It is a good thing that religious writers, in particular Marguerite Porete, did not listen to this writing and did not speak out at church. Although all women mystics are very different from each other, they all share the common idea of ​​the conviction that there was a reality, a deep meaning, behind or beyond or in the world of appearances. For mystics, their relationship and intimacy with God is the most important thing in their lives, so much so that they cannot help but ensure that their ideas, theology, and experiences are written down for all to see. can read them. Especially for women, who had no rights, usually little or no education, and had two simple roles in life: a cloistered nun or a wife, women who wrote mystical texts were feminists in their own right, opening the light to all women who had power. believing that they could write something as profound as men. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay Marguerite Porete's complex and sometimes intimidating Mirror of Simple Souls is a mystical text that far exceeds the philosophical content of its predecessors . Much remains unclear about Marguerite's life and text, but it is clear that the Mirror deviates strikingly from traditional Church doctrine. Churches relied on a hierarchical chain of command and sanctity for their authority. On the other hand, Marguerite challenges the traditional Christian conception of “fallen nature” by affirming the nobility and freedom of “simple souls”. It teaches that each soul has a fundamental identity that determines its place in the spiritual hierarchy and its potential to annihilate individual wills or desires in order to will exclusively the divine will. It explicitly rejects the tradition of affective spirituality by attacking the very foundations of the Church and instead teaches that the soul's need for union with God is through annihilation (Robinson xi-xii). The ambiguity of the text begins with the ambivalence of the title. , The mirror of simple souls. The “mirror” can be a smooth surface that reflects images of objects, but can also suggest self-reflection and self-knowledge. However, mirrors can also be the illusion of reality and represent vanity and self-esteem, usually stemming from the myth of Narcissus, who unknowingly fell in love with his own reflection (Hollywood, 87). However, it is probably more likely that Marguerite's use of the word "mirror" is to teach the process by which the soul is clarified (as are images in mirrors), "thus becoming a mirror without blemish or obscurity ". Max Huot de Longchamp says in the introduction to a French edition of the Mirror of Simple Souls: “the mirror reflects its own image to those who look at themselves in it; the mirror evokes self-knowledge, with the idea of ​​purification, of an assimilation to a perfect ideal". Rather than the illusion and superficiality of the self, Marguerite transforms this term into a symbol of honesty and depth of the true self, during annihilation to become one with God. By the freedom of the simple and annihilated soul, it becomes transparent, and even prevents it from having its own reflection through the mirror Marguerite does not write what she knows by observation (obviously, she never has. seen this dialogue between these allegorical characters), or experience, or even by reason itself, but from what she knows through hope She tries to write the community that she hopes for and the God that she hopes for.hope. With this hope, Marguerite manages to find the knowledge she is looking for. As the opening poem of The Mirror says, knowledge is based solely on reason, however brilliant it may be, “which cannot apprehend what is true, and certainly not the truth of its book” (Paulsell 71). But when reason is motivated by love and faith, and knowledge by hope, then invention can create a new reality. Mirroring, readers can catch reflections not only of the inner life of the soul , but, by inversion, of the type of Church and society in which “simple souls” can flourish. Marguerite's intention is to show, as in a mirror, the spiritual truth she wishes to teach, a rational truth which, if perceived, will, by itself, make the soul "simple" (Brunn 151). Marguerite considers her simple souls as having a teaching mission towards the Little Church governed by reason rather than love. The Mirror reflects a contemporary ecclesiastical world that was itself an inversion of women's experience and values. In an extended dialogue between love, soul, reason, and a series of other allegorical figures, Marguerite depicts a state of freedom and annihilation to which, she believes, all noble souls should aspire. According to Love, the more the soul recognizes its own nothingness, the more it possesses God. Stripped of all “creature,” including reason, will, and desire, the soul becomes nothingness: “And this nothingness of which we speak gives it the All, and no one can possess it otherwise” (81, 156). The soul then “lives without why” like God and becomes the place in which God works in the world. The fall into nothingness makes the soul so fully united with God that no distinction can be made between them (Sells 129). It is sometimes difficult to hear Marguerite's voice throughout the text. It should be emphasized, however, that the Mirror is radically different from other mystical texts because it is not autobiographical. It is a combination of poetry, allegorical