piritual perspective, would have given her somewhere to turn. Because she hasn’t developed spiritually, she looks to the priest. Mrs. McIntyre obviously feels a sense of obligation to the priest. She sees him as a good “Christian.” One of the main reasons for her feelings of obligation is the fact that she wants to prove that she, too, is a good “Christian.” Unfortunately, Mrs. McIntyre has a warped definition of this word. To her, a “Christian” is not a follower of Christ. It is instead a person who lives according to general standards of decency and morality. And, to a person who lacks dimension spiritually and is thus ignorant of any religious practices aside from what she knows, who would set the standards for morality? Obviously his or her priest would fulfill this role. So, because of her attempt to prove her spirituality to this man, Mrs. McIntyre experiences feelings of extreme guilt when she wishes to fire the man who the priest worked to bring to her. This is clearly demonstrated in her dreams of the priest and his attempts persuade her to keep the Displaced Person. The priest, in her dream, reminds Mrs. McIntyre of the presence of Christ her Lord and how she must not offend Christ. In response Mrs. McIntyre says, “ ‘There [is]…no Christ our Lord’ ” (246). This reveals a vain attempt to relieve her guilt. As a result of the guilt that consumes her even more intensely after Mr. Guizac’s tragic death, Mrs. McIntyre comes down with a “nervous affliction” (251). She dies, blind, mute, and utterly alone – except for the faithful priest who visits her once a week.Mrs. Shortley copes with her lack of spirituality in an entirely different manner. We see her lack of spiritual dimension almost immediately. She has an extremely condescending attitude toward religion. When she sees the priest (the man who brought outsiders to h...
