Sister Marie And Blanche De La Force Essays Examples

Blanche de la Force, the daughter of a self-satisfied unbeliever entered a Carmelite convent in the middle of the chaos and horror of the French Revolution. She is so nervous that she appears to be unsuited to the severity of the religious life event at the best times and unpleasantly misplaced as the reign of Terror begins to strain France with the blood of a new generation of the Christian martyrs (pp. 5-6). Sister Marie is one of the leading nuns at the convent where Blanche de la Force lives, and she receives with joy the death threats of a ham-handed revolutionary: the sisters are going to be awarded the crown of Christian martyrdom! Sister Marie prepares the other nuns for this fearsome sacrifice, all the while anchoring doubts about the ability of Blanche and her willingness to join them giving up their lives for Christ (pp. 12-5). Thereafter, the life and the story of Blanche de la Force and the other nuns take different unexpected turns, which do not only leave the audience with the true inspiring example of their martyrdom, but also with an incisive insight into the nature of holiness. The deep compassion and spiritual insight of Getrud von Le Fort makes The Song at the Scaffold a deep contemplation and a strongly moving read that renews the audience’s love for God. Living in the convent comes with a lot of consequences that an ordinary person might not easily overcome. Sister Marie and Blanche de la Force faced these challenges and each of them acted differently to the different pressure.
The major similarity between Sister Marie and Blanche de la Force lies with the main theme of the book – martyrdom – they are willing to give up their lives than to denounce their love for God, something that very few people can willingly take up. The story majorly revolves around Blanche de la Force, a fiercely frightened girl who lacks trust in her surrounding world and literally saw death at every corner, Sister Marie, who is the exact opposite of Blanche de la Force. Unlike Blanche, Sister Marie is bold, fearless and even looking forward to the chance of becoming a martyr (pp. 17-23).
Learning the contrasts between Blanche and Sister Marie gives a clear understanding of martyrdom. According to Sister Marie, martyrdom is not “something you strive for, it is a sacrifice that you choose to make when and if the moment of hardship comes, for the love of God (pp. 28-33). This statement symbolizes the life that Blanche de la Force lived by accepting her fear. In the novel that represents the events that happen in religion, Blanche struggles with her fear, and she prays for courage as well as attempts to hide it form the people around her including the nuns in the convent. Her fear even troubles her seniors at the convent and they struggle with the decision of whether to send her home or allow her to continue staying at the convent since they believe that she would be safest at home.
The other difference between Blanche de la Force and Sister Marie lies in their names. In the convent, the Carmelite sisters have names that are attached to the life of Jesus. While Sister Marie’s full name is Sister Marie de l'Incarnation, Blanche’s name was coined after the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went with his disciples to pray on the night before he was crucified. However, Sister Marie’s name as well as the names of other nuns at the convent pointed toward how the spirit personifies itself through their lives. According to Blanche de la Force, she considers her fear as of divine birth and that she had the responsibility of bearing the penance for the world (p. 57). Nevertheless, their determination and love of God to the extent of offering their lives makes Sister Marie and Blanche de la Force similar.
Sister Marie and Blanche de la Force are also different in their perseverance toward the situations at the Carmelite convent. Life as a nun always takes more than a normal girl to undertake. Being a nun entails foregoing several pleasures of the ordinary life of an ordinary girl. Despite foregoing these pleasures, Sister Marie pleasantly takes up and adapts to the life in the convent while Blanche de la Force cannot keep up with the pressure. Nevertheless, both of them accomplishes their missions in their final sacrifices; while Sister Marie accepts giving up her life for the love of God, Blanche de la Force gives up and returns to her home. This also leads the novice mistress, who feels that Blanche is entirely unsuited for the real life at the Carmelite convent to beg God to accept her as a sacrifice for Blanche so that, “by extraordinary acts of love and atonement,” admission to the community will not endanger Blanche in any way (p. 36).