Annie Dillard, in her work “The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” approaches the problem of evil in terms of the natural world. Despite its apparent beauty, the natural world is harsh and full of violence. Dillard begins by imparting a story about an old tomcat that she used to have at the creek that would come in and out of her window as he pleased. At times, in the middle of the night, he would come with blood-covered paws to awaken her with his purring caresses so that she “looked as though [she]’d been painted with roses” (281). As she cleaned the stains in the morning, she would wonder, “What blood was this, and what roses? It could have been the rose of union, the blood of murder, or the rose of beauty bare and the blood of some unspeakable sacrifice or birth” (Ibid). Although the cat seemed so friendly and gentle toward her, in the night he prowled as a murderer. As another example, Dillard relates an anecdote of her life as a young school girl, when she discovered that, if left together unreleased after hatching, young preying mantises will devour one another until only the strongest is left. “They ate each other until only two were left,” she records. “Tiny legs were still kicking from the mouths of both. The two survivors grappled and sawed in the Mason jar; both died of injuries” (310). Regardless of their incredible complexity, these creatures are quite amoral.
Based on these and other encounters with the vicious essence of nature, Dillard raises several thought-provoking questions as she investigates the cause or reason for this evil and suffering in the world. She conjectures as to where humans fit in the universe, wondering why “we are moral creatures, then, in an amoral world” (382). “We have not yet encountered any god who is as merciful as a man who flicks a beetle over on its feet”, she states, questioning where human beings have obtained their sense of morality if not from a deity (Ibid). Animals have no emotions, for “What creator could be so cruel, not to kill otters, but to let them care” (Ibid)? Debating whether humans are the freaks of nature, she points out that humans have emotions that set them apart from the rest of the natural world. “It is our emotions that are amiss,” she writes. “We are the freaks, the world is fine” (383). The problem of evil for Dillard essentially encompasses the question of why God allows humans to have awareness and to care while the rest of the world submits to violence as part of nature without cognizance or emotional pain.
Hardy’s exploration of the problem of evil is much more on a sociological level, raising many societal issues related to evil and suffering. While Dillard feeds off of a basic assumption that there is a God, in Hardy’s novel “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”, if there is a God, He is absent or at least uncaring and interested in the fate that befalls the characters. Near the beginning of the story, Tess and her younger brother Abraham talk about the world as a star while they travel to the market. Perhaps unwittingly, and before anything terrible befalls her, Tess already realizes the evil nature of the fallen world in which she lives, as she responds to his question “Which one do we live on—a splendid one or a blighted one?” by saying, “A blighted one” (25-26). Not long thereafter, Alec D’Urberville rapes Tess, raising many questions about how such bad things can happen to good, innocent people and go unpunished, as Alec escapes chastisement for his felonious deed while Tess receives harsh censure from all sides. The culture and society that surround her create a double standard, even disallowing her to baptize her infant daughter in the church. The child later dies, and the church minister tells her that, without proper baptism, the innocent child will spend eternity in hell (94-96). Again, questions arise about the evil done to innocents, in this case the undue damnation of infants. Unfortunately, in the world, Tess repeatedly encounters evil that encroaches upon her despite her innocence, without relenting, in keeping with Hardy’s anti-providential theme that events happen, not because of a benevolent order or design, but rather due to something more deterministic. Fundamentally, Hardy raises an ethical question about the problem of evil, wondering how a loving and just God can allow such misfortunes to befall innocent people.
Tennyson deals with the problem of evil on a personal level as he grieves the loss of his best friend Hallam, who died at an early age while traveling abroad. Tennyson questions why good, intelligent people die without cause, and why those left behind must so suffer because of their loss. For Tennyson, grief, encompassing also the act of doubting, is a means of working out ones faith in the face of hard times. In addition to expressing his bitterness toward nature directly, he also indirectly expresses it toward God for prematurely taking Hallam. “Man thinks he was not made to die”(285). He has “The wish, that- of the living whole/No life may fail beyond the grave,/derives it not from what we have/The likest God within the soul?” (314). Despite the inevitability of death, all men long for immortality, evidencing that they are made in the very image and likeness of God; yet, Tennyson wonders why all men must have such desire, as they cause such deep grief and anguish over loss. In contradiction to Hardy’s deterministic view of life, Tennyson trusts that nothing will happen without a purpose, saying, “We trust that somehow good/Will be the final goal of ill…That not one life shall be destroy’d,/Or cast as rubbish to the void,/When God hath made the pile complete” (313). Tennyson concludes that “no man understands” the evil in the world, but must trust Divine Providence regardless, working out ones faith through doubt and suffering.
In his autobiography “Night”, Wiesel portrays a silent God who has absented Himself from the suffering of His people. The questions he raises are more accusatory of God than an attempt to work out his faith through doubt. Witnessing and experiencing the worst atrocities in the history of mankind, Wiesel wonders how a just, merciful and loving God, such as the One in the history of the Jews, could allow such evil and inhumanity to occur to relatively innocent, good people. In a moving scene in which an innocent child is brutally hanged, a man sums up one of Wiesel’s essential questions when he asks, “Where is merciful God, where is He? For God’s sake, where is God?” (64-65). Wiesel relates his view of God based on his loss of innocence and his sufferings in the Nazi concentration camps when he replies, “Where He is? This is where—hanging here from this gallows…” (65). Despite his apparent loss of faith, later, “a prayer formed inside [him], a prayer to this God in whom [he] no longer believed”, projecting a question about the nature of faith: can it go into a comatose state and them be later revived? (91). Although Wiesel later renews his faith in God, he voices very troubling questions about the silence and absence of God in the face of untold evil in the world, conjecturing about what he views as the death of God.
Although each version of the problem of evil is singularly difficult to come to terms with in individual lives and circumstances, universally, the type as discussed by Wiesel is the most difficult challenge to faith and practice, as it questions the very omnipotence of God. It is difficult to imagine how anyone could become so godless, cruel, and immoral that they would stoop to commit such horrible, dehumanizing acts towards other people as the Nazis did to the Jews. Although God allowed bad things to happen to His chosen people in the past, such as the Babylonian exile, it is hard to understand how a God, Who continually claims to be merciful, loving and just, could choose to stand silently by while such atrocious deeds were performed. Since He chose to forsake His chosen people during the Holocaust, Christians must conjecture whether their God, Who has claimed to be faithful throughout the ages, is a liar. They must ask whether He cares what happens in the lives of His creation or if, in fact, He “has the same affectionate disregard for us as we have for barnacles” (Dillard 373). As he contemplates how he will spend Yom Kippur in the concentration camp, Wiesel accuses God of allowing such evil to happen. One must wonder how God can be considered the just and righteous judge when it seems that He, Himself, is in need of a trial. Wiesel shares his frustrations with God when His people gather to praise Him in the midst of their sufferings, yet God still remains utterly silent. A difficult question arises as to whether or not this God that believers serve is worthy of praise, love or trust at all. God’s silence in the events of the Holocaust arguably undermines His omnipotence and, until one resolves the problem in one’s mind, places in question the entire foundation of Christianity.
Works Cited
Dillard, Annie. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Annie Dillard Reader, An. New York: Harper Perennial, 1995. 279-414. Print.
Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D'Urbevilles. Bantam Classic ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1981. Print.
Sayers, Dorothy L. "Dorothy L. Sayers:The Mind of the Maker." World Invisible, The Real Invisible World behind the material world. Web. 25 Oct. 2009.
Tennyson, Alfred. In Memoriam. Poetical Works Tennyson (Wordsworth Poetry Library). Boston: NTC/Contemporary Company, 1998. 285-365. Print.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Print.
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