In this thematic essay, I’ll be going over John’s theme of light and dark in John 1:4-5, and possibly touch on other sections of John containing the light and darkness theme, such as John 3:19; John 8:12; and John 12:35, 46. I will also give this an interesting twist to keep this essay interesting by giving some comparisons with the Disney Movie, Beauty and the Beast. In the tale of Beauty and the Beast, one could use certain parts of this fairytale and apply it to John’s theme of Light and Darkness, Bear with me now, I know this is not your typical thematic paper here, but I wanted to make this as interesting as possible. Gaston, in a way, could be compared to what the Pharisees and the Jews are, selfish, blind, a hypocrite. In a way, we Gaston was constantly blinded by wanting Bell, that he did not see the big picture of what he was doing, always in the dark, and plotted to kill the beast because he thought it was the right thing to do. Cogsworth Clock was back and forth on his belief on if Bell was the one to break the spell or not. But in a hypothetical standpoint, we can look at Bell being a sort of Jesus, giving “life” (Daily household objects back into human beings) back to the people of the castle. Because of Jesus’ love and light, we have another chance, another life in Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Jesus being the light of the world appears multiple times in John’s Gospel. John 1:4 “In him was Life, and the life was the light of man.”; John 8:12 “I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”; John 9:5 “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Just as Bell shows that she spreads light throughout the dark castle. Similarly to Christ being the “Light shining in the darkness.” in John 1:5, Bell was a version of this, almost everywhere she went throughout the castle. She was one of the main reasons why the Beast decided to tidy up the place and let light in. First, let us look at the deeper meaning of John This light of Life is a major spiritual significance, and a central to the Gospel but is only possible because man was created as a spiritual being. This is significant that John concludes his Gospel with a reminder of creation when Jesus Breaths on His disciples to pass on the Holy Spirit reflecting the way God breathed into man to create a living soul just like in the first interpretation. The conclusion of the concept of John’s Light and Darkness theme we have to take a look at Jesus work, and what he brought to the world through his teachings and fulfillment of scriptures. Bringing together verses in Genesis 1, along with the Gospel of John’s verse in chapter 1. God speaks and the light comes into being for his creation in the beginning to create the start of world history. Just as Jesus uses the word of God as being the spiritual light that guides us through the
I think the main idea the narrators is trying to emphasize is the theme of opposition between the chaotic world and the human need for community with a series of opposing images, especially darkness and light. The narrator repeatedly associates light with the desire to clear or give form to the needs and passions, which arise out of inner darkness. He also opposes light as an idea of order to darkness in the world, the chaos that adults endure, but of which they normally cannot speak to children.
Julian of Norwich lived during a time of great fear dominated by economic and physical hardships, feudal era of control, fear of death from the bubonic plague, corruption within the church’s hierarchy and doubt and insincerity was rampant amongst believers. Living a simple existence she depende...
Larry Watson, in “Montana 1948”, uses the motif of light and silence in many ways to develop, clarify and reinforce ideas about truth and injustice, and portray the nature of some characters. He illustrates the injustice in Bentrock through the motif of light and then demonstrates to the reader the occurrence of something wrong through the motif of silence. The motif of light also sometimes assists the motif of silence to emphasize the significance of the event.
..., because this tale is "the only light we've got in all this darkness" (438).
The Gospel of John, the last of the four gospels in the Bible, is a radical departure from the simple style of the synoptic gospels. It is the only one that does not use parables as a way of showing how Jesus taught, and is the only account of several events, including the raising of Lazarus and Jesus turning water into wine. While essentially the gospel is written anonymously, many scholars believe that it was written by the apostle John sometime between the years 85 and 95 CE in Ephesus. The basic story is that of a testimonial of one of the Apostles and his version of Jesus' ministry. It begins by telling of the divine origins of the birth of Jesus, then goes on to prove that He is the Son of God because of the miracles he performs and finally describes Jesus' death and resurrection.
