Agnes of God by John Pielmeier - Essay Example

From the research it can be comprehended that the play, which portrays the conflict of science and faith, is based on the search for truth of three women: Sister Agnes, the protagonist; Dr. Martha Livingstone, the psychiatrist designated by the court to evaluate Agnes’ mental competence to stand trial; and the Mother Superior, Miriam Ruth, who is also the aunt of Agnes. The play has subsequently been adapted into a movie, starring “Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft and Meg Tilly” and has also been “nominated for three Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Writers’ Guild of America Award”.

The mother of Agnes is a victim of an unhappy mother and her frustration dominates her character and manifests in her behavior to her child. She abuses Agnes both physically as well as psychologically, and the way she tortures her daughter transcends the limits of toleration. On one occasion, she goes to the extent of placing a burning cigarette on his daughter’s vagina. This kind of abuse leaves indelible scars on the child’s psyche and as she grows up she develops a deep sense of guilt.

Thus, she perceives herself as an unworthy person because she feels she has been an unwanted child to her mother. Thus, when she conceives a child, whom she believes has been “God’s mistake” and Agnes has “given the baby back to God”. Thus, the childhood trauma remains in her as guilt due to which she delivers her child unto God. All the three characters in the play seeks the truth and wishes to attain spirituality but for different reasons and through varying perspectives. In the case of Agnes, again, it is a sort of cleansing her soul from the guilt she feels as she has been unwanted.

Thus, in one context, she believes the child she bears is the gift of God, while on the other she believes that it is a bad baby. This happens due to her perception of herself as being a fallen angel, one who has sinned and deserves punishment. Thus, she punishes her own child by delivering it back to God in a ritual manner. However, Agnes seeks to attain spirituality, perhaps as a way of penance for her perception of having sinned. Thus, her fervor and strength of faith is extremely strong and she attains an aura of other-worldliness about her.

Her mother has been a significant influence in Agnes’ life and she becomes obsessed with the idea of her having sinned as she has been incessantly tortured by her mother. Perhaps, her mother also invokes in her another image of Virgin Mary as she craves for the love of such a motherly figure, who she is keen to please. The mental condition of Agnes works on two levels: on the one hand she abhors herself as a sinner due to her childhood abuse, but, on the other, she has a deep rooted faith planted in her through religious indoctrination.

Therefore, she feels that she is being rewarded by God because she had suffered and she sees the bleeding from her hand as a manifestation of this. Thus, the character of Agnes suffers the anguish of a burdened soul because of the childhood abuse but finally seeks deliverance through her suffering in life and deep rooted belief in God. Childhood abuse can be so tormenting to individuals that such incidents remain etched in their psych throughout their lives, often demonstrating their sense of guilt in different ways.

In the case of Agnes, it has been her obsession with her mother and the image of Virgin M