Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

and even then the speaker never reveals what he is asking God to take from him if not his chastity or
virginity. No matter what definition of the word is used, the meaning is contradictory.
Because of these conflicting commands, it is never clear what the speaker wants from God. And as
Jacques Derrida stated, there are opposing value systems at work in all of Western thought (Bressler 121).
These binary oppositions are formed by the belief that “one concept is superior and defines itself by its
opposite or inferior center” (Bressler 121). Consequently, “one element will always be privileged (be in a
superior position) and the other unprivileged” (Bressler 121). The main binary opposition at work in his
petitions is free/enslaved. He asks God to incarcerate him, to take away his choices in order to be free. He
seems to request that God make Him free to love Him by removing his free will, or choice. But real love is
always a voluntary action. It cannot be forced. Therefore, it makes sense to say that the speaker is really
asking God to make him His slave because he feels he can never really love God. So the binary opposition is
reversed to enslaved/free. Because of this, it is uncertain whether the speaker is actually asking God to give
him the ability to love Him and whether he thinks it possible to love the Lord.
The other obvious contradiction in the poem occurs when the speaker tells God, “Yet dearly I love
You, and would be loved fain. / But am betrothed unto Your enemy” (lines 9-10). This statement presents
a conflicting portrait of the speaker’s character. With it, he claims to be both a Christian believer and a
lover of Satan, or the Devil, God’s enemy. In fact, the Biblical name Satan literally means “adversary”
(“Satan”). He says that he loves God and the Devil. That cannot be true. If the speaker is a Christian allied to
God, then he cannot claim to be devoted to the Devil. The Bible makes it clear that Christians cannot
follow Satan and still be saved. Jesus said, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather
with me scatters” (NIV Matt. 12:30) as well as “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me” (NIV John 14:6). When a person is controlled by the Devil he or she is
clearly against God and cannot claim fellowship with the Lord. It makes no sense that a speaker who
describes himself as so closely allied with Satan would still pray to God. Therefore the speaker’s true
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