The Damnation of Theron Ware · Chapter
V explained
Theron Ware reflects on his ingrained prejudices against the Irish and Catholicism, shaped by his upbringing and environment.
What happens
Theron Ware reflects on his ingrained prejudices against the Irish and Catholicism, shaped by his upbringing and environment. After witnessing the deathbed scene of MacEvoy with Father Forbes and Celia Madden, he begins to question these biases. He meets Celia Madden, who introduces herself, and later discusses the event with his wife Alice, who expresses distrust of Catholics. The chapter ends with Theron walking with Father Forbes and Celia, feeling the impact of the ritual.
Themes in this chapter
Religious Hypocrisy and Doubt
Theron's internal conflict between his inherited prejudices and the powerful impression of the Catholic ritual.
Alienation and Identity
Theron feels alienated from his own background as he questions his ingrained beliefs.
Characters to notice
- Theron Ware
Reflects on his prejudices against the Irish and Catholicism, experiences a shift in perspective after witnessing MacEvoy's deathbed scene.
- Alice Ware
Expresses distrust of Catholics and their priests, discusses the lack of a piano with Theron.
- Father Forbes
Performs the last rites for MacEvoy, engages Theron in conversation about the ceremony and his rule for night calls.
- Celia Madden
Introduces herself to Theron, comments on the ceremony, and invites him to visit.
Key passages
“He took it for granted, for example, that in the large cities most of the poverty and all the drunkenness, crime, and political corruption were due to the perverse qualities of this foreign people—qualities accentuated and emphasized in every evil direction by the baleful influence of a false and idolatrous religion.”
Theron assumed that Irish immigrants were responsible for urban poverty, crime, and corruption, worsened by their Catholic faith.
Illustrates Theron's ingrained prejudices before his encounter with Father Forbes and Celia.
“The foundations upon which its dark bulk reared itself were ignorance, squalor, brutality and vice. Pigs wallowed in the mire before its base, and burrowing into this base were a myriad of narrow doors, each bearing the hateful sign of a saloon, and giving forth from its recesses of night the sounds of screams and curses.”
Theron envisions a monument to his prejudices, built on ignorance and vice, with saloons and violence at its core.
A vivid metaphor for Theron's internalized bigotry.
“He saw instead Father Forbes, in the white and purple vestments, standing by poor MacEvoy’s bedside, with his pale, chiselled, luminous, uplifted face, and he heard only the proud, confident clanging of the girl’s recital— beatum Michaelem Archangelum, beatum Joannem Baptistam, Petrum et Paulum—em!—am!—um! —like strokes on a great resonant alarm-bell, attuned for the hearing of heaven.”
Theron recalls the image of Father Forbes and Celia's chanting during the last rites, feeling the ritual's powerful, almost heavenly resonance.
Shows Theron's growing fascination with Catholic ceremony despite his prior biases.