Trial Of God And God On Trial Analysis

1567 Words4 Pages

What happens when a trial is held against God? In the plays, Trial of God, written by Elie Wiesel, and God on Trial, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, both share a very rare demand that is appointed by one specific person. That specific person Berish from Trial of God, and Moche from God on Trial , are very upset and enraged with God for letting great evil to occur towards their people, the Jews, and for allowing them to continue to suffer through their agony. This leads for both of them to be the Prosecutors in their own individual trials. The Trial of God is in book format, and begins with a group of actors who enter an inn where they begin to drink. Without any money to pay off their drinks they offer to perform a Purim play, the inn keeper …show more content…

Within the Trial of God, there is situational irony that occurs with the belief and faith in one man, Sam. All characters except for Maria, believe that Sam is a messenger sent from God and can prevent evil from happening. “You are a messenger; do something!” (Wiesel 160). Mendel states, “You are close to heaven, pray for us! (Wiesel 160). Yankel himself states, “You must accomplish miracles, you can! We know you can! Please! (Wiesel 160). In other words, these characters believe that begging to Sam to help them out in a time of need can save them from death. What led them to believe he was a holy figure was because of the way he defended God during their trial. He had very powerful statements and good counter arguments to their beliefs on why God is guilty. Due to them believing he is “saint”, leads to a shocking ending. After all the begging is said, Sam replies, “you took me for a saint, a just? How could you be that blind? How could you be that stupid? (Satan is laughing…..the door opens, accompanied by deafening and murderous roars) (Wiesel 161). Basically, Sam was deceitful towards the characters which led them to think he was a savior. He is clearly Satan in one’s mind from the evidence that clearly shows in the text. Also in the past, he happens to appear right before other mass murders occur. In contrast, in the video, God on Trial, the situational irony occurs in two ways. The first with the selective system and the second was with one of the main characters who lost his faith in God and was against God during the entire trial. The selective system was a decision that was made by a NAZI doctor who told Jews to go right, who would live, or left, who would go on to die, well that’s what one of the Jewish prisoners thought. A young man named Moche was told to go left and when approached by another prisoner, Moche view is, “Going to live

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Gods Go Begging

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is a stark parallel between the Vietnam War and the circumstances under which life is maintained on Potrero Hill. The soldiers in Gods Go Begging are poor, uneducated, and trapped fighting in a war they do not support; the boys on Potrero Hill are also poor, uneducated, and unable to escape the war into which they were born. They are victims of their circumstances and their government. Some of the boys that Jesse meets in Vietnam are there because they were drafted. Unable to get a deferment, either due to a lack of funds or because no higher education establishment would accept them, boys are forced to go off to war. Others, like Mendez, fled to the United States in order to escape the violence at home that resulted from the United States’

    Read More

  • Analysis Of God Behaving Badly By David Lamb

    908 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the first chapter of God Behaving Badly, David Lamb argues that God is unfairly given a bad reputation. He claims these negative perceptions are fueled by pop culture and lead many to believe the lie that the God of the Old Testament is angry, sexist, racist, violent, legalistic, rigid, and distant. These negative perceptions, in turn, affect our faith. Ultimately, Lamb seeks to demonstrate that historical context disproves the presumptuous aforementioned. In addition, he defends his position by citing patterns of descriptions that characterize God throughout the Old Testament. “Our image of God will directly affect how we either pursue or avoid God. If we believe that the God of the Old Testament is really harsh, unfair and cruel, we won’t want anything to do with him” (Lamb 22). Clearly, they way Christians choose to see God will shape their relationship with Him.

    Read More

  • The Book of Judges: Humanity’s Recurrent Nature Exemplified

    642 Words  | 2 Pages

    Judges is a tragedy played out over four-hundred years and twenty-one chapters. It details the highs and lows of a people learning how to follow their God when He is not guiding them by a pillar of fire. The sins found in Judges are not unlike the rest of humanity’s misdeeds, and their story is made all the more tragic in light of it. Because in those days, Israel had no king. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes, and they still do.

