conservative thing and the
tradition as the valuable thing and as the main idea of this theory also it is
like a contradictory because in the short story described because the main
character is neglected the conservative idea and the tradition of the era that
is� praising the church and God.
Therefore, this short story is created can be categorized as a warning of Shaw
that there is no power of church which is absolute because in any time the
authority of church can be replaced by the authority of other ideas or beliefs
which appears from the logic perspective and do not in the form of dogmatic.
Conclusion
Based on the elaboration above started from the
background into the finding and discussion, can be concluded that this short
story is a reflection of society from the author�s imagination and experience.
In addition, this short story also emphasize the authority
of church in the Victorian era�s society because based on the data that are
found and analyzed tells about the reality that is faced by people in the
Victorian era when facing the problem related with the church as portrayed in
the short story from the perspective of narrator or main character. Then, the
short story also emphasize that the reality in the
Victorian era that the society and the church cannot be broken because these
two things is related each other in supporting the continuing life in society
based on the authority�s church and the people�s intention. Last, this short
story also a warning from Shaw which is delivered through his work that the
power and the authority of church is not absolute because in any time it can be
replaced with other ideas or beliefs which is based on the logical thinking.
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