Redemption
The opening lines of the story let it be known that Gosta Berling is a failed spiritual leader. He is a minister who sometimes shows up and other times not so much. Not too much longer being introduced, he is defrocked and becomes a beggar. The novel is essentially the five-hundred-page saga showing how he comes to his redemption. Other characters along the way will also come face to face with possibility of redemption; some make while others don’t. The overarching theme of the novel is therefore the possibility of a sinful life being redeemed before death.
Christ in Reverse
The thematic layout of this story of redemption is kind of allegory of Christ in reverse. Gosta starts out as a minister who is sacrificed by the superiors of his church and ends up as a carpenter taking a vow of poverty and dedicating himself to serving the needy. Along the way, he becomes the de facto leader of a group of twelve followers. The reversal also extends to making Gosta a victim of temptation of sin who does not always have the fortitude for rejection. He marries but ultimately asserts of his choice to live among and for the poor: “if my wife will not follow me, I cannot help it.”
Brandy is the Road to Ruin
Brandy is the preferred alcoholic beverage of the characters in the novel. It is the spirit that drives Gosta Berling to his being defrocked of his ministry. “Brandy is furs in winter, coolness in summer…a warm house and a soft bed.” Drinking brandy fuels rages which results in bottles and glasses being tossed across a room. It is the beverage of which men fall to gentle sleep together and in pools of which playing cards swim on folding tables. In short: drinking to excess in general and drinking brandy to excess in particular is thematically significant as a pathway to the sins which require the search for salvation and the need for redemption.
