Reading 1001 discussion
This topic is about
Gösta Berling's Saga
Past BOTM discussions
>
Gösta Berling's Saga - January 2024 BOTM
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Diane
(last edited Dec 10, 2023 06:06PM)
(new)
Dec 10, 2023 06:05PM
Mod
reply
|
flag
Mod
Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940) was the first woman, and the first Swedish author, to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1909. In 1914 she also became the first woman to be elected to the Swedish Academy. Among her many books are The Adventures of Nils Holgersson [HK2] and Jerusalem.
Lagerlöf was quite interested in the new (at that time) medium of film, and a number of her books have been made into films, both in the silent era and later. The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924), a silent film directed by Mauritz Stiller, was the first major film role for Greta Garbo (as Elisabet Dohna).
Questions and Topics for Discussion from Penguin Random House
1. Chapter 1 (“The Landscape”) describes “the setting where Gösta Berling and the cavaliers of Ekeby lived out their eccentric existence” (p. 23). Should the landscape be considered a character in the book? Find other passages where elements of nature are personified. What is the relationship between the protagonists and their environment?
2. Gösta Berling has passionate feelings for a series of women (Anna Stjärnhök, Marianne Sinclaire, Elisabet Dohna, and in the past, Ebba Dohna). Discuss how these young women are described. Do they have any features in common? Do these relationships differ in any way?
3. The characters Gösta Berling and Henrik Dohna are both male and roughly the same age. Compare the author’s descriptions of these young men. In what ways do they embody their social class/other position of the time? Discuss their confrontation in Chapter 10 (“The Young Countess”).
4. Compare and contrast the power dynamic between the majoress, described as “plucky as a man” in Chapter 2 (p. 28), with the cavaliers. In what ways is power expressed in this narrative?
5. Death is a recurring theme in the book, and even appears as a character in Chapter 28 (“Death the Liberator”). Discuss the narrator’s attitude to death in that chapter and in passages from “The Ball at Ekeby” (pp. 79–80, “Oh Death, pale friend”) and “The Cemetery” (pp. 293–94, “Friends, children of mankind, when I die”).
6. Discuss the parent-child relationships in the book: the majoress (Margareta Celsing) and her mother; Melchior Sinclaire and Marianne; the captain’s wife and Ferdinand. What distinguishes these relationships? What do they have in common?
7. When Marianne Sinclaire knows she has lost Gösta Berling forever, she writes a long poem (“a kind of verse”) (p. 133). Is Marianne’s writing better for not being “tied up in the chains of rhyme and meter”? What does this suggest about the power of writing?
8. Chapter 29 (“Drought”) begins with a remarkable address to nature (“If dead things love,” p. 313). Discuss the narrator’s view of nature and the connection between human life and the natural world.
9. Who is telling this story? How do we know? Is the narrator (or narrators) a naive provincial storyteller or a conscious literary artist?
10. Is The Saga of Gösta Berling a novel? A collection of short stories? Does this matter for how we read the book? Choose one of the “stand-alone” stories to discuss in more depth.
11. “Kevenhüller” is a fantastic tale about a remarkable cavalier who is only mentioned in passing early in the book (p. 29). What is the source of Kevenhüller’s genius? Discuss the events in this tale from the point of view of Kevenhüller himself and the narrator.
12. The Saga of Gösta Berling was written in a different era (the 1890s) and is set in an even earlier period (the 1820s). Which aspects of the narrative feel the most remote from our vantage point in the twenty-first century? Which, if any, feel most contemporary?
13. What works of literature do you think The Saga of Gösta Berling might be in conversation with, i.e., what works were in the reader’s realm at the time?
14. How is religion portrayed in the book? Is there a tension between religion, the emergence of science/philosophy, and love? Or are they harmonious?
Mod
Mod
I noticed that was missing, I am assuming it is a glitch. I am able to post progress on books on the App on my phone.
Mod
GR said they suspended it because there was too much traffic.
I settled down in the sun to listen to this on Audible, only to discover that I had bought a Swedish version. So lucky it is Open Library!
