Review+of+Rabelais'+Abbey

Christianity has provided people with the opportunity to flee society and find happiness in God by giving hope to man's ephemeral existence. Devout Christians entered monastic orders to dedicate their life to the cause of Christianity. Rabelais creates his ideal imaginary monastery, The Abbey of Theleme, in which the Thelemites have absolute liberty and absolute morality.

Upon entering a traditional monastic order, monks and nuns pledge to devote their life to God by making an eternal pact of chastity, poverty, and obedience. Rabelais thinks that making a pact of chastity, poverty, and obedience, is irrelevant to successfully serving the Lord: "in this convent the Thelemites might be honorably married, that they might be rich, and live at liberty" (95). In his Abbey, Rabelais upholds individual liberty above all else. If God advocates and consecrates marriage, why should two people not be able to join together in holy matrimony? Rabelais believes as the Romantics believe, people are inherently good in their natural state, implying that if people are immersed in absolute liberty, they will always make moral decisions. Contrary to Rabelais' belief, humans do not make moral decisions because they are born in nature free from corruption, but rather because society impresses morals upon the individuals of society which leads them into making moral decisions.

Rabelais emphasizes one clause that encapsulates the liberty of the entire society: "DO AS THOU WOULDST" (98). The Thelemites do as they choose: "they did eat, drink, labor, sleep, when they had a mind to it" (97). Why would an individual choose to labor and be productive when they have the option to eat, drink, and sleep instead. If there is a society in which all citizens can choose how they want to allocate their time with no consequence, then there is no incentive to be productive. If each member of the community is unproductive with their time and there is no food, clothing, or other bare necessities being produced, then the Abbey would be disfunctional and collapse. People should have absolute liberty, but having absolute freedom requires a lot of responsibility.

The Abbey of Theleme accepts both women and men because according to Rabelais, this keeps monks and/or nuns contriving to sneak the opposite sex into the Abbey. Yet by saying that people would deceive each other to appease their sexual appetite contradicts Rabelais" previous statement, "Men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them into virtuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honor" (98). If mankind is naturally virtuous and honest, then neither sex would deceive its community in the first place if given the opportunity.

Rabelais' ideal Abbey can only be feasible if man is innately good. The entire plan for the Abbey of Theleme rests upon the fact that people will volunteer to serve the community at the expense of their personal comfort. Absolute liberty and absolute morality is only palpable if there are responsible citizens that want to better their society.

Posted by Big Brother