E349S April 3: Salvation is in Your Hands

God is the Right Way

Gerard Hopkins's poem "Fragments of St. Winefred" provides the reader with the principle of righteous action and subsequent salvation. The first line highlights the importance of devout religious behavior because  if "[one will] fully follow the traces of the ancient deed, these are outstandingly full of holy power." [1] Hopkins emphasizes the necessity for rigid morality and righteous behavior for redemption and salvation during one's final judgment by God. Similarly, Hopkin's poem, "As Kingfishers Catch Fire," a personal favorite of mine, provides an interchangeable idea of devout behavior and ascension to Heaven as "the just man justices" and "keeps grace" as a result. [2] Looking at the historical context of the "Fragments of St. Winefred," Saint Winefride "was of royalty and Prince Caradoc wanted to merry her, but she kept herself pure to become a nun," but as a result, Prince Caradoc," tried to rape her and beheaded her."[3] 

Righteous Behavior Versus Temptation

Saint Winefride was punished for her religious purity and devout habit, murdered for her commitment to Christianity and God. She held true to her righteous nature, and although she died for such, she was blessed by God and ascended to Heaven as a saint, a true follower of Christ's mission. Thus, one must preserve his or her religious mindset to receive the grace and salvation of God. Both poems emphasize the need for just and moral behavior as a precursor for grace. 

Tell Me Your Name and Your Business

Lewis Carroll's "Humpty Dumpty" chapter highlights the significance of the self in relation to identifying characteristics like name roles. Whilst Alice and Humpty Dumpty have discussion, Humpty Dumpy demands  Alice to "tell [him] [her] name and [her] business," but more importantly, the meaning of her name. [4] Humpty Dumpty brings forth the notion of name associations, and the constant need for society to define and construct rigid meanings for everything within life, including one's name. Curiosity result in the need to define and understand all aspects of life, and thus, society has an ever-increasing need to define every minute facet of life, just as Humpty Dumpty finds a need for one's name to hold deeper meaning, whether it be literal or metaphorical. 

The Name is Key to Identity

As a real-life example, my fraternity assigns fraternity brothers fraternity names and numbers, but rather than assign such for the purpose of a identifying face with name, each name and number holds a deeper meaning. Humans, as a whole, feel the necessity to create rigid constructs of meaning and definition to understand and comprehend life itself. Lewis Carroll points at this desire with Humpty Dumpty who barrages Alice with a demand for defining who she is and what her name means. 

Works Cited

1. Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Major Works Including all the Poems and Selected Prose (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 132.

2. Hopkins, The Major Works, 129.

3. "The Truth and Legend of St. Winefride and Gwytherin," BBC, February 1, 2010, accessed April 2, 2012, http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/northwestwales/hi/people_and_places/religion_and_ethics/newsid_8481000/8481421.stm. 

4. Lewis Carroll, The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2000), 208.