Mod
Oh, no, I’ve done that before. Audible will take them back.
I'm trying to get in 2 chapters a day and I'm already 1 chapter behind... and it's Jan. 3 :( There is a Librivox recording of the book on Youtube that I might try if I get really delayed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNLSn...
Mod
Good to know. Thank you.
I am about 1/3 of the way through.7. When Marianne Sinclaire knows she has lost Gösta Berling forever, she writes a long poem (“a kind of verse”) (p. 133). Is Marianne’s writing better for not being “tied up in the chains of rhyme and meter”? What does this suggest about the power of writing?
This is where I left off. I think it is better because she is able to allow her feelings to flow from her (in the form of verse). If she had to think about rhyme and meter I doubt she would have written what she felt or anything for that matter.
10. Is The Saga of Gösta Berling a novel? A collection of short stories? Does this matter for how we read the book? Choose one of the “stand-alone” stories to discuss in more depth.
I thought that this would be 'a novel' before I started, but it clearly is not (in form anyway). Lagerlof has worked to have this be told in an episodic way, as a long saga would be (have been). Generally, I have been finding quite a bit of amusement in the 'saga' and I've been reading it a bit at a time, which I think it benefits from. There is a possibility that I would get bored with it if I read it as I would a novel. After all, the cavaliers are a bunch of wastrels, and Gosta is not over-burdened with insight into his actions. This can become wearisome if told in a straight-forward narrative.
14. How is religion portrayed in the book? Is there a tension between religion, the emergence of science/philosophy, and love? Or are they harmonious?
So far, in the first third, religion does not come off well - between Gosta and the Broby parson - neither of whom are upstanding citizens.
1. One of the best aspects of the book is that I felt as if I was in rural Sweden. I wouldn't say that the landscape is another character but it definitely meshed in well with the character of the people and their total existence. There are beautiful descriptions. When characters move through the landscape you don't only see it visually as much as you feel it; the cold, the gloom of the forests, the exposure of the hills. 2. Gösta's passions reflect women who are better than he is in their innocence or capacities and they, of course, all tend to at least start out as beautiful. He feels that he is not worthy of any of them and as the author captures their relationships, he is generally correct. He is not worthy of them but they all see something in him that is worthy of their admiration or even out and out devotion.
3. The characters Gösta Berling and Henrik Dohna are both products of their times but Henrik is upper class and well traveled but we are told again and again that he is stupid and he certainly is stubborn and incapable of seeing other people's perspectives. He is very concerned about his honor and how other people see him. Gösta on the other hand doesn't care how other people see him generally, as he views himself as a lost soul and therefore already beyond anyone else's judgement.
The author always presents Gösta as full of light and energy even when he is depressed and Henrik is rather staid.
4. The Majoress is a very complex character as she was Margareta Celsing and matured into something that she needed to be to survive in a judgmental world. She is very capable and her capabilities allow the whole region to prosper. Although she is jealous of her power she doesn't wield her power purely for herself but for the region as a whole. The cavaliers when we first meet them do not seem complex, they are "left over" soldiers from the last war who just want to be left alone to drink and entertain themselves, to eat well and occasionally go out to do harm but in the sense of over the top practical jokes rather than out and out violence. The Majoress uses them rather wisely. She provides for a personal army that she doesn't need to use. Later we see that these cavaliers are actually very complex characters with individual unique backgrounds and they as a group get tangled in a bargain with the devil which they believe The Majoress has entered into. They forget what the Majoress has done for them and instead of defending her they turn on her.
5. I rather felt sorry for Death when he shows up as a character. He was so delighted to be welcomed for once. Almost all of the stories have death as a presence either very close up or hovering in the background. Death was simply a natural part of this world and it could arise because of actions of the devil or the indifference of god or because of lack of faith or because of an overabundance of faith or simply because infection was frequent and disease stalked the land. Everyone had a relationship with death. Gösta, for example, often wanted to die to escape his own failures of faith or breaking of promises.
