74 pages • 2 hours read
Abraham VergheseCutting for Stone
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Historical Context: Emperor Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie was the Emperor of Ethiopia for over 40 years, from 1930 until 1974. Much of the novel’s timeline occurs during his rule, specifically the time when Marion lives in Ethiopia. A member of the Solomonic dynasty, which claims direct lineage from King Solomon of Israel and Makeda, Queen of Sheba, Selassie’s reign had a lasting impact on Ethiopian society and politics.
During Selassie’s rule, Ethiopia became a charter member of the United Nations, as well as leading the Organisation of African Unity. Selassie is known for establishing Ethiopia’s first written constitution, abolishing slavery, and promoting social and political reform. He led Ethiopia’s fight against Mussolini’s invasion and lived in exile in England during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1936-1941). Yet, as the novel shows through Marion’s complicated feelings toward the Emperor, his reign was not unblemished. Human rights groups accused him of autocratic rule and suppressing different religions and ethnicities. In Cutting for Stone, Verghese shows several instances of violent suppression, including police beatings and hangings. In the end, Selassie was overthrown by a military coup in 1974 and died in 1975.
Much of the action in Cutting for Stone takes place during Emperor Selassie’s rule and the political upheaval that followed. Marion’s shifting feelings toward the Emperor illustrate Selassie’s complicated legacy. He was the agent of much social and political reform—in fact, Marion attends the university that the Emperor opened in Addis Ababa, the first in Ethiopia. The novel juxtaposes positive elements of the Emperor’s rule against the oppressive aspects, including numerous hangings and shocking violence against an old woman who throws a shoe at the Emperor’s car. The book illuminates the regime’s injustice with Ghosh’s lengthy unearned imprisonment. Likewise, Marion is forced to flee the country due to his dangerous status as Genet’s friend, referencing the widespread violent suppression of the Emperor’s perceived enemies.
Ideological Context: St. Teresa de Avila
Saint Teresa de Avila, also known as Saint Teresa of Jesus, was a 16th-century Spanish Carmelite nun. As a young nun, St. Teresa spent years in poor health, suffering from and writing about headaches, which would earn her the title of the patron saint of headache sufferers. As she grew older, she disdained what she saw as the Carmelite community’s indulgent lifestyle. As a result, she formed a new branch of the Carmelite order, the Discalced Carmelites, which focused on returning to austere living and prayer. In the novel, we see Theresa’s influence on Sister Mary Joseph Praise, also a Carmelite, who has a print of St. Teresa above her desk.
St. Teresa is also well-known for her reputation as a mystic, and, as Marion discovers in the novel, her experiences with transverberation, visions in which she describes being pierced with a spear by an angel. This moment is captured in Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s famous sculpture, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, the subject of Sister Mary Joseph’s print in the novel. Because St. Teresa and Sister are both Carmelite nuns and Marion does not have a photograph of his mother, he associates St. Teresa directly with his mother. Toward the end of the novel, Marion and Hema visit the statue in person, emphasizing its importance to the novel.
St. Teresa’s influence on the church goes beyond transverberation. She was named a Doctor of the Church in 1970 by Pope St. Paul VI in recognition of her work in reforming the Carmelite order, as well as her prolific theological writings. She published an autobiography, The Way of Perfection, and The Interior Castle, a book that describes the journey of faith through the metaphor of a castle representing the soul. St. Teresa is a significant figure in Catholic history, and she is a fundamental part of Marion’s life and the novel’s themes.
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By Abraham Verghese
