Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, today we are going to talk about Michael Mompellion specifically how he becomes a symbol for the villagers loss. Well lets first talk about Michael himself. From the novel Year of Wonders by Geraldine brookes we learn that Michael Mompellion came from Cambridge a highly regarded education and grew up sinless and after working so hard throughout his lfe he married Elinor and quit the church, but also a man who has a obsessive belief in God and faith, and becomes the rector of the Anglican Society. From the strike of the plague, when the towns people are in doubt whether to flee or not, Michael takes charge what he brings to the town is belief and leadership. ?????¦here we are, and here we must stay??¦Let none enter and none leave while the plague last. He questions Colonel Bradford about his actions and thus he starts to unravel his religious dominance of his life: Read passage pg61. Michael brings signs of hope and unity among the village and promising that the plague is a trial of the town??™s faith and that they must face it in order to survive the plague. When the gowdies are helping out with the town, chaos erupts as people start accusing Anys of consulting with the devil. Pg 95. Once again shows his obsessive religious need to bring God into everything. Michael is also a man who can interact well with the poorer families of Eyam growing up poor but taken in by Elinor??™s father. He continues to strengthen his belief that this is all just a test pg 102. By constantly reinforcing this idea he can try and restore the faith into the villagers but also himself.
He is the first to place his own belongings on the burning pile so that the villagers will follow suit. As the dire consequences of his decision become more apparent, Mompellion takes it upon himself to attend to every dying member of the community. He spends hours with the suffering ???fighting first for the body and then, when that cause was clearly lost, for his soul.??™ He holds steadfast to his belief that ???no one in this village will face their death alone.??™ The suffering of the community takes its toll on Mompellion as he is traumatised by what he has brought upon the village. As a result, he makes several errors of judgment, one of the most significant being where he errs ???grievously??™ and under- estimates how Brand and Robert will detain Aphra until the next day. Mompellion does not immediately deal with the charges made against Aphra, and this leads to a spiralling of events which causes even more tragedy to unfold. Brooks paints Mompellion as a flawed character, and this is reinforced when he reveals the truth to Anna about his marriage to Elinor. When Mompellion reveals to Anna that he ???never lay with Elinor??™, he reveals the extent to which he has suffered for his own beliefs. His inability to forgive his wife for her youthful indiscretion and the tragedy that resulted means that both he and his wife had been deprived of a sexual relationship. The rector??™s unswerving belief that Elinor should ???atone by living some part of her life with her lusts unrequited??™ means that they never consummated their marriage. It is only after her death, and the prospect of unleashing his thwarted passion with Anna that Mompellion concludes that it ???seems that there is no God??™ and that what he had asked of himself and his wife was ???wrong.??™ Mompellion shows that indeed his strength of will ???far exceeds??™ that of his body. In many ways, however, it is his will that allows him survive the plague and to carry out his duties, unselfishly albeit naively.
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The catastrophe Micheal Mompellion faces during his year as a faithfull man slowly dwindles as seen to the reader as when ??? the bible hit the floor with a dull thump???
When God cast Lucifer out of heaven and into hell the archangel Michael was the one God used to do it. He is the soldier of God.
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