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The Mermaid
For the majority of the story the Priest is an aggressive and stern character, whose devotion to God prevents him from appreciating love in all its forms and from embracing all of God’s creatures on earth. He refuses to help the Fisherman to send away his Soul so that he can be with the Mermaid, instead vehemently declaring romantic love “vile.” By the end of the story, however, he undergoes a kind of spiritual transformation after encountering the flowers that have grown out of the Fisherman and the Mermaid’s grave, and blesses “all the thing’s in God’s world.”
The Priest Quotes in The Fisherman and His Soul
The The Fisherman and His Soul quotes below are all either spoken by The Priest or refer to The Priest. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Fisherman and His Soul
Quotes
“The love of the body is vile,” cried the Priest […] “and vile and evil are the pagan things God suffers to wander through His world. Accursed be the Fauns of the woodland, and accursed by the singers of the sea! They are lost […] For them there is no heaven or nor hell, and in neither shall they praise God’s name.”
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And when he had robed himself with his robes, and entered in and bowed himself before the altar, he saw that the altar was covered with strange flowers that never had been seen before […] But the beauty of the white flowers troubled him, and their odour was sweet in his nostrils, and there came another word into his lips, and he spake not of the wrath of God, but of the God whose name is Love. And why he so spake, he knew not […] And in the morning […] he went forth […] and blessed the sea, and all the wild things that are in it […] All the things in God's world he blessed, and the people were filled with joy and wonder.
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The Priest Quotes in The Fisherman and His Soul
The The Fisherman and His Soul quotes below are all either spoken by The Priest or refer to The Priest. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Fisherman and His Soul
Quotes
“The love of the body is vile,” cried the Priest […] “and vile and evil are the pagan things God suffers to wander through His world. Accursed be the Fauns of the woodland, and accursed by the singers of the sea! They are lost […] For them there is no heaven or nor hell, and in neither shall they praise God’s name.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
And when he had robed himself with his robes, and entered in and bowed himself before the altar, he saw that the altar was covered with strange flowers that never had been seen before […] But the beauty of the white flowers troubled him, and their odour was sweet in his nostrils, and there came another word into his lips, and he spake not of the wrath of God, but of the God whose name is Love. And why he so spake, he knew not […] And in the morning […] he went forth […] and blessed the sea, and all the wild things that are in it […] All the things in God's world he blessed, and the people were filled with joy and wonder.
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