MDMD(1): Parsonickal Disguise

[jporter]

Andrew queries:

>8.16 `a parsonickal Disguise' implying that Wicks is not really a
>clergyman? Note how he claims that he should have been hanged and
>resurrected to justify his current `parsonickal' appearance. Perhaps
>the suggestion is that the only person fit to give moral, spiritual
>and/or religious guidance is Christ.

Perhaps considering the Revd's comments in 8.16 in light of the first
paragraph of chapter 4, presumably in the words of a "narrator," can shed
some light. In that ch.4 opening, we learn of the Rev's frame of mind as he
reflects on the happenings aboard the Seahorse, inspite of his piety:.."how
had these daily devotions...ultimately ever been of use, how, in the snug
Shambles of the Seahorse?"

And,

"To the children, he remarks aloud, 'Of course, Prayer was what got us
through'."

Is this a man who has lost his faith? Through tyranny and persecution, and
then the brutal intervention of forces beyond control? He seems to be
questioning, at the very least, his own faith in God. Perhaps his awareness
of his slipping faith makes his role feel like a disguise, and his pretense
of suggesting that he- as any human- is less than adequate to give
spiritual guidance, is even more ironic than it first appears.

jody