REBELLION AND DISOBEDIENCE 3 2 3

an apple fall from a tree in a garden, which inspired him to begin formulating the law of gravitation.

Rebellion and Disobedience

This theme deals chiefly with historical episodes of rebellion and mutiny

and with other examples, especially from the Bible, of disobedience shown

to authority. Prometheus is the embodiment par excellence of rebellious-

ness, he who would defy the gods. • See also Conformity Nonconform-

ity.

Absalom In the Bible, Absalom was the third son of King David. He killed David's oldest son, Amnon, and later raised an army and rose against his father, chasing David out of Jerusalem. In the subsequent battle, David ordered his men to 'deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom' (2 Sam. 18: 5), but his commander, Joab, ignored this command and slew Absalom. On hearing of the death of his son, David wept, '0 my son, Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom, my son, my son!' (2 Sam. 18: 33). Absalom is alluded to as the ultimate rebellious son.

In Dryden's satire Absalom and Achitophel, the character of Absalom represents the duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of Charles II who led a rebellion against James II in 1685. •See special entry • DAVID on p. 90.

Sometimes, the worthy gentleman would reprove my mother for being overindulgent to her sons, with a reference to old Eli, or David and Absalom, which was particularly galling to her feelings.

ANNE BRONTË The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, 1848

'This business of love between father and son sounds like something in the Bible.' 'The patterns of human feeling do not change as much as many people suppose. King David's estimate of his rebellious son Absalom was certainly in masculine terms. But I suppose you recall David's lament when Absalom was slain?' 'I have been called Absalom before, and it isn't a comparison I like!

ROBERTSON DAviES The Manticore, 1972

Adam and Eve The Book of Genesis in the Bible relates how Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. Eve ate first, tempted by the Serpent, and she in turn tempted Adam to eat. As a result of this disobedience they were banished from the Garden of Eden. •See special entry • on p. 5.

Bastille The Bastille was a fortress in Paris, built as a royal castle by Charles V, and completed in 1383. Used as a prison in the 17th and 18th centuries, it became a symbol of repression. It was stormed and sacked by the Parisian mob in 1789 on 14 July, now Bastille Day, marking the beginning of the French Revolution.

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Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party is the name given to a violent demonstration by American colonists in 1773, prior to the War of American Independence. As a protest against the imposition of a tax on tea by the British parliament, in which they had no representation, the colonists dressed as American Indians, boarded three British ships moored in the harbour of Boston, Massachusetts, and threw overboard their cargo of tea.

Bounty The Bounty was a British navy ship which, in 1789, was bound from Tahiti to the Cape of Good Hope and the West Indies under the command of Captain Bligh. Some members of the crew, led by Fletcher Christian, mutinied and set the captain and eighteen companions adrift in an open boat. The mutineers returned to Tahiti and from there some of them went on to Pitcairn Island, where they formed a colony. Bligh and his companions managed to reach Timor in the East Indies, nearly 4,000 miles away. The episode was popularized by two films, made in 1935 and 1962, both called The Mutiny on the Bounty.

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) was the English general who led the parliamentary forces, or Roundheads, against Charles I in the English Civil War. After the Roundhead victory, Cromwell helped to arrange the trial and execution of Charles I and set up a republican government. He can be alluded to as an anti-royalist revolutionary.

The pity of it is, I hear such stuff from my peers. Elegant ideas for a social re-ordering. Pleasing plans for a community of reason. And Louis is weak. Let him give an inch, and some Cromwell will appear. It'll end in revolution. And that'll be no tea party.

HILARY MANTEL A Place of Greater Safety, 1992

Daniel The Old Testament Book of Daniel relates how King Darius appointed Daniel as sole administrator over all the other presidents and princes. In an attempt to bring about Daniel's downfall, they asked the king to establish a decree saying that for thirty days no one should pray to any God or man except the king. Daniel ignored this command and 'his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime' (Dan. 6: TO).

