This is what The Devil and Miss Prym wants to emphasize to its readers. Choosing the right decision and prepare for its consequences. Paulo Coelho, also known as Paul Rabbit, is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist who was born on August 24, 1947 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In his teenage life, Coelho wanted to become a writer but his parents are against him. His parents committed him to a mental institution and enrolled him in law school. He also lived a life as a hippie and started travelling in South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe and he started using drugs during 1960s. Coelho also became a songwriter and a composer. In the turning point of his life, Coelho walked the 500 plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain and on the path, Coleho had his spiritual awakening which he described in “The Pilgrimage” autobiographically and he used his novel, “The Alchemist” as a metaphor in fulfilling his dreams as a writer.
For his another novel, “The Devil and Miss Prym” is a sign of his success as an author. To start up the story, Old Berta always spent every day of her life sitting outside her front door, waiting for the devil to come, as her deceased husband prefigured. Berta has an ability to see ghosts, angels and devils inside people, which her people came to a conclusion that she’s a witch. Her waiting came to an end when one day, a stranger appear to their remote village Viscos and stayed there for one week. In the forest and no one knows, the stranger buried his eleven (11) gold bars and way back home. The first person he saw is the village’s young and beautiful waitress, Miss Chantal Prym. Chantal is bored with her life, every day she always does the same thing with the same route, people and scenery. She tried to seduce her customers thinking that one of them can help her escape his boring life in their village. Her life changed when the stranger showed her his eleven gold bars and promised that it will be given to the villagers only if they kill one of them. The stranger is in persecution of his ghosts from the past and desperate to find answer in his question, are the people in the essence of good or evil? Deep inside Chantal, there is a battle between her angel and her devil. She even thought of stealing the gold bars for she could use them as an escape, but something seizes her back. Days passed, she decided to tell to her villagers what the stranger has proposed but she’s in fear for the people would not believe her. As an act of selfishness and desperation, Chantal plans to abandon Viscos with one of the stranger’s gold bars. Fulfilling her plans in the forest, fate sends a rogue wolf and threatens Chantal’s life. But the stranger was there and saved her life. On the other hand, the villagers brought together to choose their victim. The victim is Berta. For Berta is already old and serves no purpose in their village. They let them Berta drink a tablet that can make her sleep and the people will shoot her in the villages square. But before the villagers shoot a peaceful body of Berta, Chantal came to the square and talk to her people. She let them realize that under no circumstances murder is justified, our deeds are just a matter of control and choice.
The Psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud proposed the idea of people having conscious and unconscious minds. In every dream of characters, it expresses their secret desires and anxieties in the story. These desires and anxieties may reflect on the past experiences of the writer. In the struggles of the stranger, it symbolizes the suffering and sacrifices of Paulo Coelho in achieving his dreams in life. From Chantal Prym, the stranger, Berta and down to the people of Viscos, their desires and needs drive their lives even they were not aware of.
Chantal Prym is fighting a battle inside her that no one knows, the battle between her angel and devil. In Freud’s theory, human’s personality structure are divided into three layers namely the id, ego and super ego. Chantal tried to steal the stranger’s gold that was hidden in the forest and she seduces her customers for it is her way of escaping in her boring life at Viscos. In that situation, it is the id that led her to those circumstances. Id includes person’s desires and needs for it performs the first principle of life and that is the pleasure principle. In every decisions of id, ego serves as the rational or conscious part wherein it leads id according the demand of the society, turning every disadvantages into non destructive decision. While the superego, maintains the balance between the id and ego and acts as a guide to the behavior of every person. As Chantal balanced, in stealing the gold bars, people might think that Chantal robbed her guest in the hotel and she could be humiliated and ruined, everything could turn badly.
Freud’s Psychoanalysis employs a lot of imagery and symbols (Scott, n.d) which is definitely inside the story. The stranger who arrives in the village of Viscos represents the devil inside him that shook the head of every individual in Viscos. This evil shows the tragedies and sufferings of every person which could turn him into a pervert one, unconsciously. While Berta, the first one to know the stranger’s arrival in their village but was judged as a witch of her people. She’s quiet and alone in her house but the people of Viscos chose her a victim in exchange of the gold bars. The people of Viscos didn’t saw her worth and they we’re all unconscious about the consequences of their plan.
As the people of Viscos gathered in the place ready to shot Berta, a female voice shouts from the crowd. It was Chantal Prym. The only one who took a stand to make a change. As Viscos is already in its moment of decline, its place and its people. But once it had a wise and glorious past. The meeting between St. Savin and Ahab, the Viscos’ ancestors, Ahab is the wickedest bandit who killed hundreds of people. One day, St. Savin who used to live in the caves, decided to sleep with Ahab. Aware with the reputation of each other, before going to bed, Ahab was determined to challenge the saint so he asked him questions, what if that night; the most beautiful prostitute came to their place. Would he be able to see her as neither beautiful nor seductive? What if he was sought by two brothers, one of them hates him and the other saw him as a saint, would he be able to feel the same towards them both? With all the questions that Ahab asked, St. Savin got only one and simple answer, it would be very hard for him but he would be able to control himself sufficiently to treat them both the same. That St. Savin would be able to control to himself. Without any explanation of his answers, Ahab got the point of St. Savin to his answers and that he and St. Savin are just the same –good and evil have the same faces. In every decision they make, everyone are capable of doing evil or good things. Everything lies on control and choice. In the morning, Ahab cried out and gave up all his bad deeds and surrendered himself into Christianity.
Chantal looked back for the last time at their village, everything is settled for the stranger signed all the documents needed to transfer the gold bars into Chantal’s name. No one knows Chantal is about to leave except for Berta. Chantal did not notice how better she became after what happened to their village. To the last goodbye of Chantal, Berta said to her that life can seem very long or very short, according to how she lives it.
No matter what kind of suffering a person is in, everything depends on the person’s choice that can make things worst or better. In every way we behave in different place and in front of different people, it all relies on control. The fact that it is a modern fiction, Coelho’s novel deals with people’s interactions with people, objects to its community. It lets it readers analyze the actions of every character in the story. The Devil and Miss Prym open doors of opportunities to see the different side of goodness and evilness of every person, without any biased opinions.
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