Pilgrimage Ponderings
Quasimoto, The Beggar King, and a Shopping Spree
It seems I rarely get to watch TV these days, but the other night I had a few minutes and while flipping channels encountered the last 30 minutes of an old black and white version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." As many classics as I read as an English major, I have not read this French novel, so it was interesting to catch the end of the movie.
It seems that Esmerelda is a gypsy woman who has offended the nobles in some way. A nobleman who has a passion for her apparently frames her for a murder that he committed. She is accused of being a witch and condemned to hang. Quasimoto, the hunchback, swings downs from his home in the bell tower of the cathedral and whisks her off of the hangman's scaffolding and up into the bell tower shouting "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!"
The nobles plea to the King of France to do away with the sanctuary rule so that they can have vengeance for the death of a nobleman. Esmerelda's gypsy husband or boyfriend uses the new technology of the printing press to distribute to the whole city his plea to the king to pardon Esmerelda because she is innocent. In the meantime, his friend organizes the beggars of Paris to storm the cathedral to set her free before the King can reverse the Church's power of sanctuary.
It's amazing that I got this much of the story in the last 30 minutes! I was struck by the leader of the poor folks of Paris, standing on the steps of the cathedral and demanding that the archbishop release Esmerelda to him, the Beggar King. I found an interesting parallel and contrast between the King of France and the Beggar King. But the thought I had was that there is a hierarchy and desire for power even among those who have nothing.
And because this was the same day that the story broke about how much Governor Palin was given to purchase a new wardrobe, I found myself thinking about that whole issue in a different way. She is being criticized for shopping at fancy stores that I don't shop in while claiming to be an ordinary "hockey-mom." Aside from the reality that women are judged by a completely different standard than men with regard to clothing, and aside from the reality that even a modest wardrobe for a professional woman is likely to be significantly higher in price than that for a professional man, the clothing issue reminded me a little bit of the class issues in "The Hunchback."
In my opinion, many of us would love the opportunity, just once, to buy expensive clothes from a store where we would typically only window-shop. Isn't that what the American dream is all about? Believing that we can go from having very little to having it all? Isn't that why our financial system is in such a mess right now--because we have been buying more and bigger, on credit, of course, because we have believed that we are somehow entitled to it all as hard-working Americans?
The Beggar King dies in the arm of his friend who says, "Why didn't you wait to see how the King would respond to my plea?" In his last breath, he replies something like, "I thought they were just poet's words that would be ignored." There are some very pretty, poetic words in the New Testament that say something like, "Where your treasure is, there where your heart be also." And "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." Those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus perhaps should put more faith in this dream of the good life.
Sally Coleman: an excellent post, I was intrigued by the title and glad I dropped by to read! (10/26/08)