17 pages • 34 minutes read
Theology
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Background
Literary Context
In the eyes of many scholars and critics, Ted Hughes’s work transcends literary movements. As poet Simon Armitage writes in the introduction of his selection of Hughes poems: “For many, he represented the antithesis of contemporary ideology and modern political thought” (p. ix). (Hughes, Ted. Armitage, Simon. Ted Hughes. Faber and Faber, 2000.)
Yet “Theology” links to the postmodernism of the mid-to-late 20th century. “Theology” challenges accepted narratives, relies on intertextuality, or the relationship between texts, and provides lots of information or data.
Hughes confronts the accepted story in the Book of Genesis, connecting his text to the Bible. He gives the reader information to track and the reader has to untangle who consumes who. Postmodern texts can read like puzzles. “Theology” is something of a puzzle; the speaker doesn’t explicitly say why “Adam ate the apple” (Line 5), or “Eve ate Adam” (Line 6), or the “serpent ate Eve” (Line 7). The reader has to figure out the reasons or put the pieces together on their own.
“Theology” is a part of a large body of poems that question religious beliefs without necessarily promoting atheism and the complete absence of religion. The 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson was a key influence on Hughes, and her poetry frequently features speakers questioning the role of religion. Concerning Jesus, her speaker says:
Prove it to me
That He — loved Men —
As I — loved thee — (Dickinson, Emily. “So well that I can live without.” 1862. Poemhunter.com)
The 20th-century American poet Langston Hughes questioned the role of religion in contemporary life with his 1932 poem “Goodbye Christ.” Decades earlier, the French poet Charles Baudelaire regaled the serpent’s powers with his poem “The Litanies of Satan” (1857, trans. A. S. Kline). When it comes to questioning long-held religious beliefs—Christian ones, in particular—“Theology” has company.
Historical Context
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have told stories about the history of humankind and act as the historical backdrop for Hughes’s poem. Hughes wrote “Theology” in historically Christian England. Therefore, it makes sense to think of the poem in the context of the King James Version of the Bible. Chapter Three of Genesis supplies the history that the speaker disputes. The serpent persuades Eve that nothing bad will happen if she eats from the Tree of Knowledge. She eats the fruit and then gives her husband fruit. God punishes them both for their disobedience and expels them from the Garden of Eden. This is the history that Hughes’s speaker believes is “simply / Corruption of the facts” (Line 3-4).
Other historical contexts include the church’s decline and the rise of feminism. In previous centuries, publishing a poem like “Theology” could have led to dire consequences, as people in England were killed for departing from established religious beliefs. From 1553-58, Queen Mary I burned people if they practiced Protestantism instead of Catholicism. The gradual growth of democratic ideals, and the erosion of religious influence, made it possible for works like “Theology” to exist without life-or-death consequences.
The poem also is associated with the arrival of feminism and women’s liberation, which gained momentum in the 1950s and 60s. Although the movement helped turn Sylvia Plath into a celebrated icon and Hughes into a patriarchal adversary, “Theology” arguably incorporates feminist values. It empowers Eve to eat Adam, who is weak and vulnerable, not strong and disciplined.