    Read More

  • Memoirs Of Reverend Hale.

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    Years later, I have not been able to understand the meaningless deaths of god-faring people in Salem. The killing of godly men by other godly men is surely a black time. I feel as if Satan was present in the village at the time, but in all of us. Such terrible loss of godly life could only be Lucifer 's work. O, if only I had seen it earlier. I will take the guilt and helplessness with me to my grave, so God help me.

    Read More

  • Perspectives on the Book of Job

    3550 Words  | 8 Pages

    The first commentator under consideration is Martin Buber in an excerpt from his Darko shel miqra'4.  Buber draws an apt parallel between the Book of Job and the proceedings in a court of law, casting God as judge and Job as prosecution.  In Buber's legal parallel, Job demands what in an earthly court of law would amount to due process, or a fair trial.  And yet, even as Buber confers the legitimacy of a court of law on Job's complaints, Buber suggests that Job knew his appeal was "suppressed from the start."5  Buber cites Job: "Though I am right, my mouth will condemn me!"6  By highlighting the justness of Job's claims and the non-existent chance of a divine finding in Job's favour, Buber stresses how human justice and divine justice diverge.  This difference is highlighted further by discussion of how Job is made to suffer hinnam, or gratuitously, from both God and Job's perspective.7

    Read More

  • The Crucible: Hysteria And Injustice

    1618 Words  | 4 Pages

    The climax of the play is in the court room when John Proctor and Mary Warren finally say that Abigail is lying and nobody was doing witchcraft. But Abigail is a good actor and liar and actually turns it around on Mr. Proctor and says he tries to get everyone to worship the devil. The court finds him guilty of devil worship and wants to hang him if he does not confess. The falling action of the play comes when Rev. Parris comes to court three months later and says that Abigail has stolen all his money and has left town and he feels guilty for the people who were accused by her and hung because of it. The court does not want to admit they were wrong though because they feel the people will rebel if they now come out and say "sorry, we made a small mistake".

    Read More

  • Injustice in Arthur Miller´s The Crucible

    599 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine that someone is accused of doing a crime and went to jail and died there, but then new evidence came up and that person was proven innocent. The people in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, would have the same fate. The play takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1700s, during the witchcraft trials. People were being convicted of being a witch, just like what happened to John Procter during the Salem witch trials. Injustice of the courts is shown in Miller's The Crucible as well as in the unfortunate case of Robert “Bob” Doyle.

    Read More

  • Sports And Religion In Herman Orwell's Golfing With God

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    Doctrines have influenced and been influenced by the ongoing development of secular history, science, and philosophy. Christian view that there is evil in the world. If there is a force of evil, there must be a force of good. Christian view a religious uprising from divine law leading to sainthood. They view God as the divine power or the all-knowing figure. The devil is viewed as malevolence figure and an irrational force. Compared to this novel God is seen as more as a human-like figure. The author allows God to take form in both genders, and the author doesn’t define the God as omniscient. The author portrays God as physical and spiritual guide for Herman rather than his Lord. This helps to create this image of God that he is source of good that appears time to time when needed. There are some differences between the bible and this novel. God wants a relationship with humanity. The main focus, in both creation stories, are humans and humans were God 's only creation that was made in his image. Therefore God is seen as a creator who wants a relationship with us as he makes us special. Furthermore, in the second biblical account of creation the writers of the portray God as a creator who seeks. Compared to this novel God states “That’s the only real commandment…after you learn to stop hurting people, which I assume you’ve done or you wouldn’t be up here in the first place”

