The Adventurous Simplicissimus · Chapter
How Simplicissimus Was Changed from a Wild Beast Into a Christian explained
The hermit takes in the young Simplicissimus, feeds him, and after a three-week probationary period, begins instructing him in the Christian faith.
What happens
The hermit takes in the young Simplicissimus, feeds him, and after a three-week probationary period, begins instructing him in the Christian faith. He teaches him from the fall of Lucifer through the Gospel, using the Ten Commandments to distinguish virtue from vice. Simplicissimus proves an eager and quick learner, and the hermit names him Simplicissimus due to his pure simplicity. They build a small hut for him, and he learns to pray.
Themes in this chapter
Religion and Morality
The entire chapter is devoted to the hermit's religious instruction of Simplicissimus, covering the fall of Lucifer, the Garden of Eden, the Ten Commandments, and the life of Christ, aiming to lead the boy to a virtuous life.
Innocence and Experience
Simplicissimus begins as an ignorant, 'wild beast' and through the hermit's teaching gains knowledge and understanding, illustrating the transition from innocence to experience.
Characters to notice
- Simplicissimus
The young protagonist, initially a wild and ignorant boy, is taken in by the hermit and begins his Christian education. He is named Simplicissimus for his pure simplicity.
- The Hermit
The pious hermit who feeds and instructs Simplicissimus, teaching him the Christian religion from the fall of Lucifer to the Last Judgment. He builds a hut for the boy and names him Simplicissimus.
Key passages
“So I began to eat and ceased to prattle; all which lasted no longer than till I had appeased mine hunger: for then the good hermit bade me begone.”
I ate quietly until I was full, at which point the hermit told me to leave.
Simplicissimus's initial encounter with the hermit, where he is fed and then dismissed.
“So he began his instruction from the fall of Lucifer: thence came he to the Garden of Eden, and when we were thrust out thence with our first parents, he passed through the law of Moses and taught me, by the means of the ten commandments and their explications... to discern virtue from vice, to do the good and to avoid the evil.”
He taught me starting with Lucifer's fall, then Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden, and then the Ten Commandments, showing me how to tell good from evil.
The hermit's systematic religious education of Simplicissimus.
“At the end of all he came to the Gospel and told me of Christ's Birth, Sufferings, Death, and Resurrection: and then concluded all with the Judgment Day, and so set Heaven and hell before my eyes.”
Finally, he taught me about Jesus's life, death, and resurrection, and ended with the Last Judgment, vividly describing heaven and hell.
The culmination of the hermit's instruction in Christian doctrine.
“I have since pondered much upon this matter and have found that Aristotle, in his second book Of the Soul, did put it well, whereas he compared the soul of a man to a blank unwritten tablet, whereon one could write what he would...”
I later realized that Aristotle was right when he said the human soul is like a blank slate that can be written upon.
Simplicissimus reflects on the philosophical concept of the tabula rasa, applying it to his own rapid learning.