6. Many of the parent/child relationships were extreme versions of real life relationships. The desire to get away and the desire to keep close, the desire to please and obey coupled with the desire to be your own person. The Majoress and her mother had a relationship that haunted the Majoress. The Majoress felt that her mother ruined Margareta, the innocent that she was and ruined her true love. The mother felt that she was simply better at predicting the future and she saw the Majoress as coming home to forgive her many many years in the future. Marianne Sinclaire was really betrayed by her father for a rather innocent crush on Gösta. Ultimately she wants to do good and be forgiven by her father but he is a stubborn and irrational man and he has a hand in destroying the beauty of his daughter. I really loved the relationship that Squire Julius had with his mother. She tells him to come home and once a year he feels the guilt and obeys the call but never makes it home after being waylaid by a gaggle of girls.
7. A great poem may have a strict form and/or a strict adherence to rhythm and rhyme but there are many great poems without either. However, when this book was published, "free verse" would not have been seen very often. I thought that the emotions expressed were sincere and the poem probably lost something in translation.
8. I believe that the author cared very much for the land but she put it in the same perspective as the characters are put in in the rest of the book: change happens, sometime good changes, usually bad. Nature had the ability to heal itself but rarely was allowed to. Death stalked daily in this world to all people and all things.
9. I think that the author was both a conscious literary artist and a person from the provinces who understand in a deeply felt emotional way the life of these people that made up her characters. She sometimes speaks to us directly as the narrator, although that narrator also may not be the author but if she is, she makes clear that she has known some of these people not just collected their stories.
10. As I first started reading, the individual stories impressed me as being almost folktales or individual stories like Hans Christian Anderson collected and refined. As you make your way further into the book, you begin to see the connections and you get more backstories and more interrelated narratives. Some of the stories about the individual cavaliers end as if we will not hear of them again. Others, for example, Captain Lennart, you do learn more about them further on in the book.
11. “Kevenhüller” is an innovative genius who is able to build unique and wonderful inventions because he has been blessed and cursed by a wood nymph with green eyes and a long tail. His blessing is the ability to build these things, the curse is that he can only build one. He is not able to see that he could give his inventions away for other to replicate but he is so invested in these things as his that it doesn't occur to him. Kevenhuller becomes mad but the wood nymph is never punished.
12. As I mentioned before, the aspects that relate to parent/child relationships rings true and would be true today, although some of the actions would certainly be different. Much of the love relationships are also contemporary in their emotions, because love never grows old, but how these relationships manifested would be different today. The fact that the women were powerful in their own right and quite capable of existing on their own gives it a more contemporary cast.
13. Selma Lagerlöf clearly was very aware of and influenced by the legends, myths and folktales of Sweden, she also had read and appeared to have chosen to reflect a bit of Hans Christian Andersen's gloom. She also appeared to be in conversation with the romantics of that time, perhaps Sir Walter Scott and his tales of traveling across the countryside, as she would set up a classic romantic scenario and then proceed to have it all unravel. She wasn't a realist but one wonders if she had read the realists and was purposefully rejecting that genre.
14. They are not harmonious but they are not in direct opposition either. Scientific isn't extremely well represented in the book although it is there. Going to church is portrayed almost as a mostly cultural activity and there are not many who have faith in God alone and not God, wood nymphs, the Devil, Death the stalker, luck, fate and what your fellow man makes of you. It was ironic that when the minister's faith is fully tested and he prays for all he is worth, that his prayers are answered and he is rewarded for this answer with going to his maker. One doesn't quite feel as if the author thought that was a totally happy ending.
1. The setting is very much a character in the book. It is beautifully described in various chapters and was my favourite part of the story.
2. He lets them all down. The women have some power in their own right. I believe Gosta believes he loves them all at the time but if he really does is another matter. All beautiful.
3.
4. The Majoress appears to have the power but in reality public opinion overturns her power and gets her thrown out. She does a lot of good for the local people but it is the drunken Cavaliers that the people support above her.