the recurring theme of night and darkness is used to symbolize guilt and conscience such
John states, “the world did not recognize him.”1 The world at the time was blinded by the darkness. People were wrapped up in darkness which resulted in clouded vision of their true creator. Verse 11 states that creation did not receive its own creator. Due to the darkness and sin people did not accept Christ and rejected him for bringing people out of darkness. John Calvin in The Gospel According to John 1-10 says, “The Son of God had chosen a dwelling place for Himself in one nation; when He appeared there, He was rejected. And this shows clearly how vicious is men’s blindness.”4 The world at the time referred to the population of people that did not believe, which looked primarily at the Jews. Jews struggled to see God in the flesh, which resulted in non believers in Christ. This continued to be a problem as Paul struggled to believe as well. John Calvin also pointed out, “This is why we see Paul struggling so hard with this same problem (Calvin).” He is referring to being blinded by darkness. Even though man was seeing God in the flesh, the light needed power in fighting the darkness, due to sin and
For various decades’, raconteurs used a simple concept of good conquering bad to structure their stories. This topic is frequently utilized because it relates to several different aspects of authentic life. All religions address this opposition; despite of any cultural beliefs. This theme of good surmounting evil is evident in various varieties of art forms. Today’s society desires a fairy tale ending in movies instead of a dramatic ending. In addition to movies, many musicians enthrall the idea of the dark side against the world of good, and compose pieces incorporating the struggle between the two. Similar with writers, no matter what genre they are writing they all lean towards this struggle. This theme is reluctant in today’s movies, books, music, and in this case, a classic gothic novel. In the book Dracula, Abraham Stoker portrays the topic that true evil can never defeat pure good through the antithesis of light and dark, the characterization of Dracula and Lucy, and with Christian allegories.
In conclusion, though Milton's bias thoughts, subliminal messages of society, of which he lived and his word choice he chose to use, he successfully persuaded his audience. He Elevated the use of light when referring to god and lowered the status of Satan by associating darkness with him. The idea of light and dark tells the reader which side Milton was on and what he tried to portray to his audience. Also, he used the symbols to portray light as day or positive and he used darkness as night, or something negative.
Hunt, Jonathan. "In Darkness." The Horn Book Magazine Mar.-Apr. 2012: 111+. Academic OneFile. Web. 29 Apr. 2014
Because of their Puritanical beliefs, it is no surprise that the major theme that runs throughout Mary Rowlandson and Jonathan Edwards’s writings is religion. This aspect of religion is apparent in not only the constant mentions about God himself, but also in the heavy use of biblical scriptures. In their respective writings, Rowlandson and Edwards utilize scripture, but for different purposes; one uses it to convey that good and bad events happen solely because of God’s will, and the other uses it, in one instance, to illustrate how it brought him closer to God, and, in another instance, to justify his harsh claims about God’s powerful wrath.
Throughout history, people and entire societies have heard of the Gospel. The Gospel is the considered to be the “heart” of the Biblical Narrative. In other words, the entire Bible centers around the Gospel and what the Gospel entails. Many have heard of the Gospel, but what lies deeper within the context of the Gospel message? People have heard of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John which are Biblical books in the New Testament that discuss Jesus’ life. They bring the reader from Jesus’ birth to His death in a chronological order. We can read about the miracles he performed and about all of the trials he faced in these books. However, the Gospel is about more than how Jesus lived and what he did. It is about why he came to earth and sacrificed himself and why this is important to us as humans. Through Him, we have been given the chance at eternal life. The Gospel is incredibly imperative to all lives and we must know how to interpret it before we can truly embrace it.
The Gospel of Luke centralizes the components of Jesus’ divinity, humanity, and ministry which contribute to the perception of Jesus portrayed by the narrator of Luke. Jesus’ divinity is demonstrated through his healings and miracles throughout the Gospel. His humanity is represented through the infancy narrative and also at the beginning of his Passion in the Garden of Gethsemane. Finally, Jesus’ public ministry serves as the most effective and important element of his life because of the essential teachings that he speaks of that give inside evidence to the formation of the modern day church.
From Cupid & Psyche to Cocteau’s film and finally to Disney’s portrayal of this classic theme, not much has changed in the idea of Beauty and the Beast. All versions of this story have stressed the importance of being good and have even dwelled on the importance of looking behind appearance to see a person’s true nature. In order to convey his ideas and themes, Cocteau uses the beast as a lurking figure whose lack of appearance on the screen ultimately has a great effect on the viewer. The Beast that Cocteau portrays is a model for modern storytellers and has been vital in stressing the theme of genuine nature versus appearance throughout society.