    Read More

  • humanizing Satin

    1422 Words  | 3 Pages

    ..., this self-justification and rationalization is a way of him saying, I am justified, which is an innate human quality. This representation is very different from what most people are used to seeing, which results in the reader relating to him and viewing him as victim because we identify with him. The humanizing aspect of Satan in the poem to have an initial reaction and say I am wronged in this situation is identical with our innate reaction to similar incidents. Even though we are different than Satan in many ways, we usually do not take accountability when we are expected to. Thus, we sympathize with Satan in this poem because we also rely on self-justification to avoid taking blame for our wrong doings and accept that we are sometimes wrong. Hence, since we understand his situation due to the way it mirrors our human nature, we consider Satan to be a victim.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Bible Justice System

    748 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bryan, it appears that South Carolina’s court system is similar to that of Missouri. I appreciated you thread and with that being said, Professor has proposed the following question, “If there could be changes made to make our court system more compatible with the biblical model, what would it be and why?” Most would agree that our country was founded on Christian principles and those that don’t should thank their lucky stars that we were (e.g., atheists, socialists). Our God is God of “all” and that includes civil government. The practical reality of liberal politics is the reduction of institutions that advocate true compassion and fairness, including the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, federalism, the Rule of Law, natural law, and traditional

    Read More

  • The Trial of God

    1099 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...on of Berish’s plea to accuse God; Job also gives a similar lament, “I would lay my case before [God], and fill my mouth with arguments" (NIV Job 23:4).

    Read More

  • Explore the Theme of Reputation in 'The Crucible'

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    The play, set in the 1600’s during the witch hunt that sought to rid villages of presumed followers and bidders of the devil is a parallel story to the situation in the US in the 1950’s: McCarthyism, seeking the riddance of communist ideologists. Miller sets this story more particularly in a village called Salem, where the theocratic power governed by strict puritan rules require the people to be strong believers and forbid them to sin at risk of ending up in hell. However, the audience notices that despite this strong superficial belief in God, faith is not what truly motivates them, but it is rather money and reputation.

    Read More

  • The Illegal Proceeding of Christ's Trial

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first one that we are going to talk about is the charges placed against Jesus. In Deuteronomy 19:15 it says that to have a trial there must be two or three witness, not just one In light of this, he was arrested and in Mark 14:55 it says that they tried to find someone to witness for Jesus but they could not find any. In this aspect, they tried him illegally from the v...

    Read More

  • Confronting Guilt In Franz Kafka’s The Trial

    1287 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ironically, this is in part both an existential and Christian interpretation of The Trial. The idea that to be human is to be guilty arises from both Christian and existential ideology. The Christian concept stems from a Biblical interpretation that essentially states: When Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge and fell from innocence, his sin was subsequently inherited by all of mankind from the moment they were born. This is called Original Sin, and the Christian belief is that the only way humans are redeemed from this sin and avoid Hell is, firstly, through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice of Himself and, secondly, through the adoption of Christ’s teachings. The Original Sin doctrine is important in The Trial because the story takes place in an increasingly Christian nationalist Germany, in which the prevalent Christian ideology permeated, at least on a subconscious level, nearly every aspect of everyday life and society. The idea that every human was born with Original Sin would have undoubtedly influenced K.’s and the Law’s perception of guilt in relation to his trial. K. himself even notes the ability of the court to “[pull] some profound guilt from somewhere where there was originally none at a...

    Read More

  • John Milton: Paradise Lost

    1402 Words  | 3 Pages

    In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan seeks revenge against God and causes the fall of man. He deceives Adam and Eve and gets them to disobey God. God ends up seeming cruel because of the way He punishes Adam and Eve but, He’s not. God could have killed them for disobeying him, instead He’s giving them a second chance with life, its just going to be a harder life. God is just doing what He has to by sending them out of the Garden. He is the high and almighty God, He made Adam and Eve, He made the world, He can do whatever He wants and if you disobey him you will get punished. It’s the same thing with Satan, Satan rebelled, and God had to do what he had to do and that was to send him out of heaven to hell.

    Read More

More about Trial Of God And God On Trial Analysis

Open Document