Burial Rites Literary Elements

Historical novel

The action takes place in Iceland in the year 1839 and 1840.

There are two narrative techniques used in the novel. Some of the events are narrated from a third person subjective perspective while other scenes are narrated by Agnes in a subjective manner. The shift between the narrative techniques has the purpose of providing the reader with two separate points of view.

Tragic, violent, sad

The protagonist of the story is Agnes and the antagonist is Natan.

The major conflict is an internal one and is the result of Agnes’s desire to be punished for what she had done and her desire to continue living.

The story reaches its climax when Agnes is told about the date she will be executed.

The presence of the ravens in chapter two foreshadows the criminals’ deaths later on.

In chapter 6, Agnes remembered that once, the son of the family she was staying with commented how the northern lights were a sign that bad weather was to come. This is an understatement as the northern lights foreshadowed Agnes’s adoptive mother’s death.

When Agnes talks about her adoptive mother’s death, she also mentions the fact that after she died, her foster brother was taken in by her foster father’s brother. Agnes however is sent to the parish under the pretext that the family can’t afford to take her in as well. Agnes however thinks that the main reason she was sent to the parish is because she used to called her adoptive mother Mamma, and that angered her uncle.

An important imagery in the novel is the image of Inga’s body after she died during childbirth. Agnes remembers seeing the body in the room where the family used to sleep and she describes the gruesome image in great detail. Because Inga died during childbirth, the bed she was on was covered with blood and her husband did not bothered to cover Inga after she gave birth. This image transmits the idea that Agnes was traumatized by the event and that she never recovered completely from seeing her adoptive mother in that state.

Agnes points out to the priest that her execution is paradoxical. The reason why many wanted her dead is because she killed a man and because the Bible says that crime must be punished. However, Agnes points out that by killing her, the man who will be her executioner will also be guilty of murder and thus he could be found guilty and killed as well.

N/A

The term badstofa is used in the novel in a general sense to make reference to the living and sleeping room a family had.

N/A