In studying Canadian literature one may view the novel as a religious parable. A parable in which the characters act and are in turn acted upon for their sins. In Sinclair Ross' As For Me and My House, the Bentleys are the two main characters who experience this journey. In Morley Callaghans' The Loved and the Lost, Peggy Sanderson, Jim McAlpine, and to a lesser extent Catherine Carver become the means by which the parable is carried out. The parable begins with distinct imagery foreshadowing things to be encountered and feared in passing through the three stages of the religious journey: 1) an act of sin is committed, 2) guilt and emotional remorse is expressed and 3) judgment in the form of salvation or condemnation is executed. Each of the characters mentioned will each have to deal with one or more aspects of this voyage. This essay will seek to illuminate just how the characters make their pilgrimage and in the end how they must be condemned for the path they have chosen

The two novels may first be seen as a religious parables through symbols and imagery given in the text. These symbols in turn shed light on what the characters in the novel will encounter on their metaphysical journey. Often the symbols serve to illustrate the power and finality of condemnation, but, on occasion can become a sort of salvation to be desired. In any event these symbols provide the most descriptive insights about the powers that be and will pronounce their judgments accordingly.

The first of these symbols in As For Me and My House are the False Fronts. These structures are described as flat and vacant giving us our first foreknowledge about the Bentleys. Here the wind is the judgmental force against which the false fronts stand "buckled down in desperation for their lives" (Ross 57). This imagery gives us a sense of the upcoming struggle through which the Bentleys will be subjected.

The second symbol is Mrs. Bentley's garden. In a way the garden is a type of salvation for Mrs. Bentley. She uses as a weapon to fight against the judgmental wind, needs it to occupy her mind, and ultimately give meaning to her life. It is the only mechanism through which she believes she can truly share in her husbands world and thus bring herself nearer to him.

The third symbol is revealed in the imagery and description of the house the Bentley's stay in. At the onset the house is described as having a passive clinging smell that "haunts your nostrils with a vague suggestion of musty shelves, repression and decay" (Ross 18). By comparison to the other homes it is described as being dead and dry in contrast and even kills the joy that Mrs. Bentley gets from playing her piano. In fact, so strong are stifling repressive characters of the house that they take even happy occasions like when Philip gets $40 cash from the church board and turn them into scenes of depression and bitterness and leave Mrs. Bentley asking herself "Did he ever go out like this and bring home forty dollars for you?" (Ross 77).

In The Loved and the Lost the first symbol of the novel as a religious parable is given in the description of the carved leopard. The leopard itself is the embodiment of judgment just like the wind and the house in As For Me and My House. It is described as being "unbelievably fierce and powerful" and has a suggestion of lurking violence that "makes you feel uncertain and watchful" (Callaghan 35-36). Ultimately, it passes sentence and attacks Peggy.

The second symbol in this text is given in the description of the Old Church. The church may be seen as a type of model to be reached for salvation. Its half Gothic, half Romanesque appearance that is light and simple in balance is what Peggy seeks to become and McAlpine tries to understand. However, neither Peggy nor McAlpine ever get the opportunity to transcend themselves to the spiritual level and thus never quite reach that perfect balance.

The last of these symbols is enacted during the hockey game. Here the two distinct worlds through which McAlpine moves are symbolized by the home team and the visiting team. Even from the beginning McAlpine can feel the "sea of faces" (Callaghan 178) of his society rising over both Peggy and himself. Later in the game when the offence has been committed and McAlpine doesn't participate in the persecuting of the culprit, he is accused of being for the visiting team.

In the first stage of any religious parable there must be a sin committed and this holds very much true for the characters of the two text being discussed. For the purposes of this essay the word sin may be defined as being something morally wrong, mentally wrong, and socially wrong. Often the sin is blatant, even to the point of the sinners fully and consciously recognizing their sins, however, in some cases the sin may be much more covert such that not even the sinners themselves have any kind of conscious knowledge of what they are really doing.

