Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 1 Issue 1 | Page 13

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(I. 7. 52), “flesh-burst, / Gush!-flush the man, the being with it” (I. 8. 60-61).8 While
focusing on the physical elements of the death sentence inflicted on Christ, Hopkins
also makes sure to state the glory behind it. The ‘Gush!’ represents the holy blood of
Christ gushing out of his wounds, washing away the sin of not only Hopkins but
mankind. In the second half of the poem the focus of a glorious death falls to the Tall
Nun: Hopkins’ martyr.
The ‘execution’ of the Tall Nun is certainly the key moment of the poem. Her
words “‘O Christ, Christ, come / quickly’: / The cross to her she calls Christ to her” (II.
24. 192-193) echo throughout the poem and beyond, leaving Hopkins and his
readers to wonder at her meaning.9 “The majesty! what did she mean? / Breathe,
arch and original Breath. / Is it love in her of the / being as her lover had / been? /
Breathe, body of lovely Death” (II. 25. 193-196).10 There is certainly a sexual element
in her words, which Hopkins picks up on; nuns were viewed as the wives of Christ,
therefore it could be a cry of sexual ecstasy. Michael Wheeler views her cries as
labour pains: “In her death the nun re-enacts the ‘conception’ and ‘delivery’ of Christ,
and the juxtaposition of the culmination of her martyrdom in her heavenly reward”.11
There is also the possibility that the nun is calling out for her death as, “[m]artyrdom
is a third kind of participation in Christ’s passion, and those who suffer martyrdom
often glory in the fact”.12 As can be seen in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, there is an
almost suicidal desire for death in martyrs, who yearn to follow in the example of the
Passion: “The idea of the beauty of suffering in martyrdom is based upon the
perception that the martyr’s demeanour under torture and public execution reflects
that of Christ, and that the martyr is to enjoy with Christ the heavenly reward”.13
Foucault suggests this was actually a common occurrence: “a convicted criminal
could become after his death a sort of saint”.14
However, the poem contains another execution which is far less glorious and
far more brutal than the Tall Nun’s: “With a rope’s end round the man, handy / and
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Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland in The Broadview Anthology of Victorian
Poetry and Poetic Theory, Concise Edition ed. Thomas J. Collins and Vivienne J. Rundle (Plymouth:
Broadview Press Ltd., 2000), 493-499 (494).
9
Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland, 497.
10
Ibid., 497
11
Wheeler, Death and the Future Life in Victorian Literature and Theology, 364.
12
Ibid., 348.
13
Ibid., 348.
14
Foucault, Discipline and Punish – The Birth of the Prison, 67. !