Church’s Attitude to Stendhal’s “The Red and The Black” Essay

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Among a great variety of books, there exist such literary works, which have not left any mark in history, and there are such masterpieces, which touch on angry protests even nowadays. No one can deny the fact, that the more talented is the author, the greater impact on society he makes by his masterpiece. Sometimes, the ideas, expressed by the author are at odds with the existing ethical and religious norms. In many cases, such kinds of pieces of writing are censored, or even prohibited by the church. One of the masterpieces that caused political and public outcry was the novel The Red and the Black written by Stendhal, the famous French novelist of the 19th century.

The main character of the novel is Julien Sorrel, an ambitious son of a carpenter, whose hearts desire is to attain a social position beyond his station in life. At that time, there were a few ways for a young man of his origin to achieve success. One of them was to become a military man. Julien chose another one. He decided to become a priest and this way led him to Catholic Church. The way chosen by Julien caused a wide range of tragic events. He entered a love affair with a woman from the upper-class society. Later on, he shot and wounded her. As a result, Julien was arrested and sentenced to death.

The novel is written in an antireligious key. Certainly, it was prohibited by the church. “In 1897, the Vatican placed The Red and the Black and all of Stendhal’s “love stories” on the Index of forbidden books” (Bald 281).

Juliens thoughts about God were the shock for the contemporary society:

Faith, if I meet the Christian Deity, I am lost: He is a tyrant, and, as such, is full of ideas of vengeance; His Bible speaks of nothing but fearful punishments. I never loved Him! I could never even believe that anyone did love Him sincerely. He is devoid of pity. (Stendhal, 497).

Works Cited

Bald, Margaret. Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds, New York: Infobase Publishing, 2006. Print

Stendhal. Red and Black. New York: W.W.Norton,1969. Print

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