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Captivity Frees Faith

Captivity Frees Faith


As a consequence of her experience as a captive among the natives, Mary Rowlandson became a devout Christian as a psychological defense against her traumatic change of environment. This paper will highlight the ideological changes in character that occurred as a consequence of her new found faith in Christianity and, indirectly, captivity. Firstly, Mary became conscious of her past sins, which changed her conception of what a "good" life is. Secondly, she became an optimist operating within the Christian ideological framework. Thirdly, she made the Atlantic Ocean the dividing line between good and evil. Fourthly, she used her Christian faith to renew her spirit when it was at its lowest. Fifthly, she believed that her omnipotent Christian God was acting to punish those who had brought her misery.

She believed that her eleven miserable weeks of captivity were a God ordained, righteous punishment for her previous lack of impiety in Christian society (Rowlandson). Her epiphany occurred during her first Sabbath in captivity as she reflected on how she had misspent many Sabbaths while living among other Christians (Rowlandson). She gladly accepted when a native warrior offered her a Bible which he had plundered on a raid (Rowlandson). She metaphorically described her vicissitude of fortune as God having wounded her with one hand and healed her with another (Rowlandson). The wound is a metaphor for the trials she endured during her capture and captivity, and, more generally, the difficulty of adopting to her radical change of environment and social status. Despite her previous impiety, God showed her mercy (Rowlandson). She believed that God had granted her a fresh beginning with which she would be able to atone for her past sins. Rowlandson thought that God had let her off lightly for her past impiety, "I knew that he laid upon me less than I deserved." (Rowlandson)

As a result of her new found faith in the Christian God, Mary Rowlandson interpreted every positive event of her capture and captivity as a consequence of God's intervention on her behalf. God was credited with saving her life during the native raid on her town (Rowlandson). God also saved her life, according to her narrative, from her own hand, after her baby, who was taken into captivity with her, died (Rowlandson). In her lamentation, she asked God for a "token of good" ( Rowlandson). Consequently, she interpreted the up lifting encounter with her son as God answering her prayer (Rowlandson). Later in her captivity, Mary undertook a journey to see another family member and got lost (Rowlandson). God, she believed, had protected her from coming to harm from the natives she encountered on the journey (Rowlandson). Mary even attributed the elimination of certain vices to divine intervention, such as her quitting smoking tobacco (Rowlandson). Her interpretation of all things positive as the work of God was re-enforced by her subjective reading of Bible passages. For example, when she was on the point of fainting from her hunger, she found breadcrumbs and interpreted this fortuitous event as the work of God, at least partially, because she found a passage in the Bible that was applicable to her situation, "Thou shalt eat and not be satisfied (Micah 6:14)" (Rowlandson)." Rowlandson, a slave who had forgotten what it was like to be free, needed a sense of control over her life. She achieved a subtle control over her reality by interpreting all of her daily events as reflexive of similar events in the Bible. Her innate optimism is apparent because all of the events are interpreted in a positive manner with an addition to her personally ideology, namely Christianity.

In her narrative, Rowlandson draws a clear distinction between the non-Christian, evil pagans and the good, Christian colonists. The manners of the natives are described as hellish (Rowlandson). Rowlandson reflected on the contrast between the "lovely Christians faces and the foul looks of those heathens"(Rowlandson). Even a pagan with a tender conscience yearns "for the destruction of poor Christians" (Rowlandson). Rowlandson's belief that the pagans were evil was largely shaped by her faith. Her characterization of the natives is always done within the Protestant Christian ideological framework. She writes that the natives thanked the devil for their military victories (Rowlandson). She thought of the indigenous peoples as an army of Satan. They rejoiced in their devilish, inhumane killing of the English (Rowlandson). Mary's new religious frame of mind, ever since her epiphany, clearly juxtaposed Christianity on one side and evil on the other. Her zealous hatred of the natives was no doubt compounded by the mistreatment she had suffered at their hands in addition to her Christian mindset.

Rowlandson renewed zeal in Christianity, it can be conjectured, was a psychological device to deal with a traumatic capture and captivity. During her captivity, she reached many new lows in her life and it was her faith which gave her the emotional strength that everyone in a seemingly hopeless situation needs. "…he (the Lord) many times refreshed me, five or six times did he and his squaw refresh my feeble carcass" (Rowlandson). Rowlandson's renewed faith in Christianity was not under the supervision of any religious authority. She interpreted the passages of the Bible to reflect the daily events of her life and, as a result, God was a constant presence in her life. She believed that God was protecting her and revitalizing her spirit, an understandable psychological need. "Now hath God fulfilled that precious Scripture which was such a comfort to me in my distressed condition" (Rowlandson). In her pious eyes, God "answered" her "poor desires". Sometimes Rowlandson desired revenge against her captors.

God not only served her as a spiritual protector but also as her spiritual avenger. Her social position in native society was often subjected to mistreatment from those further up the hierarchy. Rowlandson was no exception. She described the power her social betters had over her as tyrannical (Rowlandson). She was often threatened with a "knock on the head", she was slapped and always scrounging for food to fend off starvation. It is no surprise that Mary wanted revenge on the "bloody heathen" whom she believed (and probably correctly) had mistreated her. Rowlandson was in a completely helpless position but her belief in the Protestant God gave her the ability to get her revenge on the natives vicariously. The reader gets a sense of joy when she describes the fulfillment of a passage from the Bible, "...And the Lord thy God will put curses on thine enemies, and on them which hate thee, which persecute thee"(Deuteronomy 30,4-7) (Rowlandson). Rowlandson not only wanted revenge on the collective, or concept of native, but also on specific individuals. This same sense of subtle, vindictive joy makes its appearance when she writes about the hanging of a native who had committed" ill doings" (Rowlandson). Rowlandson's anathema for her captors is understandable. Mary managed to squeeze in a little "eye for an eye" attitude into her Christian heart.

All humans have emotional needs. Religion satisfies many of these needs by providing answers to unanswerable questions. Rowlandson's rattled psyche fell back on Christianity in search of comforting thoughts. Mary's Bible was her, "guide by day, and…pillow by night". (Rowlandson).

Posted by: Natalie Saturday

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