The first and most blatant sin is a lustful desire to possess another person. This desire is so strong that it drives the characters to significantly alter their lifestyles as a strategy in desperately trying to carry out their mission. Mrs. Bentley's desire to possess her husband Philip may be compared to McAlpine's desire to possess Peggy. In both cases they objectify the person they love and then seek to dominate, control, and subdue them. In effect, they seek to take the other person's life and conform it to their own. Both Mrs. Bentley and McAlpine openly confess their desire to change their respective loves only after realizing that they have committed a sin in trying to change that person. A sin for which they both will face damnation..

In the case of Mrs. Bentley, so strong is her desire to possess Philip that early on in the novel she tells of how she gave up her dreams of becoming a pianist to devote herself to him, revealing an aspect of self sacrifice on her part. Later on in the novel when Steve arrives, she contemplates just how Steve's little nuances will turn Philip off and give her back the chance to possess him as she says: "All I have to do is wait. Steve's little whistle and the way he taps his feet will be my allies" (Ross 71). However, even Mrs. Bentley reaches the point where she has to admit her crime: "All these years I've been trying to possess him, to absorb his life into mine, and not once has he ever yielded" (Ross 84).

For Jim McAlpine the desire to possess Peggy Sanderson begins in his mind. In the midst of everyone else condemning Peggy, McAlpine feels that he has been "called to be by Peggy's side" (Callaghan 108) and ultimately to lead her away from the 'sinful' life she lives. When she allows him to use her apartment to write his columns for the Sun he admits in his feeling of exultance that now that he had 'wormed' his way into her room he would seek to 'worm' his way into the rest of her world and make it his own. He even reaches the point where he criticizes Peggy for not having the sense to let him take her to an orderly life and so begins to scheme in his mind of how to break down her resistance. Seeing how this isn't having much of an effect he begins to think that may be his own shortcomings are what are hindering her to be possessed by him and says: "If only [I] could climb those stairs, everything would be all right. Peggy. . .would quit her wandering. She would turn to [me]" (Callaghan 189). The more he tries to possess Peggy the more jealous he gets of her affections and even goes so far as to express a jealous craving for all of her little moments of affection with others. But in the end, he too, like Mrs. Bentley, must acknowledge his sin in trying to change Peggy and admits that he just couldn't accept her the way she was.

The desire to possess and change people's lives is not exclusively limited to Mrs. Bentley and McAlpine though. On a smaller and less obvious scale this sin may be readily seen in Philip Bentleys desire to possess Steve by giving in to his every wish, particularly Steve's desire to have a horse, and win over his affections. This may be compared to Catherines desire to possess McAlpine as she longs to sweep away his St. Antoine life and even goes to the point of thinking: "and yet any fool could see that [I]. . .could do more for him in one hour than such a low brow crew could do in six years" (Callaghan 185). As she realizes that their is some secret in particular which McAlpine won't reveal to her she begins to desire to possess that too so she can deal with and set him straight again.

The second moral sin committed by the characters of the two novels involves using other characters for their own personal benefit. The best two examples of this are exemplified by Mrs. Bentleys using Steve, and McAlpine using Catherine. As in the first two examples of desiring to possess, the sinners have full knowledge of their wrong doings. Both characters employ a conscious sense of deceit for which they both must pay the consequences later on.

Mrs. Bentley uses Steve as a pawn to assert her power over Philip. In the scene after they invite Paul and Steve over for dinner she plays the piano "brilliantly, vindictively, determined to let Philip see how easily if [she] wanted to [she] could take the boy away from him" (Ross 63). Later on in the text she deliberately holds dinner until Steve gets home in order to avoid eating with Philip and makes a note of how Steve is really only useful in that sense. In a similar way McAlpine uses Catherine as an emotional sponge to block out thoughts of Peggy. For him his relationship with Catherine has become false and useful only as a superficial shield against feelings that he would rather not deal with.

The next category of sins falls under being mentally wrong. As in the first case of the morally wrong sins, the sinners are aware of their wrong doings, however, the sinners do not necessarily have to come to any kind of full and completely conscious knowledge. These sins involve losing hope and faith in the other person which inevitably leads to either a physical, mental or spiritual betrayal.

Mrs. Bentley's lack of faith in her husband can be directly compared to McAlpine lack of faith in Peggy. In both cases both Mrs. Bentley and McAlpine doubt whether the person for whom they are so fond of can successfully function without them in their lives. There are doubts expressed and acted upon and a clear air lacking any real meaningful trusts becomes apparent.

