Those are the reactions of Pelagea that appear in the first part of the novel. In the second part of the novel, Pelagea has accepted the idea that is brought by Pavel,
and has joined and been an important part in the movement. Therefore, the changes and developments in the second part of the novel are not as many as in the first part.
But there is one highly significant change that happens to Pelagea, namely her being less and less religious. And finally her reaction about this contradiction is positive, by
being calmer and firmer in dealing with religious matter, especially about God.
4.2.1.7. Pelagea Becomes Less Religious and has been an Important Part of the Movement
In the part two, there is a radical change in Pelagea in terms of her stance with regards to religious belief. As she feels empty because of Pavel’s arrest, she lacks her
religiosity. She does not have her morning prayers 188. She does not have her morning prayers 188. And by this time she is surprisingly doing less and less
praying; instead she loves to see and talk to people 235-6. The peak is when she has
come to realize the truth that there are injustices and that there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor. She questions the authority of religious institutions, in this
respect, the church. She sees religious institutions skeptically since they usually portray the gap, as shown in the following description by Gorky about Pelagea’s
view:
She saw that there was an abundance of everything on the earth, yet the masses lived in dire needs, half-starved in the midst of plenty. The
churches in the towns were filled with silver and gold for which God PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
had no use, while at the gates beggars stood shivering, waiting in vain for a few coppers to be dropped into their outstretched hands. She had
seen all these before—the rich churches and the gold-brocaded vestments of the priests, the hovels of the poor and their shameful
rags. But then she had accepted it as a natural state of affairs, while now she found it intolerable, and an insult to the poor, who as she
knew, were closer to the church and had more need of it than the rich. …And involuntarily she remembered the words of Rybin: “They’ve
fooled us about God too” 235
She has come to a remarkable realization that religious institutions are used by the rich and powerful to control the masses, to delude the people so that they are kept
passive and enslaved. She notices her own changes—she has acquired the intellectual capacity to
question anything now. Now she has the intellectual tools to analyze the phenomena of her surroundings. Her being intellectually progressive, with regards to the idea of
the movement, is revealed by Gorky when she questions herself after the funeral of Yegor, one of her comrades:
“Yegor didn’t believe in God,” she thought, “and none of these others do.” She did not wish to pursue the thought, and she sighed, trying to
free her soul of a great burden. “O God O dear Jesus Can it be that I too—like this….” 258
4.2.1.8. Pelagea Has Become a New Person
