The Devil ’s Temptation in Helena

Waugh’s intimate friend and mentor, Father Martin D ’Arcy, attested that

“his [Waugh’s] own personal thesis was best put forth in it: that God put man on this earth to do a special task ” (Patey 296). Given this remark, Waugh’s proud statement that Helena was his best novel would not be an exaggeration by any means.

In Brideshead Revisited, Waugh writes the process of a British man ’s conversion to Catholicism. In Helena, moreover, Waugh focuses on what the protagonist, a famed Catho lic, accomplishes with her heart and soul.

Helena’s quest for the half -imaginary Cross in Jerusalem reminds readers of the adventure of Tony Last, the protagonist of Waugh ’s earl y novel, A

Handful of Dust (1934), who tries to discover the Hol y Cit y along t he Amazon. However, in contrast with the failure of Tony, who is a modern Englishman far from faith, Helena, amazingl y, succeeds in her quest. Thus, Helena represents Waugh ’s mental development of a theme which is carried on from his earlier novels.

Waugh expects readers’ introspection, not their sympathy with his characters. That is his utmost intention in writing Helena. Also, it shows why he uses the images of the twentieth century in Helena, trying to make readers think themselves and better understand this novel. As the basic material of a hagiography written for English people who suffered through the Second World War, Waugh chooses the memories of war and Fascism, not fantasy and spectacle.

section, Helena does not show Helena ’s conversion. Likewise, it lacks any depiction of the advent of Jesus. Naturall y, it is common in hagi ographies that Jesus or angels appear before the saints to guide them to faith.

However, Helena does not include any such scene. Waugh ’s idea is that, when Helena decides to seek the Cross, the evidence of Jesus ’ existence, she does not need divine guidanc e, even by Jesus himself.

Instead, in this novel, a Jew shows Helena the place where the Cross is buried. He appears in Helena ’s dream at dawn on the Epiphany, the day when she breaks her fast, in Jerusalem, which she visits to find the Cross.

Although he does not introduce himself, readers easil y realize that he is a Wandering Jew, a man destined to wander around the world immortall y because he drove away Jesus from the doorstep of his shop in Jerusalem when Jesus was carrying the cross on his back on the crucial day of his crucifixion. The man does not even tell his name. To identify him, it is enough to hear his lines, such as: “I stopped counting birthdays after the hundred and fiftieth ” (150), and “They were talking about Jerusalem . . . how the Romans were putting up a new temple here . . . . That took me back a bit. Took me back three hundred years to be exact ” (149), and his memory of the day when Jesus died.

Helena walks around Jerusalem, talking with the Jew in her dream.

During the walk, she is fo rced to see a vision of the future Jerusalem. It is the future that will be produced by her discovery of the Cross. She sees an abominable vision of the cit y full of depravit y, bloodshed, and especiall y mammonism, where shady business prevails, with genuin e and fake sacred relics both offered to sightseers, a practice which Jesus would have hated most.

Helena listened and in her mind saw, clear as all else on that brilliant timeless morning, what was in store. She saw the

sanctuaries of Christendom become a fair ground, stalls hung with beads and medals, substances yet unknown pressed into sacred emblems; heard a chatter of haggling in tongues yet unspoken. She saw the treasuries of the Church filled with forgeries and impostures. She saw Christians fightin g and

stealing to get possession of trash. She saw all this, considered it and said:

‘It’s a stiff price ’; and then: ‘Show me the cross. ’ (151)

The Wandering Jew, a time traveller, shows Helena a ghost of the future, just as the prophetess girl had done. However, Helena stubbornl y demands to know the place of the cross, although she understands that blood and money ma y defile the dignit y of the Church through her doings . Then, the Jew briefl y answers: “They threw it in an old underground cistern ” (151).

He succumbs to her strong will.

What is the role of this Jew in Helena? It may seem expedient that Helena so easil y finds the place of the True Cross by a revelation in a dream. But the Jew should not be considered as a Deus ex Machina. To anal yze this sequence, the scene must be inspected when Helena reall y finds out the exact spot where she met with the Jew in the dream. The text reads: “there was a print in the dust that looked as though it had been left by a goat’s hoof. Helena gentl y rubbed it out and set in its place her own mark, a little cross of pebbles ” (152). From the image of “a goat’s hoof,” it

is recognised that Waugh intends readers to regard the Jew as a devil.

However, if readers conclude from this that Helena discovered the cross guided by a devil, the signification of the True Cross is totall y missed.

Here remains a question why a devil appears before Helena.

To answer this question, it is necessary to construe that the

conversation between Helena and the Jew reproduces the Temptati on in the New Testament. In the New Testament, the Devil tempts Jesus, saying that, if Jesus yields to the Devil, he will have all the kingdoms over the world;

but Jesus refuses the temptation (Matthew 4.1 -11). In Helena, the Devil appears in front of the Roman Empress Dowager and threatens her that, if she discovers the Cross and helps Christianit y spread, it will cause never -ending war and the corruption of the Church. Helena, however,

understanding everything, sticks to her intention to discover the Cros s. The Devil fails in temptation again.

