Ans.

Politics was replaced by a greater concentration on some religious and moral issues after
the first great war. Miss Spark has touched upon both an in Miss Sandy and Miss Boddie diverse threads
of Christanity in her novel, ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.’ The attitude of students is releated to
Roman Catholicism, where as tideolgy of her student is related to calvinism. In order to understand the
divergent views, we shall first concetnrate on the doctrines expounded by Martin Luther, John Calvin
and John Knox know to differentiate their views from the doctrines of the Roman Cathlic Church, The
Christian Church at Rome was founded by the chief apostle of Christ. St. Peter. The Bishop of Rome have
then onwardhave claimed for their office a direct succession from St. Peter. The Pope of Rome is the
religious head of the Roman Catholic Church. Its residence is in the Vatican City at Rome. According to
the Church, its teachings are infallible. There cannot be any error in the teaching of the Pope. When the
Pope speaks is his apostolic capacity he always makes a pronouncement in matters of faith and morals.
The birth of protestanitism akrs the breakway from the Roman Catholic Church. In Europe, it took place
in sixteen century. Martin Luther , a miner’s son in Germany became a

priest and preached against the granting of indulgences by the Pope. These indulgences were
certificates of pardon sold for money by the Pope to pardon the worng actions of buyers. Martin Luther
drew attention of educated people of the society by nailing a protest to the Church in Witemburg. The
Church in Rome condemened him as heretic and excommunicated. Martin Luther was intelligent
enough to realise that the could not rreform the existing Catholic Church. In 1530, he formulated the
basic of a new Church. In 1530, he formulated the basis of a new doctrine that broke away from Roman
Catholicism. the reformation movement reached England in 1934 when King Henry VIII served relations
with the Pope of Rome and declared himself head of the Church of England. It got a firm base during the
reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Martin Luther influenced, John Calvin, a Swiss religious reformer, greatly. His
teaching was the code of simplicity and austerity. He urged the masses to follow these codes in day to
day life and Chruch ritual, Calvinism is against the free wil of individuals and look through everything as
predetermined. Calvonistic from the protestantism was furthered by John Knox. He got success in 1560,
when by the Treaty of Edingburgh, authority of the Pope of Rome was abolished in Scotland and
replaced by Calvinistic confession of faith. This faith was drawn by Knox with the help of the colleagues.
The religious learnings of Miss Brodie are clearly Calvinistic. She disaproves the Church of Rome and
terms it to be the "Church of Supersition", and firmly belives that "only people who did not thing for
themselves were Roman Catholies.” She distances hderself from the Roman Catholic Church and
becomes. "the God of Calvin-Who sees the beginnings and the end" She believes that God is omipotent
and sets about ordering her own life and also that of others. Her total lack of guilt in assuming this
bluers her moral perceptions. "She was not" writes Spark, “in any doubut, she let everyone knows she
was in no doubt, that God was on her, side whatever her course and she experienced no difficulty or
sense of hypocrisy in workship and at the same time, she went to bed with sining master.” The sense of
isolation and alientation that she encountered at the end of her life was brought an by a weakned sense
of morality. The attitudes of Miss Brodie towards education are also releated to Calvinism. Like Calvin’s
God, she holds way over the Brodie Set and expects from each of them to fulfill her expectations at each
step of their lives. For this, she adopts a psychological approach. Wh protrays herself to her students as
a victim of the system that come in between her high ideals. Miss Brodie seeks to assure her students of
an ‘academic’ salvation by promosing to turn them into the “creme de la creme” among their friends
provided they follow her advice in words and letters. She got confidence of six girls and started about
planning and organising their futures for them she sees potential of fulfilling her dream in Rose and
Sandy. Miss Brodie Sparks write in her novel. “The Prime of Miss Brodie’ “that Miss Brodie wanted Rose
with her instinct to start preparing to be Teddy Lloyed’s lover, and Sandy with her insight to act as
informant on the affair. It was to this end that Rose and Sandy hand been chosen as the creme da la
creme” She feels rudely shocked when just the opposite happens.

Miss Brodie does not live on any theory, but personal experience and insight. Spark suggests that the
Catholic Church was a suitable channel for normalising her. Had Miss Brodie lived within the limits of
doctrine and community, whe might have been saved from the pitfalls of personal judgement. Whe
could have made use of her energy in better directions of life than wasting her faculties to set explosive
ideas in the minds of her followers. When Sandy sees throug the effect of Miss Brodie’s imposition of
her ideology and enthusiasm, she understands the evel designs of her mentor. She feels perturbed by
the images on Lloyd’s canvases where all the girls appear to resemble Miss Brodie. She is alarmed to
hear of the circumstances of Emily Joyee’s death. Sandy senses that Miss Brodie “has elected herself to
grace” and saw her as a symbol of power that ruled over the lives of smaller people Miss Brodies’, self-
righteousness and absense of humility makes Sandy uncomformtable wh sees an excessive lack of guilt
in her teacher. Later on Sany read John Calvin, and found it difficult to see eye to eye to his dcotrine in
which the human soluld was ensalved to sin and give people and enoromous sense of joy and salvation
so that “their surprise at the end might be nastier” Calvinism’s deterministic approach is not accepted
by Sandy in favour of the more redemptive Roman Catholicism. She present the picture of Miss Brodie
as a Calvinistic presence designing and determining the future of innocent minds and decides to stop it.
She is successful in her objective, but she feels herslef guilty which makes her life uncomfortable, Miss
Spark however, sympathises with Sandy. When she recovers from her sense of selfrighteousness, she is
able to understand that Miss Brodie’s sense of self righteousness and enlarging aspects had not been
without its beneficient. Muriel Spark does to accept the determinism of Calvin and Knock. Spark values
seenign the truth with sentiments. In”The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” humbug and falsehood became
targets of her denunciation