5. I agree with Gail I felt sorry for death when he realised that his present despite being summoned was still unwlelcome it is a lonely life. Death is always present in the story most notably the death of Captain Lennart whose death makes everyone want to be a better person at least for a while. Then we have the temptation of suicide for Gosta Berling, the alleged suicide of Sintram and the girl in the woods.
6.
7. Well how do you answer that without a poem in rhythm and meter to compare with? Personally not sure it says anything about writing but it does appear to be a sincere expression of how she is feeling.
8. The author is very in touch with nature and this shines through the whole book. The nature sections are my favourite and are so well drawn you feel a part of the landscape.
9. Sometimes we hear the narrator add an interjection but I have no idea who they are an all seeing narrator telling a historical story?
10. I would class this as a series of vignettes featuring the same characters. My favourite chapter was probably Kevenhuller with the wood nymph and the foolishness of man for not thinking outside the box.
11.
12. Furthest away the importance of religion and the lack of instant communication. Closest the behaviour of characters.
13.
14.
Wish I had answered these as I went along as I can't remember a lot of the book. I put this down to the fact that is was interconnected rather than a cohesive narrative.
2. He lets them all down. The women have some power in their own right. I believe Gosta believes he loves them all at the time but if he really does is another matter. All beautiful.
3.
4. The Majoress appears to have the power but in reality public opinion overturns her power and gets her thrown out. She does a lot of good for the local people but it is the drunken Cavaliers that the people support above her.
5. I agree with Gail I felt sorry for death when he realised that his present despite being summoned was still unwlelcome it is a lonely life. Death is always present in the story most notably the death of Captain Lennart whose death makes everyone want to be a better person at least for a while. Then we have the temptation of suicide for Gosta Berling, the alleged suicide of Sintram and the girl in the woods.
6.
7. Well how do you answer that without a poem in rhythm and meter to compare with? Personally not sure it says anything about writing but it does appear to be a sincere expression of how she is feeling.
8. The author is very in touch with nature and this shines through the whole book. The nature sections are my favourite and are so well drawn you feel a part of the landscape.
9. Sometimes we hear the narrator add an interjection but I have no idea who they are an all seeing narrator telling a historical story?
10. I would class this as a series of vignettes featuring the same characters. My favourite chapter was probably Kevenhuller with the wood nymph and the foolishness of man for not thinking outside the box.
11.
12. Furthest away the importance of religion and the lack of instant communication. Closest the behaviour of characters.
13.
14.
Wish I had answered these as I went along as I can't remember a lot of the book. I put this down to the fact that is was interconnected rather than a cohesive narrative.
1. The river flooding and breaking the old dam in Ch. 15 is one the example that stood out to me. But Lagerlöf personifies almost everything, from plants and animals to inanimate objects like the cavalier’s old sleds. This suggests that the people are very close to their environment, that it doesn’t even seem like “nature” but rather like another resident of the country. She says as much at the beginning of chapter 29, “The barrier between them and us [inanimate objects and humans] is not as great as people think.” So yes, nature is a character in the story, sometimes a hero and sometimes a villain.2. They are all beautiful (surprise, surprise) and higher social class. Because they are all privileged, they have not suffered but they have not really lived either. They are attracted to Gösta’s energy and spirit and zest for life, despite his low status and reputation. Marianne, for example, only feels fully alive when she loves him. She realizes that she has been living a kind of divided or half-life up to that point.
3. Gösta is handsome and smart although immoral whereas Henrik is ugly and stupid and thinks he has the best morals. “Conceited,” is how he is later described by the narrator. It’s implied that the count is inbred from years of his ancestors marrying only each other. He also adheres to ridiculous principles and “rules” about proper behavior. Again, this seems to be an inherited (and outmoded) code of behavior that has nothing to with what is right or wrong or sensible or stupid. In chapter 10, the young countess anticipates that her husband will defend her and scold the cavaliers for stealing her away on their sleigh. Instead, he acts the fool and lectures her for daring to judge the behavior of Gösta and refusing his request to dance. The count demands that she kiss Gösta’s hand and beg forgiveness. When Gösta refuses to let that happen, the count says they must fight. He has all of these “rules” about what is and isn’t proper behavior it becomes ridiculous.
