Niels Lyhne · Theme
Loss of Faith and Meaning
How Niels Lyhne develops Loss of Faith and Meaning.
Niels Lyhne's spiritual journey from a childlike faith in God to a defiant atheism after his prayers fail to save his aunt Edele, reflecting the broader 19th-century crisis of religious belief and the search for meaning in a godless universe.
Where it surfaces
- II
Bartholine's growing disillusionment with her dreams and her cynical turn against romance reflect a loss of faith in the ideals that once gave her life meaning.
- Chapter IV
Niels's prayer goes unanswered, leading him to reject God and feel forsaken.
- IX
Niels and Hjerrild debate atheism and the emptiness of a world without God, questioning the value of disillusionment over faith.
- XII
Niels experiences a profound loss of purpose: 'No home on earth, no God in heaven, no goal out there in the future!'
- XIII
Niels actively teaches atheism to Gerda, but the deaths of his wife and child lead him to pray to God in desperation, highlighting the struggle between belief and doubt.
- XIV
Niels's crisis of faith after praying for his child leads him to feel he has betrayed his atheistic ideals; he dies refusing religious comfort.