Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Silence, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Apostasy
Religious Arrogance
Faith
Western Religion vs. Eastern Culture
Persecution
Summary
Analysis
Notes from the diary of a Dutch Clerk in Nagasaki, 1644: Amidst shipping notes, the clerk reports that both Sawano Chuan (Ferreira) and Rodrigues have given testimony that certain smuggled artifacts are Christian, resulting in the torture and deaths of several families, even though both apostates asked the court for mercy upon the convicted. Sawano Chuan informs the government that missionaries intend to smuggle themselves and religious relics through Dutch trading vessels, which causes a stern crack-down and rigorous inspections all of ships and cargo.
The clerk’s notes provide confirmation that not only do Ferreira and Rodrigues serve the Japanese government, they are also complicit in the torture and execution of Christians as a result. This raises the stakes around the dilemma of apostasy, since not only have they personally renounced Christianity, but they also inflict additional pain on Japanese Christians. Since this is what they’d both hoped to end, it calls the reader to question whether such apostasy was worth it.
Themes
1645: The clerk is curious about the two apostates living in Nagasaki, and tries to find more information about them. Sawano Chuan proves most effective in searching out Christian artifacts and translating information about the Dutch and Portuguese for the Japanese government. The clerk “almost wish[es] death on that rascal who ignores God.”
The clerk’s vitriol toward Ferreira—though not Rodrigues—suggests that Ferreira has embraced his new position as an enemy of Christianity, which is both ironic and tragic since he was once one of its great leaders.
Themes
January 1946: As part of the new year, every household in Japan is visited by a government representative armed with fumie for each member of the household to step on, as a ritual sign of their rejection of Christianity.
The Japanese government’s demand of ritual apostasy indicates that Christianity is regarded as a chief opponent to their national sovereignty and stability. This further reinforces the notion that Japan’s persecution of Christians is more politically than ideologically motivated.
Themes
The narration returns to third person. Rodrigues is called to meet Inoue at his home, the first time he has seen the magistrate since he apostatized. Inoue greets him gently and is careful to avoid mention of the priest’s apostasy. Rather, he announces that a man named Okada San’emon recently died in Edo, and in a month, the priest will take the man’s name and wife. Rodrigues does not meet Inoue’s eyes, and the news feels like yet another defeat; he does not want a wife, and does not want to become Japanese. Even so, the priest shrugs and quietly answers his approval.
Once again, Inoue’s calm demeanor and care to not further shame Rodrigues characterizes him not as an evil man—though he orchestrates brutal persecution of Christians—but as one who is simply operating as he must in his role as a magistrate. This again suggests that persecution is not necessarily motivated by hatred or animosity, but may rather be driven by practical goals and needs.
Themes
Get the entire Silence LitChart as a printable PDF.
Noting his defeated posture, Inoue reminds Rodrigues that he was not “defeated” by the magistrate himself, only by the “swamp of Japan” in which Christianity cannot grow. Unwittingly, the priest answers, “My struggle with Christianity was in my own heart.” Inoue questions whether the priest had faith at all, and though the priest wants to challenge the man, he does not. Inoue further tells him that, although there are many Christian farmers in the outer regions of Japan, without the presence of priests to guide them, their religion has morphed into something entirely different, something which does not concern Inoue.
Rodrigues’s suggestion places the blame for his apostasy not on his environment, but on his own shoulders, questioning whether he had faith to begin with. However, the narrative throughout makes it clear that Rodrigues possessed a strong faith in God, though perhaps not strong enough to overcome such extraordinary suffering as he witnessed. Inoue’s disinterest with the Japanese distortion of Christianity confirms yet again that he is primarily opposed to Western Christianity’s foreign influence.
Themes
Rodrigues leaves and returns to his own house in Nagasaki, reflecting cynically that everything he had once longed for, he now has, but in the wrong manner. As a missionary, he’d intended to take on the life of Japan for himself; now he even had a name. Though a celibate priest, he is given a wife. However, never being able to cross the sea and return to Portugal, and return to the Church feels like living in a “Christian prison.”
Rodrigues’s taking of a Japanese name, house, and wife suggests that his shift in identity is nearly complete; the process that began with donning the red Buddhist robes has come to fruition, though it is the last thing that he wanted. Everything that once made up his identity as a Christian priest has been taken from him and replaced by Japanese culture.
Themes
Kichijiro arrives at Rodrigues’s door, whispering that he wants the priest to hear his confession and offer him absolution. The priest initially resists, since he is no longer technically a priest. However, as he considers Kichijiro’s weakness next to his own weakness, he sees Christ’s face in his mind, reassuring him that just as Christ told Judas to fulfill his purpose (to betray Him as he must), so Christ told the priest to trample the fumie, and that Christ will suffer alongside him regardless.
Although Rodrigues believes Christ told him to apostatize, the guilt and shame he feels questions that belief. Thus, the answer to the question of whether or not Rodrigues should have trampled the fumie is left intentionally ambiguous for the reader to personally wrestle with, just as Rodrigues does. This suggests that there is no simple, clear answer to such a dilemma.
Themes
Rodrigues decides to hear Kichijiro’s confession, since there are no other priests left in the country. Although the priest knows his former brethren would see his performance of the priestly duties as sacrilegious, “even if he was betraying them, he was not betraying his Lord.” The priest realizes that he is still the last priest in Japan, and that even when God is silent, the priest’s life and presence speaks of God’s existence.
Ultimately, the novel seems to suggest—while leaving plenty of room for disagreement—that although Rodrigues’s apostasy was a betrayal of the institution of Christianity, it was not an absolute betrayal of Christ himself, and that his very survival and existence in Japan is a testament to his own faith and God’s presence.
Themes
