♥ ♠ P I E R R O T ♣ ♦

Discussion Questions (Part I):

What sort of tone is set by prologue? Based off of the events in the book so far, what do you think of humanity's relationship to God and the divine in this world?

What do you think about Thomas as a protagonist? What stands out about him in contrast to Godefroy and his other men?

What do you think of the girl? What do you think is the purpose of her not having a name?

What do you think of the humor in this book?

What do you think happens to Thomas and the girl in the monastery?

We are introduced to the priest in chapter 4. What do you think of his character?

Like the girl, the priest also initially is given no name. What do you think is the significance of that?

Thomas tells the priest that he was cheated of his holdings as a knight and joined Godefroy and his men in his desire for revenge. He denies wanting to make a confession, saying that "There's no point." In his eyes, why do you think that is?

The girl cuts her hand trying to clean Thomas's sword before fighting the monster. Do you think there is any significance to this?

What do you think about the description of the beast? Does you think it's meant to evoke any specific imagery?

There is a distinct break in narrative when we are introduced to Mathilde, the sick woman in the beginning of Chapter 6. What do you think is the purpose of her character?

Thomas sees a spined figure speaking to the girl in his fevered state. In the beginning of Chapter 7, the girl reveals that a saint had told her to go to the shrine to heal Thomas. What do you think about the girl's relationship with divinity? What about Thomas's?

What do you think about the people of Chanson-des-Anges destroying the statue of the Virgin? How do you think this reflects on humanity?

What do you think about the events in the castle? Did you draw any biblical parallels?

What do you think of Thomas's vices? What do you think of the priest's? How do you think they reflect on their characters as a former knight and holy man, respectively?

What do you think is the point of Mathilde dying over Thomas? It felt very intentional in it's inclusion but I was initially pretty confused over what it was meant to convey. A couple things that stood out to me:

it's a break from Thomas's perspective

the chapter as a whole is pretty short. without the scene there's not necessarily any break or lack of understanding in the sequence of events relevant to the plot.

it's pretty cunty. the imagery of this red haired woman stripping herself bare, saying her husband's in heaven with his first wife so she needs a man as well, then bemoaning the death of this hot knight and french (haha) kissing him. RIP mathilde you went out serving cunt

Here are my initial questions:

What is the purpose of Mathilde? Is she there specifically to inoculate him with the plague? If the point was to have Thomas fall ill, I would've believed he could've done so just as a natural aftermath from his battle with the monster, so why have Mathilde do it?

Is there some sort of archetype that Mathilde is supposed to evoke? Her having long orange hair, her nudity, her story in having her family die/betrayed and robbed by her husband's apprentice seems specific in a way that I would think it's supposed to be a reference to something but I might not know enough biblical mythology/historical characters to make that connection.

What does her kiss/proclamation of marriage mean? What does it signify to Thomas, and is it relevant that this was all done without Thomas's knowledge?

How does her scene connect with the following one, where Thomas experiences his fever "dream", seeing a spined man talk to the girl?

I have more but this was kind of at the top of my head. Here are my personal conclusions that I came to after discussing with a friend:

Thomas's battle with the creature is explicitly a return to knighthood/recovery of his honor. He previously confesses to the priest of his grudge against the lord that cheated him of his holdings, and his subsequent life of crime/joining Godefroy's men in his desire to exact revenge. He denies wanting to confess to the priest or his desire for honor, but the priest sees through him and points out the hole in his heart from his desire for knightly honor (and connection to God...?)

The actual battle is so clearly a baptism. I mean, you take any piece of media where someone goes into water and more often than not it's supposed to be baptismal in imagery. The fact that it follows Thomas's pledge to kill the creature, and the priest saying that God would make Thomas a knight again also lends itself to being a very obvious christening.

If we follow this chain of actions, several sacraments have already taken place:

Thomas's confession to the priest

Baptism

the Eucharist (partaking in the priest's wine)

I think Mathilde serves to confirm Thomas's return to knighthood following his "baptism" and his fulfilled promise to kill the creature by completing the sacrament of marriage. By her kiss/stripping nude, I think it's supposed to evoke consummation, and further mark him as returning to the light of God.

Several other references I thought might be relevant threads but I couldn't figure out how to connect them anywhere:

the red hair. i could swear it feels so intentional but I couldn't get it anywhere. there is a lot of women with red hair in european art history? on a personal level i do associate it with regality. i also think that it might evoke the imagery of a halo of fire/angelic figures? there's also arthurian lore and the lady of the lake which is not so much relevant to her hair color but she kind of gives that

the goat/devil/death/the plague that followed her. i'm not sure if i understand the narrative device of having her be the one annointing Thomas with the plague. presumably. the first time i read this i didn't even make the connection that she was the one who got him sick because to be real if Thomas got sick on his own after fighting the creature/being half drowned/laying in a river full of mutilated bodies and ooze im like. Thats Enough To Get Him Sick i think

also is there something intentional about him calling to St. Sebastian at the end (gay). i did see that he is the patron saint of plagues/athletics etc and of course Thomas is sick af but I always worry I'm missing some sort of catholic subtext. my google history while reading this book is literally like "who is [biblical figure]"