The Story of Gösta Berling · Chapter
XVI: The Drought explained
The chapter describes a severe drought that plagues the land during the year the pensioners are in power, causing widespread suffering and fear among the people.
What happens
The chapter describes a severe drought that plagues the land during the year the pensioners are in power, causing widespread suffering and fear among the people. Gösta Berling encounters the Broby clergyman, who has hoarded wealth out of a misguided sense of duty. Through their conversation, Gösta inspires the clergyman to repent and pray for rain as a sign of divine favor. The clergyman does so during a Sunday service, and a violent thunderstorm brings rain, but the clergyman dies of joy at the altar.
Themes in this chapter
Redemption and Penitence
The Broby clergyman seeks to atone for his hoarding and hardness of heart through a desperate prayer for rain, symbolizing a path to redemption.
Nature and the Supernatural
The drought is portrayed as a divine punishment or sign, and the rainstorm as a miraculous answer to prayer, emphasizing the connection between human actions and natural phenomena.
Guilt and Remorse
Both Gösta and the clergyman grapple with guilt over their past failures, and the clergyman's prayer is driven by remorse for his sins.
Characters to notice
- Gösta Berling
Gösta encounters the Broby clergyman and inspires him to pray for rain, reflecting on his own failures and the possibility of redemption.
- Broby Clergyman
The hoarding clergyman is moved by Gösta's words to pray for rain as a sign of expiation, and dies of joy after the rain comes.
Key passages
“If dead things love, if earth and water distinguish friends from enemies, I should like to possess their love.”
The narrator wishes that inanimate nature could feel affection and forgiveness toward humans.
Opening reflection on the interconnectedness of all things.
“Never did the dance whirl so merrily at the crossroads; never was the beer-barrel so quickly emptied; never was so much grain turned into brandy.”
The year of the pensioners' rule was marked by wild revelry and excess.
Describes the moral decay spreading from Ekeby.
“There is someone whom God's hand is seeking!”
The people believe the drought is a divine punishment targeting a specific sinner.
Reflects the superstitious interpretation of the drought.
“Pray to God for rain. That shall be the token; by that we shall know if God wishes what we wish.”
Gösta challenges the clergyman to pray for rain as a sign of divine approval for their plans.
Key moment of faith and testing.
“He died of happiness.”
The Broby clergyman succumbed to the overwhelming joy of seeing his prayer answered.
Final tragic yet redemptive outcome for the clergyman.