For Mrs. Bentley this lack of faith comes in her authoritative and completely unsubmissive actions over Philip. During the scene at the church board meeting and in the midst of everyone vehemently objecting to their adoption of Steve, Philip is right on the verge of telling them off when Mrs. Bentley steps in and takes over. Even she knows that she should have let him tell them off, but, her lack of faith in how her husband will respond prompts her to interrupt him. After Philip writes the delinquent churches for monies due so they can support Steve, Mrs. Bentley becomes bitter and further reveals her lack of faith in her husbands character by saying: "I call him a hypocrite. . .and a poor contemptible coward" (Ross 113). But perhaps the best illustration of just how little faith she has in Philip is revealed when she loses her temper about the heater and says: "Why can't you take hold and do things like other men?" (Ross 175) and thus belittles his masculinity in the process.

In the case of McAlpine, he raises doubts in his mind as to Peggy's chastity almost immediately after she only passively rejects him, and wonders whether she would even resist another man who wasn't put off by her passiveness. The more he sees Peggy interacting with other men the more he begins to wonder as to whether Peggy would rebuke their desire to possess her "unspoiled freshness" (Callaghan 62) as he himself wanted to. As he becomes more and more frustrated in trying to understand just why Peggy is so affectionate toward everyone, he even begins to doubt the true nature of her affections and thinks that perhaps she is attracted perversely to violence. His mounting lack of faith in Peggy leads him to deny her existence to Catherine. This in turn causes him to abandon any hope he has in Peggy as he symbolically draws away from her in the face of the charging white horses. In the end he realizes indeed that it was his jealous doubt in her that caused his faith to weaken and lose his view of her.

The last category deals with that of on a social level. Here the sin involves violating the constraints of established roles. These roles should be first recognized as being static and unchanging. It should also be pointed out that these roles are viewed as being highly idealistic. The fact that the characters in the novels bend and twist them into distortion will become the justification for their condemnation that comes later on in the novel.

Mrs. Bentley violates first her role as a preachers wife by showing her lack of love for Steve. Even before they adopt Steve, Mrs. Bentley already blames his presence for Philip more blunt attitude in resisting her. At the prospect of adopting Steve for life Mrs. Bentley's only concern is of how it will help her to possess Philip and nothing for the boy. Later on when Steve has been there for some time and she realizes that he hasn't helped to draw Philip any closer to her, she plainly admits her lack of love for him by saying: "So far his coming hasn't made much of a difference" (Ross 83). Even after she realizes that Steve loves her more than Philip she confesses her incapacity to love him and at best can only give him "a twisted hybrid love" (Ross 146).

In addition to her lack of love towards Steve, Mrs. Bentley further violates her role by her malice and despisement of Judith, Mrs. Finley and the baby. In the case of Judith this hatred is shown in her callous reaction to Judith's death as she reveals that it was what she was secretly hoping for anyway. For Mrs. Finley she wishes from the bottom of her heart that all of El Greco's fleas would bite her. Even Philip own progeny, to whom she is to be mother, can't escape her harsh affections as she first dehumanizes him into the equivalent of something like a new pet when she hopes, "Maybe it will be a good baby" (Ross 211). When the baby is born she goes on to describe him as "tiny", "wrinkled", "ugly", and "red" (Ross 211).

In contrast to Mrs. Bentley, Peggy Sanderson violates her role as an educated white woman by being too affectionate. Early on in the text she tells McAlpine about having seen Jock naked and realizes what 'true' beauty is. It is this event in her life, that allows her to redefine her entire perception of Negroes and act accordingly in her interactions with the people in St. Antoine. In talking with McAlpine, Foley confirms her interest in Negroes. Wagstaffe again confirms her undiscriminating affection and even goes to so far as to say that she is too full of love and exhibits the all encompassing love of a child not that of a woman.