4. Initially, she treats them well and humors them, putting up with their eccentricities because she finds them entertaining (and, as in the case of Gösta Berling, perhaps identifies with them). They come to resent her after Sintram convinces them (quite easily) that she sacrifices a Cavalier to Satan every year in exchange for her power and money. Then she becomes their enemy. It’s interesting that she returns as Margareta Celsing in the final chapter, abandoning the title earned through her husband, the major. Her power derives not just from her property and money but from the way she looks after the community. The cavaliers learn that they have to care about the community, or the money and property mean nothing.
5. Life and death are very connected; how you live will determine the manner of your death and how you spend eternity. If you die having lived a good and honest life and humble yourself before God (as does the farmer in chapter 25), death is a reward – no more pain, no more hard work, just an eternal rest in heaven. The captain’s wife describes the afterlife to her dying son in a similar fashion, but very different from the usual depictions of heaven – god bestows planets upon people to fashion in their own way (almost as if they were gods themselves), and their loved ones will populate these worlds when they pass. In “The Cemetery,” the narrator notes that she will be buried inside the walls because she will not be a suicide, and she will likely go to heaven because she’s lived a decent life. However, she mourns the fact that no one will come and play music at her grave because she has not felt a love/bond like the cavaliers.
6. The Majoress’s mother forced her to marry a man she didn’t love, and Melichor disowned Marianne and is willing to let her die because she fell in love with a man “beneath her.” The Majoress comes to regret how she treated her mother, whereas Marianne hates her father until he has a stroke and becomes someone other than the tyrant she knew.
7. Honestly, I skimmed the poem, but the description suggests that writing from the heart is better than trying to follow some formula.
8. See question #1.
9. The narrator seems to have been a part of the community, a native who no longer lives there (and seems to miss it). She is weaving the tales of the past to keep the community alive. Many of the stories have a lesson or moral so perhaps for this reason as well.
10. As mentioned above, many of the stories have the characteristics of a fairy tale – they can entertain the audience, but they also have a moral/lesson. The stories are not necessarily told in chronological order (sometimes jumping back in time) but a chronology of a year gradually becomes apparent, as we move from winter to spring and eventually back to Christmas eve.
11. The wood nymph seems like a muse – she gives Kevenhüller divine inspiration to create mechanical marvels, like an automobile and electricity. He cannot duplicate these marvels himself and never considers that he could instruct others how to do it, so he destroys them. He sees this as a curse, but the wood nymph seems to have meant it as a blessing. In other words, “You can focus on creating marvelous things, but you don’t have to worry about reproducing them; that’s a menial task.” The narrator also seems to view Kevenhüller’s repudiation of his gifts as a waste and ends the story by saying that no one today would complain about having too much genius.
12. The interconnectedness of the community feels remote, although I imagine it still exists in some small towns. Everyone knows everybody else, and the actions of one person can affect the entire group. The conflict between the cavaliers and the majoress, for example, determines the fate of the community for the entire year. The thing that feels most contemporary is the way people are driven by (sometimes fleeting) emotions and desires – e.g. Gösta and Anna have one exciting and romantic sleigh ride together, and she is willing to leave her fiancé and run off with him.
13. Something like the Grimm fairy tales.
14. The minister is initially one of the worst characters in the book – a miser who beats his daughter and who does not seem to care about his congregation. He only finds happiness when he comes to care about the community and dies while praying for an end to the draught. His hoarded money also finds a good use, as the cavaliers use it to rebuild Ekby, thereby maintaining a solid economic foundation for the town. Religion itself means very little if you are not truly a decent human being. Gösta Berling remains a defrocked minister, but he has learned how to “be both happy and good.”
I'm just over 2/3 of the way through.1. Chapter 1 (“The Landscape”) describes “the setting where Gösta Berling and the cavaliers of Ekeby lived out their eccentric existence” (p. 23). Should the landscape be considered a character in the book? Find other passages where elements of nature are personified. What is the relationship between the protagonists and their environment?
