Jacob and the angel : a study of Biblical influences in the work of Margaret Laurence
Date
1976
Authors
Lancaster, Miriam Ann
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Abstract
Margaret Laurence's admiration for human vitality is expressed in her writing as the growth of the human spirit towards self-knowledge and freedom. The theme of freedom in her early works assumes a national significance as she was living in Africa at a time when several colonies were actively seeking independence. She was also involved with a rediscovery of the Bible and found a natural correlation between the Africans and the Israelites, Her first novel, This Side Jordan, uses the Exodus as its controlling metaphor in Nathaniel Amegbe's emergence from colonial Africa, a contemporary parallel to Joshua's progression towards the Promised Land.
The decision to structure her writing on the simple but powerful foundation of Biblical myth carries over into her Canadian fiction, Though the theme of freedom continues, the political implications are replaced by an emphasis on survival. Now the mythic framework is used to enhance her study of women in quest of the self-knowledge that will allow them to escape from the bondage of the past in the prairie town of Manawaka that is their common heritage and, more important, from their personal bondage of pride, fear or despair.
Hagar in A Stone Angel and Rachel in A Jest of God share the experiences of their archetypes in Genesis while Stacey in The Fire- Dwellers is surrounded with New Testament images of destruction from the book of Revelation. In her latest novel, The Diviners, Morag's symbolic goal of freedom is not the Old Testament's Promised Land but Jerusalem, the heavenly city in the New Testament.
The Bible is as much a part of Margaret Laurence's heritage as the town of Manawaka. Here is her description of her approach to this source:
I suppose that the biblical references and allusions come into mos t of my work quite naturally, because, although I can't quote chapter and verse, and have to refer to the verses which hover in my mind, it has always seemed to me that my own frame of reference was very much a Christian heritage.
The purpose of this study is to examine the ways in which Mrs. Laurence uses the Bible and to discover how her allusions function in terms of themes, structure and characterization. Her concept of historical time also springs from a Biblical matrix as the span of time present in her stories represents not only the character's own life and memory but also every--thing acquired and passed on from one generation to another.
As a humanist, Mrs. Laurence is concerned with the process through which human potential is realized. As a Christian by inheritance, she describes this process in terms of her ancestral roots of received religion.