The Seventh Seal

I enjoyed The Seventh Seal more than most of the movies we’ve watched in class, but I’m not entirely sure that’s not just because it was Swedish… ☺. It had an unusual plot, and I found the characters interesting. I especially liked the family of actors. They had such a sweet relationship with one another and their child, and were a small bit of light in a very dark country. I was really saddened by the terror going on in the country because of the plague, and horrified by the parade of Christians who walked around with crosses and incense, flagellating themselves.

All of the characters were very different from each other, but I think the knight and the actors offer particularly good comparisons. We described the actors as people with true or simple faith. Normally, I think the term “simple faith” comes with negative connotations, but I don’t think that’s right. The knight, on the other hand, was really struggling with his belief in God. He had become disillusioned during his years in the crusade and wasn’t satisfied.

I found two of his lines really interesting:

“It is so hard to believe God with your senses. I want knowledge, not belief. I want to see His face.”

“To believe is to suffer… it’s like loving someone in the dark who never answers.”

He wanted to experience God and struggled with his belief. His pain is obvious and it too saddened me. He wanted to believe, but did feel he could. The actor, on the other hand, seemed to have the experience and faith the knight wanted. He believed he actually “saw” Mary and Jesus and held firmly to his faith.

I don’t think the knight’s desire for knowledge instead of belief is inherently wrong… it’s important to think logically about your faith… however I was reminded of Jesus’ words about the necessity of “faith like a child” to enter the kingdom of heaven and I wondered which was to be valued more, the simple faith of the actor or the deep contemplation of the knight.

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