For thousands of years people have regarded the Catholic religion as a faith that has inspired peoples lives, and given people strong morals and a sense of spirituality; however there are two sides to this story. If you take any religion to the extreme and let the church and your faith control your life, then there can be some serious repercussions. Ferula from the novel The House Of Spirits is a person, who is hurt more than helped by the Catholic Church, .
One of the beliefs of the Catholic Church is that in order to live in the paradise of heaven, you must first suffer the cruelty and sacrifice on earth. Ferula took this belief very seriously and wasn't happy unless she was making sacrifice's for other's. "She took pleasure in humiliation and menial tasks, and since she believed that she would go to heaven by suffering terrible injustices, she was content to clean her mother's ulcerated leg's, and even looked into her mother's bedpan," p 42. By examining this quote one can really see that Ferual was a "tormented soul," p 42, who became so accustomed to her sacrifices that she that actually enjoyed them. Ferula lived in a time in which she had no choice as to which religion she practiced; she was always caught in a struggle between the life she wanted to live, and the life of sacrifice forced on her by the church. .
If one was to attend a church sermon as describe by Allenda, most likely you would be so terrified of going to the fiery hell the church portrays that you would do every thing you could to avoid this place of suffering. The church manipulated Ferual by preying on her fear of the unknown. Their goal was to "strike fear of god into the hearts of the parishioners" p 2. They did this by reading fiery lectures; in which they described all the horrible tortures of hell. Allenda used imagery to show the picture the church paints of hell in the following quote. "The bodies ripped apart by various ingenious torture apparatuses, the eternal flames, the hooks that pierced the male member, the disgusting reptiles that crept up female orifices, and the myriad other sufferings that he wove into his sermons.