Philip violates his role as a husband by exhibiting his lack of love for his wife. The first instance comes after they take a walk together in the snowstorm and gets a cold. After the local town women bring him some soup that only makes him feel worse he is inclined to blame the soup and his wife for his condition. The second instance comes when Paul first mentions the boy Steve and Philip immediately lapses into a moment of pure hatred for his wife because her barrenness and the son she had not given him. Later when they've adopted Steve Philip makes it quite clear to his wife that he would rather be with Steve more than her and even resents suggestions she has about the childs best welfare. On the occasion when his wife is sick he only goes out to buy sanitary tissues for "aesthetic" (Ross 158) reasons. And even during her time of sickness he shows only an "impersonal kindness" (Ross 179). Lastly, all throughout the novel we find Philip constantly retreating to his study just so he won't have to spend any more time than necessary with his wife.

In a similar way, McAlpine also violates his role about how he should conduct himself as an educated white man. The first instance of this comes when he begins to make minor mistakes and violates Ritz protocol by taking his laundry to the wrong desk. As he begins to spend more and more time with in Peggy's world he breaks the invisible curfew of his society as the elevators man's disapproving eyes tell him. At Angela Murdocks party he further violates social etiquette by eating and drinking too much and most notably by his imprudent, sardonic remark to his boss about education being the "white man's burden" (Callaghan 125).

The second stage in the religious parable is when the characters experience guilt for their sins. This guilt is the basis for which the individual characters are given the opportunity to prepare themselves for judgment. In some cases the guilt is fully conscious while in other cases the guilt takes a more subliminal form. Ideally by acknowledging the guilt they feel the characters will in turn be motivated to change and offer atonement for their sins. However, whether they are receptive to their own conscience or not will not prevent them for having to pay for the wrongs they have done.

Both Mrs. Bentley and McAlpine experience a sense of guilt from their interactions with their loves Philip and Peggy, respectively. In each case the real guilt stems from an aspect of how they treat the one love they so desire to possess. For Mrs. Bentley, this comes about chiefly as a result of seeing what her desire has driven Philip to. For McAlpine, the guilt comes from his loss of faith in Peggy on two separate occasions. Realizing their sins they are moved to emotional remorse at the prospect of what consequences could or have taken place because of their actions.

After recognizing that she has driven Philip to be what he is, Mrs. Bentley is moved to emotional regret about what she has done: "He ought to have had the opportunity to live, to be reckless, spendthrift, bawdy, anything but what he is, what I've made him" (Ross 136). She also realizes that it is because of her that Philip has been the Callaghanhurch for the last twelve years and thus feels obligated to help him escape. Towards the end of the novel after Philip has committed adultery with Judith, Mrs. Bentley even starts to feel guilt because deep down in her heart she knows that Philip was seeking the one kind of love she could never provide in her zeal to control him.

In a similar way, McAlpine is driven to the same kind emotional remorse from his denial of Peggys existence to Angela Murdocks during the party. He then realizes that by denying Peggy he is in fact denying an integral part of himself as will be revealed later on when he faces damnation for his sins. The second instance of guilt comes from leaving Peggy the night after the bar fight. Due to his doubt as to whether she could ever be possessed by him he leaves her only to find out that next day that it was his lost of faith that ultimately lead to her death.

There is also guilt experienced from characters using one another for their own selfish purposes. This guilt is recognized by the characters perpetrating it, often leaving them feeling uncomfortable about such a revelation of their faults. The sense of guilt they experience is a prelude to the consequences they will face.

In the case of Mrs. Bentley using Steve this leads her to have uncontrollable paradoxical feelings about him: "I can't help it. I like Steve, and at the same time I resent him" (Ross 69). As Steve draws closer and closer to Mrs. Bentley her deceit in befriending him becomes disconcertingly obvious to her: "It makes me a little uneasy, the way we get along so well together. I have a guilty feeling that our friendship is rapidly becoming a conspiracy" (Ross 95). In a similar way, McAlpine is shaken by how false his relationship is with Catherine when he lies about having been with Peggy.
In addition, there is the guilt of individual characters from the novels for the various sins hey have committed. This guilt ranges from being painfully obvious in the individuals life to being hidden and unwilling to even be acknowledged. All the same the characters are forced to confront the knowledge of their sins if only for a few brief minutes and may thus be called to accountability later on.

Mr. Bentley feels guilty for his hypocrisy in preaching religion. Early on in the text Mrs. Bentley reveals to us that of how years ago Philip made a compromise with his conscience and his ideals. Later on while they're on vacation and Philip resumes his painting Mrs. Bentley notes that his art is still pretty good in spite of the fact that "he's all shrivelled up inside with the guilt of his hypocrisy" (Ross 183).

