On another thread, ltroifanatic asked a good question.
ltroifanatic wrote:Raises an interesting question. Would Eli still believe in God? If she does then she would assume that even when she dies she'll go to hell. Poor darling. She can't escape, even in death.
The language that the characters use in
Set Me as a Seal upon Your Heart is more about the residual effects of centuries of Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox domination of European societies than it is about current beliefs. We all use exclamations and turns of phrase that sound religious.
But do Mr. Ávila or Professor Grigore mean it literally when they utter, "Thank God?" Or does Eli really think about the choice of words when she says of her and Oskar, "We are demons from hell. No one can love us or even feel safe around us?"
If pressed for an answer, I think it would be hard for Eli to explain her religious concepts. They were indoctrinated into the child in a century when just about everyone in Sweden was a believer. While Sweden moved into an age of enlightenment, little Eli (or Elias, if you prefer) was living in huts, abandoned buildings, or earthen dens. At any rate, her residual beliefs would be simplistic, childlike.
And yet, she expressed that she is "cursed," which implies at least a supernatural sense of the world. Or an exposure to a worldview that includes sin and some kind of damnation.
So the narrator doesn't know the answer to your question. He's just running after the characters and writing down what they see and say.
And yet the narrator uses religious language and references to enrich the narrative -- starting with the title -- in the same way that he raids literature, movies, plays, and Roadrunner cartoons. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Conan Doyle, "Inspector Morse." Professor Grigore is a lot like "Doc Martin" in his bumbling courtship of Sassa. Denise's inner dialogue is patterned after lower class locutions from Agatha Christie. And the narrator confesses to stealing (Ahem. I mean "paying homage to") so many great fan fictions that are on our forum. And readers of "Set Me as a Seal" have contributed whole paragraphs, included verbatim, such as "holding sweaty little hands." Much of the two parts leading up to Christmas were jointly crafted by the narrator and a forum member.
Any way, it's the somewhat tragic story of young love, told (with a lot of help) the best way that I could.