drama, and speculative theology and not a narrative with a direct experience of God (Hollywood 65) like other mystical texts. It is therefore difficult to look for Marguerite's purpose and voice in the text when it seems that she is nowhere to be found. By rejecting the belief that medieval women's religious writing is always autobiographical, Marguerite is able to embrace the freedom offered by a distant God and the dilemma of trying to express the inexpressible. Believing that writing about God “is more like lying than telling the truth,” she writes that she is the God and community she hopes for. In succeeding in changing the community of "simple souls", she knows that not everyone should read her book, because as she states in her prologue, her book "can only be enjoyed by a few who have gone beyond the early stages of the path to perfection". However, Amy Hollywood believes that we should not necessarily try to find a voice in Marguerite's text, stating that "any identification of the soul with the author must be made carefully and evaluated against the constantly evolving narrative landscape of the author's text. That in true allegory no human being should be present, and that the author's character often becomes, in practice, a character within the allegory itself. Because the final outcome of the debate between Love and Reason will affect the Soul, which is not only a passive observer of their interaction but also the initiator of the debate and the final judge of its outcome. The Soul will ultimately be changed and transformed by the debate. Hollywood states that "other characters, because of the rigidity of their definitions or personifications, must either conquer,or be defeated by debate.” Marguerite gives voice in the text to many human faculties and attributes - reason, intellect, the understanding of faith and that of reason, even love is sometimes understood as human - only once by allowing the will to have your own voice. The will must be “subordinate to the Soul, because its abnegation and self-destruction constitute the central mystical movement of the dialogue”. Reason is a vital interlocutor of the Soul and Love, asking for the explanations and clarifications needed by human souls who have not “gone beyond the first stages of the path to perfection” (Porete, 20). The dialogue cannot continue with the contribution of Love. She is forced to take over Reason's voice after his death, and eventually Reason simply reappears. The death of the will, however, occurs near the end of the text, for without it all further change and development are impossible (Hollywood 95-96). The places in The Mirror where the soul seems most closely identified with the author of the text are the sections in which the soul speaks of the creation of the book. But the book itself deals primarily with the annihilated soul who begins its journey toward annihilation in God by keeping the commandments, attaining biblical perfection, and doing good works. This soul then “passes through the transitional stages of contemplation and abandonment of good works in order to subordinate the will” (Paulsell 67). Finally, the soul reaches the highest stages in which the will is dissolved, the soul is at rest and "God wills in the soul where the soul itself wanted." The Annihilated Soul “no longer knows how to speak of God, because it is annihilated of all its external desires and interior feelings, of all affection of spirit”. The Annihilated Soul “no longer seeks God through penance, nor through any sacrament of the Holy Church; neither by thoughts, nor by words, nor by works.” The Annihilated Soul identifies more closely with the author because she recognizes that in writing the text, "she remained, you know, a beggar and burdened with herself." As an author, Marguerite can see the impossibility of a soul entirely liberated from will, desire, words and work in this life, but by giving her voice through the character of the soul, she is capable of freeing itself and annihilating itself. According to Suzanne Aleta Kocher, "gender is a classification worth studying [in Mirror of Simple Souls], despite its arbitrary nature, because from the Middle Ages to the present, the masculine and feminine genders are two of the central categories that govern social organization. and thought". Porete's book contains conscious references to genre and demonstrates an interest in actively shaping the gender constructs he uses. Kocher also argues that there are two different types of allegory in Mirror, "allegory of personification, in which human attributes and faculties are represented as characters speaking to each other'. These would include truth, temptation, difference, fear and much more. The most central personified characters are l. 'Love, Reason and the Soul There is little action other than their dialogue, with the exception of the death of Reason. Second, in addition to the allegory of personification, the Mirror uses "d. "other allegorical techniques which fit into the continuum between allegory and metaphor". Porete develops and extends the metaphors (nobility, courtly love) to such an extent that they act as allegories within the allegory of the personification. By assigning a gender to her characters, Marguerite places her characters in a position of authority, or rather creates authority for them within the space. world of text. The women are presented as courtly ladies, “, 1994.