I don't know that I would call the landscape a character, but it certainly is important. I just finished the tale/chapter 'Liliecrona's Home', and certainly the landscape sounds very charming in summer here. Other chapters focus on winter, where the landscape can be menacing and induce fear in people. Of course, some of the town's inhabitants are very close to the land, the Cavaliers are somewhat removed from it (as are the wealthy).
9. Who is telling this story? How do we know? Is the narrator (or narrators) a naive provincial storyteller or a conscious literary artist?
I think it is a literary artist posing as a provincial storyteller. Once or twice the narrative has seemed somewhat meta.
13. What works of literature do you think The Saga of Gösta Berling might be in conversation with, i.e., what works were in the reader’s realm at the time?
I find this question very interesting, and will be looking forward to more opinions. At the beginning of the saga it really put me in mind of "Candide' for some reason! I also wonder if Lagerlof was influenced by the episodic tales of Jules Verne.
I don't have time to look at all the questions right now, but I was charmed by this. I enjoyed the linked stories and the threads running through them, and I loved the strong sense of place. I read most of it on two train journeys and had no trouble concentrating.
Mod
The Story of Gösta Berling
Selma Lagerlöf (1858 - 1940)
Translated by Pauline Bancroft Flach
Mod
2. Gösta Berling has passionate feelings for a series of women (Anna Stjärnhök, Marianne Sinclaire, Elisabet Dohna, and in the past, Ebba Dohna). Discuss how these young women are described. Do they have any features in common? Do these relationships differ in any way? Mistreated by others, especially other men (fathers and husbands)
3. The characters Gösta Berling and Henrik Dohna are both male and roughly the same age. Compare the author’s descriptions of these young men. In what ways do they embody their social class/other position of the time? Discuss their confrontation in Chapter 10 (“The Young Countess”). Henrik Dohna is a mother's boy and Gosta is kind of the bad boy.
4. Compare and contrast the power dynamic between the majoress, described as “plucky as a man” in Chapter 2 (p. 28), with the cavaliers. In what ways is power expressed in this narrative? the majoress had power but lost it when it was thought she had made a deal with the devil and the cavaliers became fearful of her.
5. Death is a recurring theme in the book, and even appears as a character in Chapter 28 (“Death the Liberator”). Discuss the narrator’s attitude to death in that chapter and in passages from “The Ball at Ekeby” (pp. 79–80, “Oh Death, pale friend”) and “The Cemetery” (pp. 293–94, “Friends, children of mankind, when I die”). there is a lot of death in this book and death is part of life and also maybe more a part of lives lived in such a environment where relationships and the nature are so closely involved.
6. Discuss the parent-child relationships in the book: the majoress (Margareta Celsing) and her mother; Melchior Sinclaire and Marianne; the captain’s wife and Ferdinand. What distinguishes these relationships? What do they have in common? parents often had a lot of control over children including who they married and if a daughter was rebellious they could be disowned.
7. When Marianne Sinclaire knows she has lost Gösta Berling forever, she writes a long poem (“a kind of verse”) (p. 133). Is Marianne’s writing better for not being “tied up in the chains of rhyme and meter”? What does this suggest about the power of writing?
8. Chapter 29 (“Drought”) begins with a remarkable address to nature (“If dead things love,” p. 313). Discuss the narrator’s view of nature and the connection between human life and the natural world.
Nature is made to have human characteristic
9. Who is telling this story? How do we know? Is the narrator (or narrators) a naive provincial storyteller or a conscious literary artist?
10. Is The Saga of Gösta Berling a novel? A collection of short stories? Does this matter for how we read the book? Choose one of the “stand-alone” stories to discuss in more depth. Its taking folklore and fusing them together in some sort of connection but the book really does not have a plot.
11. “Kevenhüller” is a fantastic tale about a remarkable cavalier who is only mentioned in passing early in the book (p. 29). What is the source of Kevenhüller’s genius? Discuss the events in this tale from the point of view of Kevenhüller himself and the narrator.
