Melmoth the Wanderer · Chapter
Chapter XVII explained
The stranger continues his cynical critique of human society to Immalee, describing how religion, law, and war are perverted by selfishness and cruelty.
What happens
The stranger continues his cynical critique of human society to Immalee, describing how religion, law, and war are perverted by selfishness and cruelty. He distorts life to terrify her, yet Immalee, moved by his words, weeps and asks him to stay with her on the island. The stranger wavers between human feeling and his own despair, ultimately laughing bitterly at the prospect of a peaceful life.
Themes in this chapter
Temptation and Faith
Melmoth tempts Immalee with a distorted view of the world, testing her innocence and faith in humanity.
Suffering and Oppression
The chapter details how religion, law, and war are used to multiply human misery and oppress individuals.
Isolation and Alienation
Melmoth's alienation from humanity is evident; he sees himself as separate from the world he condemns, and Immalee's isolation on the island is contrasted with the corrupt society.
Characters to notice
- Immalee
Innocent island girl who is deeply affected by the stranger's descriptions of human evil; she weeps and asks him to remain with her.
- John Melmoth
The stranger (Melmoth the Wanderer) who delivers a bitter critique of society and struggles between human feeling and his own despair.
Key passages
“They call themselves by various names, to excite passions suitable to the names they bear. Thus some forbid the perusal of that book to their disciples, and others assert, that from the exclusive study of its pages alone, can the hope of salvation be learned or substantiated.”
Religious groups use different labels to stir up emotions, some banning the Bible and others insisting it is the only path to salvation.
Melmoth criticizes the hypocrisy and divisiveness of religious sects.
“Those who murder their children at the hour of their birth, or, by medical art, dismiss them before they have seen the light; and, in so doing, they give the only credible evidence of parental affection.”
The only truly kind parents are those who kill their newborns or abort them before birth.
Melmoth's bitter irony about parental love in a corrupt world.
“Stay with me—return not to that world of evil and sorrow.—Here the flowers will always bloom, and the sun be as bright as on the first day I beheld you.—Why will you go back to the world to think and to be unhappy?”
Immalee pleads with Melmoth to remain on the island with her, away from the suffering of human society.
Immalee's innocent desire to keep Melmoth in her peaceful world.