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The sea is often used to symbolize Rodrigues’s perception of God, particularly in its silence, its “unchanging expressions” and the destruction it can wreak. When God fails to speak to Rodrigues in midst of his suffering or intervene to protect the tormented Christian martyrs in Tomogi, Rodrigues remarks, “like the sea, God was silent.” Although Rodrigues believes that God brought he and Garrpe to Japan (bearing them across the sea), he is confused and disturbed by God’s apparent apathy towards their struggle, just as the sea itself seems unmoved and disinterested. When Mokichi and Ichizo are tortured and their remains swallowed up by the sea, the implication is that God, in his refusal to intervene or put an end to their suffering, bears some level of responsibility for it. In the same way, when Garrpe himself drowns while trying to reach the drowning Christians who were executed for his sake, Garrpe is killed by his devotion to a God who seemingly would not reach out to help him or save his people. In this sense, the sea represents Rodrigues’s perception of God as all-powerful, senselessly destructive, and ultimately apathetic toward human beings.
The Sea Quotes in Silence
The Silence quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Sea. 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 4 Quotes
This was the splendid martyrdom I had often seen in my dreams. But the martyrdom of the Japanese Christians I now describe to you was no such glorious thing. What a miserable painful business it was! The rain falls unceasingly on the sea. And the sea which willed them surges on uncannily—in silence.
Related Characters:
Sebastien Rodrigues (speaker), Mokichi, Ichizo
Related Symbols:
The Sea
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
62
Explanation and Analysis:
Rodrigues watches Ichizo and Mokichi be tortured to death, as they are slowly drowned over a period of several days and their ashes tossed into the sea. During this horrific episode, Rodrigues reflects that these martyrs’ deaths do not meet his glorious expectations of what martyrdom ought to look like. Rodrigues has long fantasized about being martyred, imagining it as the most glorious end for a Christian to meet, which ultimately rises once more from his own sense of arrogance and self-importance. Mokichi and Ichizo’s deaths, however, begin to challenge such fantasies of glory, marking an important milestone in Rodrigues’s character development. Rather than glorious, Rodrigues begins to recognize death and torture—even for the sake of faith—for what they are: inglorious, grotesque, and miserable. Although this realization feels cynical on one hand, it also represents Rodrigues’s maturation. He is forced to let go of his childish fantasies and reckon with the world’s cruelty as it truly is.
The sea often represents God to Rodrigues, reflecting his view of God’s presence, his silence, or his fury. It is thus significant that it is the sea which kills the two Japanese Christians, and not the active hand or sword of a Japanese official. The sea killed Mokichi and Ichizo with seeming difference, not malice or anguish, suggesting that God seems indifferent to Rodrigues, unmoved by the sacrifice two men have just made on his behalf.
No! No! I shook my head. If God does not exist, how can man endure the monotony of the sea and its cruel lack of emotion? […] From the deepest core of my being yet another voice made itself heard in a whisper. Supposing God does not exist…
This was a frightening fancy. If he does not exist, how absurd the whole thing becomes.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Sea Symbol Timeline in Silence
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Sea appears in Silence. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
...it had brought not only Portugal, but all of Europe. They prepare themselves for the sea voyage, which will take them from Lisbon to India, and then on to Japan over...
(full context)
Chapter 1
...priests make their journey “for the conversion of Japan and the glory of God.” While searching for a Chinese ship that might smuggle the priests to Japan, they meet their first...
(full context)
...to Japan, and offer return him to his home country (he was found adrift at sea and taken to China by a passing Portuguese vessel) since it will be useful to...
(full context)
Chapter 2
Eight days into their sea voyage, the priests’ ship is caught in a terrible storm. Rather than helping the sailors...
(full context)
Chapter 3
Japan is in its rainy season, and the priests’ nerves are stretched to their limit by the fearful hiding each day....
(full context)
Chapter 4
...to poles and left to be buffeted by the tide at the edge of the sea for many days. A procession of officials arrives two days later with Mokichi and Ichizo...
(full context)
...When the men die, the officials burn their bodies and throw the ashes into the sea to prevent any Christians from venerating their remains. Rodrigues often looks to the sea, reflecting...
(full context)
...envisaged.” The priest continues walking, listening to the sounds of the forest and noticing the sea’s present silence, which draws his mind to God’s silence in the face of such suffering...
(full context)
Traveling onward, Rodrigues comes upon an overlook from where he can see the placid sea and several fishing boats and even a village. His heart races and he considers immediately...
(full context)
Chapter 5
As the boat moves through the sea, Rodrigues again wonders at how differently his capture has been from what he envisioned the...
(full context)
Chapter 7
...is waiting for him from which he can see the peninsula, the beach and the sea. As the priest sits, the first interpreter he’d met after his capture arrives and tells...
(full context)
...Rodrigues begs God to intervene. Garrpe, shouting, “Lord, hear our prayer,” plunges himself into the sea and attempts to swim after them, but quickly disappears beneath the waves. Laughing, the guards...
(full context)
Chapter 10
...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...
(full context)
