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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.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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.
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Get the entire Lincoln in the Bardo LitChart as a printable PDF.
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:
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:
