God or Carwin

 Unquestionable faith in God is what helps most people get through hard times in their lives, and, in Wieland, we see that Wieland is willing to trust his faith to the point of murdering his family and almost murdering his sister. In the last chapters of the book, we find that Wieland’s premonitions of God were really the vocal throwings of Carwin, the guy from out of town. Before discovering this, Wieland’s faith in God is infallible, and seemed like it could withstand anything. The real question would be upon finding that Carwin was, in a way, playing God for Wieland, was Wieland’s reaction rational? Finding that your whole world is gone just because one person decided to have a little fun at your expense could be rather infuriating. But should he have gone so far as to kill himself with Clara’s penknife? Was there another way that he could have reacted?

            Wieland was so strong in his faith that he believed that he was being called upon by God himself to make a sacrifice, which ended up being his wife and children, and then, almost Clara. Someone with this amount of faith would not necessarily question hearing their deity from above telling them to do something that is their will. The most famous story that this parallels is the story of Abraham and his son. Abraham was told by God to kill his son Isaac as a test of faith and was at the point of almost killing him and then an angel was sent to stop them. In Wieland’s case, there was no angel sent from God to stop these gruesome murders. Although, in Clara’s case, Carwin may have been the “angel” that was sent to protect her from Wieland’s wrath.

            After finding out that Carwin had been the one portraying God, Wieland was furious and ended up killing himself. This response was sort of out there, very big. Although, would there really be any other way that we would expect him to react? He had just murdered his wife and children and was just about to make the next “sacrifice” of his sister. The man really had nothing left to lose. He had murdered himself in the heat of the moment though, so he wasn’t necessarily thinking clearly when this happened. The way this horrible act was described was horrific as well. “I shrieked aloud, but it was too late. He plunged it to the hilt in his neck; and his life instantly escaped with the stream that gushed from the wound. He was stretched at my feet; and my hands were sprinkled with his blood as he fell” (Brown 222). Okay, so this death would have made a great horror movie scene for sure, but he didn’t really let much else happen to him when he decided to kill himself. He could have made amends or turned himself in to the police. There were other rational options. Maybe this was the best way for him because his entire world as he knew it was gone. His faith was just tarnished, he was compromised. It made sense for him to actually decide to kill himself. As a man who had so much faith in God just to have it all dashed away in a single instant could kill a man. And it did.