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The Catholic Influences Of Jorge Luis Borges The Immortal

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The Catholic Influences of Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Immortal” "The Immortal" is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges that follows the life of a Roman imperial tribune named Marcus Flaminius Rufus, who is cursed with immortality. Despite infinite time to derive purpose, Flavius struggles to find meaning in his existence. Flavius eventually desires to return to his mortal state. Through his encounters with other immortals and a timeless journey, Rufus comes to realize the importance of mortality and resolves himself to seek out his inevitable death. Borges touches on themes of mortality, time, and purpose in this thought-provoking story. Jorge Luis Borges' "The Immortal" explores the fundamental reality of human mortality and its implications on the human condition through Marcus Flaminius Rufus, an immortal character whose sense of meaninglessness contrasts the importance of mortality. The story's purpose can be greatly enhanced by drawing parallels from Catholic theology through the scripture of the Gospels and "Dante's Inferno" by Dante Alighieri. Marcus Flaminius Rufus, the protagonist of "The Immortal", is cursed with immortality. He is born in Rome during the reign of Emperor Tiberius around 200 CE. Once he gains immortality, he lives for centuries but remains trapped in his mortality. Flavius describes immortal …show more content…

Limbo is a fairly pleasant region of Hell reserved for righteous pagans or those that were never saved but never committed a grave sin. This serves as a sort of middle-ground afterlife between the good that is in Heaven and the evil that is in Hell, but still resides within Hell geographically. Those in Limbo remain in Limbo for eternity, similar to those on Earth that might receive immortality. The only punishment for those sent to Limbo is the soul's deprivation of God and Heaven. Virgil in Dante’s “Inferno” is acts much like Rufus in that he provides insight in to the world of Limbo

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Limbo is the first level of hell and does not have as harsh of punishment as other levels do. In this level, those that remain "cannot come into the light of God, but they are therefore, not tormented. Their only pain is that they have no hope." (Dante 25) Thutmose could belong here because he lived before the time of Christ, believing

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“We? You were alive back then?” Asked Andresophotheus, with an enigmatical expression on his face. “We are immortal.” “Umm, awhatawhat?”

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In the story “Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy,” Stanislaw Lem presented an obsessive professor Decantor, who had invented the soul, a chance to live in eternity, and was trying to pursue Mr. Tichy to invest in him. The professor believed that everything he was doing for the mankind’s and it was right to do so even if it required killing someone. In his development of the soul, he had spent forty-eight years of his life, spent all of his money, and even killed his wife, but still, he didn’t feel that he was wrong. According to him, by killing his wife, he gave her “eternal life” (60).

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In Plato’s dialogue Phaedo, he explains the soul and comes to the conclusion that the soul is immortal. Through describing the last hours of Socrates life before his execution, he lays out three arguments in support of the idea that while the body may cease to exist the soul cannot perish. In this paper, I will explicate Socrates three arguments for the immortality of the soul and their objections. Then I will argue on the presupposition of the Law of Conservation of Mass, that the universe, entailing the soul, must be cyclical. The Law of Conservation of Mass

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Yet, the Christian concept of Limbo present another problem. There were righteous souls that had lived before the creation of Christianity, like Noah and Abraham. The suave Dante alludes to the harrowing of Hell in lines 31-63 of Canto IV. There, Virgil tells Dante, the pilgrim, that he witnessed Jesus saving those righteous soul worthy of salvation.

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Unfortunately, Dante’s journey transitions from the wood into the depths of Hell where he and readers discover the Christian view of sin, repentance, and the need for a savior. The author introduces his readers to Jesus Christ during Virgil and Dante’s conversation about the lost souls in Limbo. In the First Circle of Hell, known as Limbo, the lost souls that did not have an opportunity to meet Jesus Christ dwell in this place. Although they did not sin, they did not have a proper relationship with God through Jesus Christ. However, Virgil testifies about Jesus’ decision into Hell when he says, “ I saw a mighty lord descend to us…

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In The Aleph, Jorge Luis Borges tells the story of Carlos Argentino Daneri, a mediocre poet on a quest to create a masterpiece- a poem that describes in detail all the places in the world. Upon receiving the news that his house will be demolished, Daneri is enraged. He confesses to the narrator that he needs the house to finish his poem, as the ceiling contains an Aleph, i.e. a point in space that contains all other points and he has been using it as an aide for his writing. The story ends with the narrator experiencing for himself the Aleph but refusing to acknowledge its existence to Daneri.

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Sweet friends, what shall become of Faustus, being in hell forever?” (Marlowe Ch. 1956, Page, 108) We can see that Doctor Faustus realized his sins but there is nothing that he can do now. The soliloquy of Doctor Faustus starts just an hour before his damnation, when he realizes that supernatural powers are reserved for gods and anyone who attempts to deal with them, must face eternal damnation.

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