EXISTENTIALISM AND THE DECLINE OF RELIGION AT THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY

EXISTENTIALISM AND THE DECLINE OF RELIGION AT THE END OF THE nineteenth blow         During the nineteenth nose candy, several(prenominal) ideas were developed about the change magnitude antecedent of religion and the meaning of life. These ideas were restrained or rejected through and through numerous writings. Her valet Melvilles billy club Budd embraces divinity and the ethical motive of Christianity while punctuate couples surreptitious Stranger reflects and supports the ideas of existentialism and a even up in religion in the nineteenth century.         Through Billy Budd, Hermilitary personnel Melville expresses his dashing hopes with the decline of power of religion at the rest of the nineteenth century. Philosopher William Barret stated that theology is no longer the uncontested fondness and ruler of mans life.1 Although Melville accepted this, he still believed that Christianity should watch to take the largest affair p ossible in mans life. He bodied this idea in Billy Budd. Within the short story, Melvilles characters and aspect re largessed a community which ide completelyy (or so he believed) warmheartednessed itself rough religion. Although the sailors of the Indomitable r atomic number 18ly manpowertion matinee idol, several scriptural allusions help create the parallel symbolism. Billy represents Christ, religious wait on as a moralistic model for others. Nearly everyone that comes in contact with Billy adores him. With no perceptible trace of the swelled about him¦he seemed to accept the spontaneous homage of his shipmates.2 When Billy Budd indignantly avenges his conspirator, he is hung. This extermination of the symbol of piety may represent what Melville sees happening throughout the 19th century. The work force of the Indomitable are not only heartbroken, but indecisive; they begin to show signs of a leaderless, revolting (probably mutinous) mob until tri bal chief Vere sends them back to work. For! suddenly the drumbeat to quarters, which familiar in effect(p) happening at least twice every day, had upon the present make a signal peremptoriness in it.3 Melville and then feels that with the decline of Christianity, man is becoming lost in footing of theology and purpose.         With The Mysterious Stranger, note dyad represents and supports the ideas of existentialism and privation of power of religion by symbolically criticizing mankind of the new 19th century. The Mysterious Stranger takes place in 1590, a cartridge holder when religion still acted as the center of peoples lives. Religion to knightly man was¦a solid psychological matrix adjoin the individuals life from birth to death, sanctifying and enclosing all its ordinary and ungodly occasions in sacrament and ritual.4 soil Twain confirms this way of life for the community of Austria in the opening of Mysterious Stranger: Mainly we were to be well-grounded Christians; to revere t he Virgin, the Church, and the saints to a higher place everything¦Knowledge was not good for the common people, and could make them dissatisfy with the lot which God had appointed for them.5 This already controverts the rudimentary fundamentals of existentialism. each(prenominal) essential knowledge relates to existence¦ fury on individualization¦.absurdity is manifest in Christianity.6 The incident the Twain advocates existentialism becomes apparent via the character of daemon. Satan has the cleverness to say and do as he pleases, thus straightway representing the voice of Twain. Satan tells Nicholas at one point, Manners are a manufacture7 and all humans vex from example Sense. Moral Sense is somewhat explained as man naively difficult to live by the morals of Christianity. Existentialism, on the other hand, documents that these morals clash in certain instances: ¦the inutility of moral rules to a man in an extreme situation.8 Satan later expla ins, As a race¦you omit sense and courage.9 This! disparagement and mockery of God-worshipping humans is not the hypocrisy of a moral-enforcing angel; it is Twain stating that the morals of Christianity are causing man to regress. Thus, by writing The Mysterious Stranger, Mark Twain voices his support of the popular belief of existentialism and the decreasing power of religion.          Billy Budd and The Mysterious Stranger represent the end of the 19th century by embodying the ideas of decline of religion and travel interest in existentialism.

While Melville advocated a return to orthodoxy, Twain may form suggested agnosticism to prevent man fro m move backwards as a race. The contrasting philosophies in these 2 literary flora reflect the evolution of thinking at the turn of the century. ENDNOTES         1William Barret, ill-considered Man ( new-fangled York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1958) 24.         2Herman Melville, Billy Budd ( brand-new York: upper-case letter straightforwardly Press, 1972) 5.         3Melville 90.         4Barret 25.         5Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger, major American Writers, 3rd Edition, ed. Howard Mumford Jones (New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1955) 1.         6Anthony Manser, Existentialism, dictionary of the History of Ideas, ed. Philip P. Wiener, (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1973) vol. 2, 189.         7Twain 4.         8Manser 190.         9Twain 27. BIBLIOGRAPHY / flora CITED Ba rret, William. Irrational Man. New York: Doubleday ! & Company, Inc., 1958. Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens. capital of Massachusetts: The beam Press, 1950. Manser, Anthony. Existentialism. Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Ed. Philip P. Wiener. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1973. vol.II. 189-195. Melville, Herman. Billy Budd. New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. Michelson, Bruce. Deus Ludens: The Shaping of Mark Twains Mysterious Stranger.         Mark Twain, upstart Critical Views. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea         House Publishers, 1986. 107-121. Thomas A. Bailey et al. The American Pagent, ordinal Edition. New York: Houghton         Mifflin Company, 1998. Twain, Mark. The Mysterious Stranger. Major American Writers, Third Edition. Ed.         Howard Mumford Jones. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1955. 1-28. If you want to get a profuse essay, put together it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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