Bridge Of San Luis Rey Essay
In The Bridge of San Luis Rey, the characters learn that selfless love is the true form of love. The three middle sections of the novel describe the lives of the bridge collapse victims: “The Marquesa de Montemayor”, “Uncle Pio”, and “Esteban”. These characters each have their own hindrances with love, but before their deaths, they overcome their problems and learn selfless love. Literary critic M.C. Kuner writes that “every type of love is scrutinized in [The Bridge of San Luis Rey]. All are, in one way or another, impure. But all pass through a kind of filter that drains off the dross, and what is left is the Christian agape (Kuner 77). Selfless love is the final destination of each of the characters in the novel.
Wilder asserts that love must be courageously self-less. The Marquesa wrote flamboyant letters to her daughter is Spain. She desired to garner attention and admiration for her letters--it was deeply self-interested (Wilder 49). She centered her life around the work of writing beautiful letters because “letter-writing had to take the place of all the affection that could not be lived” (Wilder 16). After an experience with Pepita, an orphan girl from the convent, she realized the flaw in her love, so the Marquesa declares, “Tomorrow I begin a new life” and proceeds to write “her first stumbling …show more content…
misspelled letter in courage” (Wilder 37). Although imperfect, the letter was one of selfless love. The next day, the Marquesa and Pepita fall to their deaths on the bridge.
Wilder concludes that meaning and fulfillment in life comes through selfless love. Edmund Wilson writes in his essay, “Thornton Wilder: The Influence of Proust”, that “in The Bridge of San Luis Rey, we are made to understand that their deaths at that moment had meaning, and that there is meaning in the relations of the people who fell to the people who were left alive” (Blank 30). The final lines of The Bridge of San Luis Rey describe the conclusion and purpose of the novel:
Even now almost no one remembers [the victims of the bridge collapse]. But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them . . . There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning. (Wilder 107).
When the characters show love, they glorify their God--“the love that made them”. Selfless love “will have been enough” through God’s grace. Thornton Wilder builds a bridge of faith, grace, and love.
Through The Bridge of San Luis Rey’s evaluations of Humanism, Puritanism, and Catholicism, Thornton Wilder advocates for a religion of faith, grace and genuine love.
Scientific studies employed by Humanists are incapable of revealing God’s mysterious purpose which is best understood through faith. Unlike Puritanical views of stringent judgement, God grants grace generously. Hollow, insincere religious observance of Catholicism is futile without love. Moreover, selfless love presents the ultimate meaning in life. Through The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Wilder builds a bridge that connects people of various religious philosophies in order to form unity and
peace.
Works Cited
Blank, Martin, Dalma H. Brunauer, and David G. Izzo, editors. Thornton Wilder: New Essays.
West Cornwall, Locust Hill Press, 1999.
Blank, Martin, editor. Critical Essays on Thornton Wilder. New York, G.K. Hall, 1996.
Burbank, Rex J. Thornton Wilder. New York, Twayne Publishers, 1961.
Fuller, Edmund. “Thornton Wilder: The Notation of the Heart.” The American Scholar, vol. 28, no. 2, 1959, pp. 210–217. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41208529. Accessed 14 Dec.
2017.
Grebanier, Bernard. Thornton Wilder. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1964.
Knickerbocker, William S. “Humanism and Scholarship.” The Sewanee Review, vol. 38, no. 1,
1930, pp. 81–103. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27534472. Accessed 14 Dec. 2017.
Kuner, M. C. Thornton Wilder: The Bright and the Dark. New York, Crowell, 1972.
Morgan, H. Wayne. “The Early Thornton Wilder.” Southwest Review, vol. 43, no. 3, 1958, pp. 245–253. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43470861. Accessed 14 Dec. 2017.
Stafford, Russell H. Christian Humanism. Chicago, Willett, Clark & Colby, 1928.
Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey. New York, A. & C. Bo
Wilder asserts that love must be courageously self-less. The Marquesa wrote flamboyant letters to her daughter is Spain. She desired to garner attention and admiration for her letters--it was deeply self-interested (Wilder 49). She centered her life around the work of writing beautiful letters because “letter-writing had to take the place of all the affection that could not be lived” (Wilder 16). After an experience with Pepita, an orphan girl from the convent, she realized the flaw in her love, so the Marquesa declares, “Tomorrow I begin a new life” and proceeds to write “her first stumbling …show more content…
misspelled letter in courage” (Wilder 37). Although imperfect, the letter was one of selfless love. The next day, the Marquesa and Pepita fall to their deaths on the bridge.
Wilder concludes that meaning and fulfillment in life comes through selfless love. Edmund Wilson writes in his essay, “Thornton Wilder: The Influence of Proust”, that “in The Bridge of San Luis Rey, we are made to understand that their deaths at that moment had meaning, and that there is meaning in the relations of the people who fell to the people who were left alive” (Blank 30). The final lines of The Bridge of San Luis Rey describe the conclusion and purpose of the novel:
Even now almost no one remembers [the victims of the bridge collapse]. But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them . . . There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning. (Wilder 107).
When the characters show love, they glorify their God--“the love that made them”. Selfless love “will have been enough” through God’s grace. Thornton Wilder builds a bridge of faith, grace, and love.
Through The Bridge of San Luis Rey’s evaluations of Humanism, Puritanism, and Catholicism, Thornton Wilder advocates for a religion of faith, grace and genuine love.
Scientific studies employed by Humanists are incapable of revealing God’s mysterious purpose which is best understood through faith. Unlike Puritanical views of stringent judgement, God grants grace generously. Hollow, insincere religious observance of Catholicism is futile without love. Moreover, selfless love presents the ultimate meaning in life. Through The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Wilder builds a bridge that connects people of various religious philosophies in order to form unity and
peace.
Works Cited
Blank, Martin, Dalma H. Brunauer, and David G. Izzo, editors. Thornton Wilder: New Essays.
West Cornwall, Locust Hill Press, 1999.
Blank, Martin, editor. Critical Essays on Thornton Wilder. New York, G.K. Hall, 1996.
Burbank, Rex J. Thornton Wilder. New York, Twayne Publishers, 1961.
Fuller, Edmund. “Thornton Wilder: The Notation of the Heart.” The American Scholar, vol. 28, no. 2, 1959, pp. 210–217. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41208529. Accessed 14 Dec.
2017.
Grebanier, Bernard. Thornton Wilder. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1964.
Knickerbocker, William S. “Humanism and Scholarship.” The Sewanee Review, vol. 38, no. 1,
1930, pp. 81–103. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27534472. Accessed 14 Dec. 2017.
Kuner, M. C. Thornton Wilder: The Bright and the Dark. New York, Crowell, 1972.
Morgan, H. Wayne. “The Early Thornton Wilder.” Southwest Review, vol. 43, no. 3, 1958, pp. 245–253. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43470861. Accessed 14 Dec. 2017.
Stafford, Russell H. Christian Humanism. Chicago, Willett, Clark & Colby, 1928.
Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey. New York, A. & C. Bo