As a result of this disobedience, Daniel was cast into the lions' den. VSee special entry • DANIEL on p. 86.

Boldwood's had begun to be a troublesome image—a species of Daniel in her kingdom who persisted in kneeling eastward when reason and common sense said that he might just as well follow suit with the rest.

THOMAS HARDY Far from the Madding Crowd, 1874

Guy Fawkes Guy Fawkes (15 70-1606) was a Catholic extremist who, with a small group of colleagues, was involved in the Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to blow up James I and his parliament on 5 November 1605. After being discovered in the cellar of the House of Lords with barrels of gunpowder, Fawkes, together with seven of his co-conspirators, was tried and executed. Guy Fawkes is alluded to as a clever schemer or secret conspirator, and the Gunpowder Plot as an unsuccessful attempt to remove someone from power.

Missis was, she dared say, glad enough to get rid of such a tiresome, ill-conditioned child, who always looked as if she were watching everybody, and scheming plots underhand. Abbot, I think, gave me credit for being a sort of infantile Guy Fawkes. CHARLOTTE BRONTE Jane Eyre, 1847

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He went forward, tiptoeing down the stairs more conspiratorially than ever—Guy Fawkes discovered, but yet irrationally hoping that he might escape notice by acting as though the Gunpowder Plot were still unrolling itself according to plan.

ALDOUS HUXLEY Point Counter Point, 1928

He'd have called in the Dean, the Treasurer, the Seneschal and these other fellows in the Cathedral, and they'd have put the Box in the Cathedral treasure vaults. And you know what kind of vaults those are: Guy Fawkes and his powder wouldn't get through those, as we know from bitter experience.

JOHN MASEFIELD The Box of Delights, 1935

Gunpowder Plot • See GUY FAWKES.

Robin Hood Robin Hood, the legendary English medieval outlaw, rebelled against the harsh government and high taxation of his time, robbing the rich to help the poor.

Lula repeated the word. Vigilante! 'Someone who takes the law into his own hands,' I said. 'Hunh. I guess I know what it means. You're telling me Mo is like Zorro and Robin Hood!

JANET EVANOVICH Three to Get Deadly, 1997

Lucifer • SeesATAN.

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a demigod, one of the Titans, seen in many legends as the champion of humankind against the gods. When Zeus withheld fire from men, Prometheus responded by going to Olympus himself and stealing some fire, which he gave to men. He also improved their lives by teaching them arts and sciences. To avenge himself on men, Zeus bade Hephaestus make a clay woman, Pandora, who brought to earth all the evils and diseases that have since plagued man. To punish Prometheus for his disobedience to the gods, Zeus had him chained to a rock, where each day an eagle tore out his liver, which grew again each night. He was eventually rescued by Hercules, who shot the eagle with his bow and arrow. Prometheus is the archetype of the courageous rebel who dares to challenge the power of the gods and of fate. • See special entry • PROMETHEUS on p. 311.

Moreover to light a fire is the instinctive and resistand act of man when, at the winter ingress, the curfew is sounded throughout Nature. It indicates a spontaneous, Promethean rebelliousness against the fiat that this recurrent season shall bring foul times, cold darkness, misery and death.

THOMAS HARDY The Return of the Native, 1880

She sees the victimized character. She sees one long set of attacks on him. She would never take account of the self-inflicted wrong—the chap who breaks his own arm to avoid going back to school, then says some big bully has done it for him; the chap who lashes himself to his bedroom chair so as not to have to go and cope with the burglar—oh, she'd think he was Prometheus.

ELIZABETH BOWEN The Death of the West, 1938

He remembered Holy Week in the old days when a stuffed Judas was hanged from the belfry and boys made a clatter with tins and rattles as he swung out over the door. Old staid members of the congregation had sometimes raised objections: it was blasphemous, they said, to make this guy out of Our Lord's betrayer; but . . . it seemed to him a good thing that the world's traitor should be made a figure of fun.