Philip Bentley also feels guilt for having an affair with Judith. When he accuses his wife of being unfaithful in her thoughts of Paul, Mrs. Bentley can only speculate that a guilt deeper than his own consciousness must be driving him to find her guilty too. She goes on to reveal to us that his own verdict of 'guilty' has come up between them to form an insurmountable barrier. It is this same barrier that a little later, on prevents him from being able to speak to his wife.

Similarly, Peggy Sanderson feels guilt about the type of life that she lives. In her conversation with McAlpine as she is lapsing into nostalgia about her college days, McAlpine detects the doubt in her voice about the kind of life she is leading. However, it is important to note that this the only noticeable form of guilt that Peggy ever experiences throughout the text. As we shall see later on in this essay the lack of guilt for her numerous sins is what brings such strong condemnation on her.

The final stage of the religious parable is judgment and damnation. Often closely parallelling the guilt characters feel because of their sins, they are now forced to come to grips with the type of reality that they themselves have brought. In both novels it is absolutely essential that the characters in some way be punished for their sins and thus complete the final step in seeing the text as a religious parable. The very first aspect we shall look at is how characters are punished for their most blatant and defiling sin; the lust to possess another

For all her efforts to possess Philip Mrs. Bentley will never really possess him or know his true self. Even as she expresses her lustful desire to completely dominate him she knows that he will never yield himself to her. When Philip accuses her of always having Paul on her mind she realizes that he is not the Philip she thought she knew. In fact, such is her shock in realizing this that she is left feeling like "a fool. . .credulous and blind" (Ross 177). With this detrimental knowledge revealed she can only pretend to know him or even herself from then on and ultimately, the result of her zealous desire to possess him will never be any more than just that, a desire, with serious "doubt [as to] whether [she] can make up for the rest" (Ross 185).

In direct comparison, McAlpine will never be able to possess Peggy. The remorse he feels at his denial of Peggy's existence will forever haunt him, as evident by the continual breaking of the dream he has to save Peggy. Later in the text, after he realizes just how much he loves Peggy he also comes to the realization that if he can't possess all of her love than his own life will become meaningless. This realization comes to passing when he concludes that "despite all the eating and drinking and talking he was convinced that the tenderness and affection he evoked in her meant no more than response to the fur-capped sleigh driver. . ." (Callaghan 192-193).

In a very similar way Catherine has also been condemned in that she will never possess McAlpine. As McAlpine becomes involved deeper and deeper in Peggy's world, Catherine realizes that he has been taken from her. She then begins to feel the pain of what their relationship has really meant to him; one of selfish use, leaving her feeling "unclean" (Callaghan 238). But the real damnation for her sins comes from knowing the whole story of just how much Peggy meant to McAlpine and of then realizing that she will never receive that kind of love in her life.

Judgement and damnation can also be delivered in the form of lost hope and dreams. For Mrs. Bentley this is revealed in her evident realization that she is a failure in life, the wife of a small town preacher instead of what she had set out to be. In Philip Bentley's case he has failed in both his life and his aspirations. After his book fails his world of expression and beauty crumples in and he must take up his cross as a hypocritical preacher instead of the artist he so longed to be. Likewise, Catherine also comes to the same realization that after a lousy marriage and the lost of McAlpine she will be forever doomed to suffer "one lost triumph after another" (Callaghan 185) and there will never be anything but emptiness inside her heart and mind.

One aspect of mental condemnation is that neither Mrs. Bentley nor Peggy will ever have a very meaningful life. They will continue to suffer at the hand of those for whom they sin against, condemned to live in emotional torment. Although both women struggle to defy the consequences of their social and moral sins, ultimately, they must always live with the damnation they have brought upon themselves.

For Mrs. Bentley the first example of this emotional stress manifest itself with the introduction of Steve and thus, begins the cycle of feeling threatened and vulnerable. When Judith comes into the picture her feelings go from being just vaguely threatened to outright fear that someone will take away her Philip. As this fear reaches a level of paranoia through her many denials that Judith actually means something to Philip, she comes to the realization that she is the "one who's never grown up, who can't see life for illusions" (Ross 164). Faced with the actuality of what she is forever condemned to be, she begins to dread the upcoming days and is left feeling as if she "were slowly turning to lead" (Ross 184).

