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Part 3, Chapter 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Power and the Glory, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Complexity of Religious Figures
Ideology and Reactionary Ideas
The Nature of Sin
Government vs. Religion
Duty, Sacrifice, and Persecution
Summary
Analysis
The whisky priest finds himself in yet another jail cell with his bottle of brandy. Alone, he attempts to confess his sins to God. Feeling unable to repent for his sins, he instead turns his thoughts and prayers to Brigitta. However, even while praying for his daughter, he cannot help but chastise himself. As a priest, it is his job to care for everyone equally, and having a daughter does not allow him to do so. He realizes he feels an intense love for her that is greater than what he feels for the many other people he is meant to serve.
Even though he has tried to uphold his religious principles and has done a lot of good in his life, the whisky priest cannot help but focus on what he has done wrong. Because he is so close to death, he knows he will never get the chance to redeem himself for his biggest sin (fathering and then abandoning Brigitta)—at least not in the eyes of Maria or Brigitta herself.
Themes
Additionally, the whisky priest thinks of how he has spent the last eight years of his life, since the Red Shirts outlawed the church. He realizes that he has accomplished little good, while allowing a lot of suffering to occur on his behalf. He wonders whether he should renounce his priesthood altogether. Eventually, the priest falls asleep and dreams about eating while an important ceremony takes place in a church. During the ceremony, the priest does not pay attention to what is going on because he is too focused on his meal. He wakes up the next morning feeling hopeless because he is about to die and does not feel that he is worthy of meeting God.
The night before his death, the whisky priest takes stock of his life and is not satisfied with what he finds. In the dream, the ceremony represents the priesthood and service to God, while the whisky priest’s meal symbolizes his base desire and impulses. As such, the dream is a symbolic representation of the priest’s guilt over putting his own needs and desires ahead of his service to God. This guilt makes him worry that he is destined for Hell rather than Heaven.
Themes