Concerning the position of the Jew, there is a difference between a legend and Waugh ’s Helena. In The Golden Legend, Voragine wrote that Helena violentl y tortured the Jew to extract a confession from him about where the Cross was (173). Waugh has the Jew appear as the Wandering Jew, instead of adopting Voragine ’s description. Moreover, Waugh writes that Helena was tempted by the Devil in the guise of the Wandering Jew, composing a very opposite scene to the torture sc ene that Voragine wrote.

In hagiography, pious saints are often tempted by a devil to abandon their beliefs. Helena is also tempted by t he Devil after enduring a fast, like Jesus in the wilderness. And she defeats the Devil by remaining steadfast in her belief about the pieces of wood, in the same way that Jesus defeated the Devil, saying, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him onl y shalt

thou serve” (Matthew 4.10). Thus, in Helena, Jesus is established as a precursor.

It would be necessary here to e xamine what was sought after by Roman people at that time. More than 300 years have passed since Jesus was crucified, and many Christians have been persecuted in the history of the Roman Empire. Roman people in the fourth century in Helena are seeking something to rel y on, after seeing that even Emperors are

assassinated, one after another. For Fausta, it is omnipotence which allows her to kill all her enemies and live surrounded onl y b y her admirers. For Constantine, it is his power as the Emperor which al lows him to arrange things as he likes and build a new empire, because he cannot help thinking that all people are “just things, in the way, in the wrong place, that have to be moved and put to use or thrown away ” (122). For priests such as Pope S ylvester and Bishop Macarius, it is their sense of hol y dut y to maintain the Church under the power of the Roman Empire. They need Christianit y in their life as an idea to depend on. They always seem to be beset with doubts and fears.

In contrast, what Helena needs are merely wooden pieces. She

admonishes Constantine, her son who spends time in self -pity after ordering his wife’s death, about wielding “[p]ower without grace ” (122), and

persuades him not to pretend to be a savio r himself.

‘Sometimes,’ Helena contin ued, ‘I have a terrible dream of the future. Not now, but presentl y, people may forget their loyal t y to their kings and emperors and take power for themselves. Instead of letting one victim bear this frightful curse they will take it all

on themselves, eac h one of them. Think of the misery of a whole world possessed of Power without Grace. ’ (122)

For Helena, the onl y important thing is the crucifixion and death of Jesus, who bore the torture caused by all humans ’ sins on behalf of them. It is unforgivable for her that an ordinary man pities himself after wielding power, as if he were the savio r. Helena wants to show the Cross which proves the existence of Jesus, thinking that it will guide the people who are lost in this world. When Helena converses with P ope S ylvester, she declares that hope.

‘Nothing “stands to reason ” with God. If He had wanted us to have it, no doubt He would have given it to us. But He hasn ’t chosen to. He gives us enough. ’ [S ylvester said]

‘But how do you know He doesn ’t want us to h ave it – the cross, I mean? I bet He ’s just waiting for one of us to go and find it – just at this moment when it ’s most needed. Just at this moment when everyone is forgetting it and chattering about the hypostatic union, there ’s a solid chunk of wood wai ting for them to have their sill y head knocked against. I ’m going off to find it,’ said Helena. (128)

As this quotation shows, her hope and her will to realise it, for which she is neither afraid nor doubtful as others do, are simple and strong.

Moreover, Helena ’s view on the existence of Jesus is clearl y shown in her monologue. Before she discovers the Cross, she talks in her mind to the

Three Kings who visited Jesus after his birth in Jerusalem.

‘Like me,’ she [Helena] said to them [the Three K ings], ‘you were late in coming. . . .

‘Yet you came, and were not turned away. You too found room before the manger. . . . In that new order of charit y that had just come to life, there was room for you, too. You were not lower in the eyes of the hol y fa mil y than the ox or the ass.

‘You are m y especial patrons, ’ said Helena, ‘and patrons of all late-comers, of all who have a tedious journey to make to the truth, of all who are confused with knowledge and speculation, of all who through politeness make the mselves partner in guilt, of all who stand in danger by reason of their talents. ’ (144-45)

The first thing she points out in her monologue is the fact of the Three Kings’ late arrival and the hol y famil y ’s love in receiving them. Then she cautiousl y accep ts their lateness like her own, and prays that there is room also for her. Helena is convinced of the existence of the True Cross, and she regards the discovery of the wood as the very purpose of her life, even if she finds it late.

Here, Waugh’s intention in writing Helena can be reaffirmed. Waugh describes Helena as a woman who could withstand the Devil ’s temptation, just as Jesus did. Waugh praises her strong mind as equal to Jesus ’, even though she was “a late-comer” and could not hear Jesus ’ teachings from his own mouth. It implies Waugh ’s deep respect for her, whom he calls in his essay, “at a time, literall y, the most important woman in the world ” (EAR

407). Thus, by making his heroine face and overcome the same suffering as Jesus, Waugh sublimated hi s novel into a hagiography appropriate for the twentieth century. Surel y, with the images of the Second World War

interlaced here and there, readers can understand it more deepl y for their own mental sustenance. Helena is an important part of Waugh ’s canon, thus linking the theme of religion and war.

Chapter IV: The Shadow of Death: The Loved One and Love Am ong the