In the case of Peggy Sanderson the emotional duress comes from realizing that people will never respect her for who she is. After Malone storms out on her when upon walking home they find McAlpine waiting in her room, she becomes incensed at his "phony understanding", "stupid vanity", and "wretched arrogance" (Callaghan 131). Her frustration further continues when she tells McAlpine a little later on that simply because she has her own notion of integrity everyone wants take a crack at her. As she continues to perpetrate her societal sins she again becomes frustrated at the realization that people will never really care what she thinks about all the fuss over her. Ultimately she will be forever condemned to live in a state of bewilderment just like the scene after she is exiled from the bar.

Condemnation can also take place on a more personal level, that of a persons character. In one case the persons character will forever be attacked, maligned and disgraced, while in the other case the persons character will be reduced to a mere inkling of its former self, to always be needing another for its very survival. Such is the case for Peggy Sanderson and Mrs. Bentley as they endure the consequences of their respective sins.

For Peggy, these attacks on her character come in the form of accusations and verbal assaults. Foley initially accuses her of loving to have sex with Negroes, an accusation which Wagstaffe further supports by accusing Peggy of being like a flower "sweet and round and eager. . .just waiting to be picked" (Callaghan 99). In the bar fight she is accused of being the one who starts all the trouble in the first place. In addition to this, Peggy is also vehemently hated to the point of being threatened by violence by Wolgast, Malone, and the Negro wives. In a more broad sense, society in general verbally slanders and holds a grudge against Peggy Sanderson.

In stark contrast, Mrs. Bentley's character is condemned to always need Philip. Even after he cheats on her she tells us that he is essentially her compass and that she has no direction to her life with out him. When the baby arrives she views him as a stranger that will only serve to remind her of how much she will go on needing Philip. But perhaps the best description of the utter brokenness of her spirit is revealed to us as she realizes that she will never be as strong as used to be: "I haven't roots of my own anymore. I'm a fungus or parasite whose life depends on his [Philips]. He throws me off and I dry and whither. My pride's gone" (Ross 199)

The final form of condemnation for one's sins takes place in the form of disillusionment. As one becomes aware of the moral and mental wrongs inflicted a type of disenchantment with the way he perceives life begins to occupy the characters mind. For Philip Bentley and McAlpine these consequences only serve to remind them of the meaninglessness, unfulfilled lives they lead.

Philip Bentley pays for his sin of hypocrisy with an overbearing stifling sort of disillusionment in his life. As Mrs. Bentley sheds the light for us we see just how his constant sense of deceit has been destroying his will and sapping away his energy, in effect, destroying his self respect and initiative to ever break out of his bovine existence. This is again confirmed by his wife as "the same vicious cycle, every year closing a little tighter"(Ross 112). It is this cycle to which Philip will be perpetually damned to always exist until there is nothing left of him to sap away.

In a similar way McAlpine suffers this disillusionment when he succumbs to societal beliefs about Peggy following the bar room fight. As revealed earlier it was his jealous doubt that allowed him to lose faith and so now he is likened unto a state of confusion. It is this state of confusion that will be the ultimate damning force for his lifetime, to wander aimlessly, always confused, always tormented; trying to find that little church of balance for his life.

Having had judgement pronounced for their sins the characters have now completed their pilgrimage. They began by first committing shameful acts of sin against those for whom they claimed to love the most. These sins encompassed moral, mental, and social trespasses, and were in some cases with the full and conscious knowledge of the perpetrator. Next, their was a brief period of guilt for which they had a slight opportunity to reconcile themselves and find a temporary moment of rest in knowing they had committed the sins they did and prepare themselves accordingly. But, it is the last stage, judgement and subsequent damnation, that will have a lasting effect on the very purpose and meaning of their lives. Now each character must forever live with the wraith of consequences they have brought upon themselves. The court is now closed and the powers that be have dispensed the measure of justice deserved. The only question that remains is: 'What can we learn from all of this?' which in effect, is the true purpose of this or any other parable in life.