Previous
The British Voice
A bean-sized man with a Vermont accent who is embedded in the tendril that emerges from the ground and wraps around Willie. Like the other beings in the tendril, this man is in hell. In his case, he was damned because he engaged in sexual activity with children. Still, he insists to the Reverend, Bevins, and Vollman that he can’t be held accountable for his actions because he was born with certain “predispositions” that rendered him evil.
The Vermonter Quotes in Lincoln in the Bardo
The Lincoln in the Bardo quotes below are all either spoken by The Vermonter or refer to The Vermonter . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 80-81 Quotes
Whatever my sin, it must, I felt (I prayed), be small, compared to the sins of these. And yet, I was of their ilk. Was I not? When I went, it seemed, it would be to join them.
As I had many times preached, our Lord is a fearsome Lord, and mysterious, and will not be predicted, but judges as He sees fit, and we are but as lambs to Him, whom He regards with neither affection or malice; some go to the slaughter, while others are released to the meadow, by His whim, according to a standard we are too lowly to discern.
It is only for us to accept; accept His judgment, and our punishment.
But, as applied to me, this teaching did not satisfy.
And oh, I was sick, sick at heart.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
As a dreadful tendril wraps around Willie’s body—trying to keep him in the Bardo forever—the Reverend realizes that there are miniature people embedded in its surface. When these people speak to him, he discovers that they’re in hell, and this simultaneously repulses and frightens him, since he knows that he too is supposed to be in hell. “I was of their ilk,” he says, horrified by the idea. Because he finds himself so vehemently opposed to these hell-dwellers and their sinful ways that he questions why, exactly, he should have to “join them.” In doing so, though, he remembers that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis.
We were as we were! the bass lisper barked. How could we have been otherwise? Or, being that way, have done otherwise? We were that way, at that time, and had been led to that place, not by any innate evil in ourselves, but by the state of our cognition and our experience up until that moment.
By Fate, by Destiny, said the Vermonter.
By the fact that time runs in only one direction, and we are borne along by it, influenced precisely as we are, to do just the things that we do, the bass lisper said.
And then are cruelly punished for it, said the woman.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, the Reverend relays what the hell-dwellers say while they wrap around Willie’s body. While he interrogates himself in an effort to determine what evil thing he’s done to deserve damnation, the tendril-people work to absolve themselves of any culpability regarding their wrongdoings. Although the bass voice suggests that he and his companions did not—while they were alive—possess “any innate evil,” the Vermonter blames “Fate” and “Destiny” for their sins, ultimately suggesting that none of them could have done anything to alter themselves for the better. As such, the hell-dwellers frame their damnation as “cruel” and unjust even Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. A
Get the entire Lincoln in the Bardo LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
The Vermonter Character Timeline in Lincoln in the Bardo
The timeline below shows where the character The Vermonter appears in Lincoln in the Bardo. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 80-81
...your loved one with poison, resolve to endure him.” A final voice—this one with a Vermont accent —adds, “Sexual congress with children is not permitted.”
(full context)
...us of fairness,” the female voice says. “Did I murder Elmer?” she asks, and when the Vermonter says, “You did,” she asserts, “I did. Was I born with just those predispositions and...
(full context)
