Year of Wonders Flashcards
Anna remembers the time when Puritans were in power:
‘it was their sermons we grew up listening to in a church bare of adornment, their notions of what was heathenish that hushed the Sabbath and quieted the church bells’.
Anna describes her Puritan upbringing
‘dark and light. That was how i had been taught to see the world. The Puritans… held that all actions and thoughts could be only one of two natures: godly and right, or Satanic and evil’. Anys falls into this grey area.
Anna and Elinor try to do what they feel is right by support Merry Wickford and her mine:
Elinor says, ‘after all we’ve gone through to get justice for this child, Anna, I intend to be there to see that justice done’.
Duality of good and evil in Mompellion’s voice
‘it was a voice full of light and dark. Light not only as it glimmers, but also as it glares. Dark not only as it brings fear, but also as it gives rest and shade.’ Gives insight into his character as capable of doing both good and destructive behaviours.
Mompellion uses morality to threaten the people of Eyam into staying in the town:
‘For loneliness awaits those who flee…The shunning that has ever been the leper’s lot’.
Colonel Bradford remarks that Mompellion’s judgement has been clouded by his sense of duty to religion:
‘you do ill in making your congregation feel righteous in staying here’.
Religion and medicine are often at odds in pre-Enlightenment era societies as a result of anticipating God’s will. Mr Stanley chastises Mem Gowdie for her herbal knowledge as she…
‘defied God’s will in telling folk that they could prevent illness with her teas and sachets’.
‘Sickness was sent by God to test and chastise those souls He would save.’
Anys is progressive, places her faith in medicine instead of religious beliefs:
‘A good infusion would have served George better than the empty mutterings of a priest’
Anna eventually echoes this scientific sentiment:
‘more thought as to how the Plague spread…then we might have come nearer to saving lives’.
Mompellion shows religious tolerance as he names Anteros after a Pagan idol
‘even Puritans should recall that pagans, too, are children of God and their stories part of His creation’
Differences in the societies of Salem and Eyam. In Salem people are considered inherently sinful and their lives center around redeeming themself through their good Christian character.
In Eyam Mompellion heralds a more tolerant view where all people are born innocent and have the capacity to do good, but are lead astray by external forces: ‘We all began as naked children, playing in the mud’.
Tolerance in Eyam is evidenced by Thomas Stanley, the Puritan preacher, being able to stay in the town
‘Quitely the older man was making clear his full support of the younger’.
If society is more tolerant in the first place, times of crisis can bring people together. Brooks hints at what might have happened if more tolerance was shown
‘for Mr Stanley had commenced to attend Mr Mompellion’s services ever since the Sunday Oath and..the Bilings family and some others from among the nonconformists had begun to come as well’.
Religion is intended to be inherently positive, but individuals distort it for their own means. Mompellin’s sermon allows Anna to forget her grief, it is a positive force in this case:
‘He had not..mentioned the Plague, and I realised…I had not thought of it, who had thought of nothing else in many weeks’.
Religion gives hope, after Mompellion’s sermon:
‘the faces that had been so gant and careworn now seemed warm and alive’.
Christian idea of redemption explored when Jakob Merill laments the loss of his wife, blaming his neglect and dismissal of her, feels he deserves his loss of her:
‘I felt it was His wrath on me for my neglect. And i knew i deserved it.’ Mompellion tries to comfort him by suggesting lust is inalienable to all people: ‘If we slip and fall, He understands our weakness’
Mompellion bring it upon himself to ensure Elinor is atoned for her sins. Brooks encourages readers to ask whether an individual should have this much power, or know God’s will to this extent?
‘because lust caused the sin, I deemed that she should atone by living…with her lusts unrequited’.
Initially started off as an austere girl,
‘Puritan in her ways, thinking that laughter and fun are ungodly’.
Jane Martin is afflicted with immense feelings of loneliness and as a result
‘she had shrugged off her Sadd colours and her tight-lipped ways’.
Anna’s change in faith is catalyst by her survivor guilt - failure to understand her losses.
‘Why was I not one of the many in the chamber of Death?’
Anna’s experience with death weakens her belief in God’s will
‘why should this good woman lie here, in such extremity, when a man like my father lived to waste his reason in drunkenness’.
Anna slows moves away from the dichotomous view of religion which necessitates deferring occurrences into discrete categories:
‘why should this thing be either a test of faith sent by God or the evil working of the Devil in the world’.
Kate Talbot resorting to Aphra’s charms in a time of despair while questioning faith:
- I bought this charm because that with I do believe in has failed me’.
- ‘People here are so desperate and credulous that they listen to these midnight whisperings and pay their last mite for these worthless amulets’.
Aphra’s character arc shows that her demise begins with the death of Josiah Bont and the loss of her children
‘much rage and some madness - and a surfeit of grief’
Aphra resorts to alternative forms of religion
‘the sign she made at the end of it did not resemble the sign of the cross’.
When the Wickford’s mine was ransacked…l
The men ‘felt their loyalty had to lie with David Burton, one of their own’.
Fear creates intolerance and brings out the worst aspects of humanity. Maggie Campwell’s treatment by the neighbouring town.
‘They started chanting: ‘out! Out! Out!’