12. The Saga of Gösta Berling was written in a different era (the 1890s) and is set in an even earlier period (the 1820s). Which aspects of the narrative feel the most remote from our vantage point in the twenty-first century? Which, if any, feel most contemporary?
13. What works of literature do you think The Saga of Gösta Berling might be in conversation with, i.e., what works were in the reader’s realm at the time?
14. How is religion portrayed in the book? Is there a tension between religion, the emergence of science/philosophy, and love? Or are they harmonious?
I just finished the book.2. Gösta Berling has passionate feelings for a series of women (Anna Stjärnhök, Marianne Sinclaire, Elisabet Dohna, and in the past, Ebba Dohna). Discuss how these young women are described. Do they have any features in common? Do these relationships differ in any way?
They are all beautiful. I also think they were naive and had very sheltered up-bringings, so they were open to Gosta's wooing.
1. Lagelof describes landscape vividly, often evoking a strong sense place. But I can't remember specific passages where the elements of nature are personified. The characters are often affected by the landscape, as in Marianne's abandonment in the snowdrift or Anna's flight through the forest at night.2. They are all young, beautiful and unworldly, at least at the beginning. He is good looking and charming and not one of them is uninterested. He does no reveal his problematic background, which leads to death, family estrangement and marital disharmony, but he remains unmoved.
3. Gosta is carefree and careless. Henrik is stupid and crass. Gosta is good looking and charming. Henrik is dour and rigid in his ideas.4. The Majoress is powerful, as the mistress of Ekeby, while the Cavaliers are virtally refugees whom she has taken in. But collectively the Cavaliers are influential, and when they decide that the Majoress has made a pact with the Devil, they banish her from her position. She exacts revenge.
5. Death is a character in Chapter 28, but is also frequently referred to by various characters, such as Ebba Dohna's escape from the realities of life.
6. The parents in this book were wont to expect unthinking obedience from their offspring and were incapable of coping with examples of free will. I felt Marianne's mother to be weak in her defence of her daughter. but then her husband was irrational and cruel.
7. I think being "tied up in the chains of rhyme and metre" is Lagerlof's own opinion. Her poem without those restrictions is powerfully expressive.
8. Nature is used symbolically to reveal characters' emotions, The characters are intimately involved with the natural world - especially in winter!
1. The landscape can be considered like a character and the descriptions of the landscape form one of the highlights of the book. I particularly liked these examples of personifying the landscape:“The earth, the great mother, is coming alive. Giddy as a child she rises up from her bath in the spring flood, from the shower of spring rain. Stone and soil glisten with desire.”
“Poor and inconsolable is the cemetery, ugly as a miser’s face withered by the woeful cries of those whose fortune he has stolen.”
2. The women are in some ways submissive, easily prey to Gösta’s attractions, but they are also strong in character and learn from their mistakes in a way that Gösta does not.
3. Gösta and Henrik are both weak, but they get away with their actions - Gösta because he is handsome and charming, Henrik because he is wealthy and owns land. Henrik is also stupid and in thrall to his mother, but the law is on his side.
5. Death is a character who wants to be loved and welcomed, and for many of the characters in the book death in fact brings peace and redemption. There is a medieval and mythical feel about how death is portrayed.
8. Nature is used literally as a backdrop for the lives and work and of the villagers, and also takes on a symbolic role when reflecting the moods and relationships of the characters. The lake, the harsh winter weather, the different villages also play a part in events.
10. There are recurring characters that link the different stories together, but it is more like a collection of stories than a novel. The timelines sometimes overlap.
14. Religion is important as a moral guiding point for the characters and it plays a significant part. Gösta is a defrocked minister who is learning a better way of living through his love for Elisabet and his experiences. The medieval aspects of religion - witches, the Devil, pilgrims - are important to the villagers.
I really enjoyed this one - the way that the author makes you feel like you are actually in the location reminds me of Laxness' writing about Iceland. I also enjoyed the structure of various stories. The moral and social parameters within the novel are somewhat primitive, but in a way that makes them more profound in a simple way.
