Dylan's Dialogue With Catholicism

Chapter 5

"What kind of house is this he said, Where I have come to roam? It's not a house said Judas Priest, It's not a house it's a home." Dylan sings this with emphasis on the word "roam" so as really to mean Rome.

"And don't go mistaking paradise For that home across the road" (that is, St Mary's).

According to Michael Karwowski writing for Britain's Contemporary Review, Dylan's dilemma about the Catholic church is a central symbolic theme of albums as far back as the 1966 album Blonde on Blonde.

There the "sad-eyed lady of the lowlands" represents the Catholic church in a song full of things like "missionary times," "silver cross" and "holy medallion."

"Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands, Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes, My warehouse eyes my Arabian drums, Should I leave them by your gate, Or sad-eyed lady should I wait?"

Kawowski: But, if Dylan chose to underline Sad-Eyed Lady's significance by giving it an entire album side, there can be little doubt that the songwriter's predilection in Blonde on Blonde was towards mysticism rather than established religion, whether that of the Catholic Church or any other. This is because so many of the songs on the album imply a rejection of the straight and narrow path of established religion, symbolised in Dylan's image system as a 'railroad' or 'train line'.

Thus, in Absolutely Sweet Marie, where the railroad is 'yellow', implying cowardice or an abdication of spiritual responsibility by joining the Church, Dylan begins the song: 'Well, your railroad gate, you know I just can't jump it,' calling to mind the 'gate' of Sad-Eyed Lady and the 'leap of faith' implicit in a belief in Catholicism.

Perhaps the most definitive statement of Dylan's discomfort at the idea of joining the Catholic Church, however, comes in the song Just Like a Woman: "It was raining from the first And I was dying there of thirst So I came in here And your long-time curse hurts But what's worse Is this pain in here I can't stay in here Ain't it clear that, I just can't fit Yes I believe it's time for us to quit.

Your long-time curse here refers to God's expulsion of mankind from Eden for pride, which 'hurts' because it means a separation from God. This also accounts for 'raining from the first', 'rain' in Dylan's image system signifying the worldly illusions arising as an inevitable consequence of the separation from the reality of God.

But although Dylan admits that he 'was dying there of (spiritual) thirst' as a result of this separation, nevertheless, he cannot 'fit' in God's supposed Church.

In Visions of Johanna, the significance of Joan of Arc, which would explain her abiding fascination for writers through the centuries--few historical figures have inspired so many books--is the fact that hers was possibly the most dramatic recorded case of the inspired individual against the 'infallible' organisation, the mystic against the Church. And it is this conflict with which Bob Dylan is concerned in Blonde on Blonde.

Dylan makes clear in the song that his would-be commitment to the source of Joan's visions, the direct inspiration of truth, as he sees it, is threatened by two temptations. The first is his spiritual despair, arising from his painful experience of worldly illusion and the emptiness and futility of life he has encountered. Visions of Johanna, in fact, provides a brilliant evocation of the profound sense of self-pity underlying the spiritual despair which characterises the existentialist world-vision: "Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously He's sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall How can I explain? Oh, it's so hard to get on." The wall here symbolises Dylan's distance from any spiritually meaningful life, while 'the hall' is where Dylan's soul awaits 'Madonna', who 'still has not showed'.

Dylan's disabling alienation, as expressed here, makes him particularly susceptible to the second temptation he finds himself facing, which is that of the Catholic Church's own spiritual confidence.

In Visions of Johanna itself, the Church is symbolised by the character of 'Louise.' The name Louis, and its female equivalent Louise, comes from the Jewish name Levi, one of the twelve tribes of Israel and the one appointed by God in the Old Testament as the priestly tribe and, thus, one of the earliest historical expressions of organised religion.

The first mention of Louise comes at the beginning of the song, where Dylan writes of 'Louise and her lover so entwined', the lover here being truth, or the source of divine inspiration.

The point is that Dylan cannot separate the two and is thereby confused by the Church's confidence in its infallibility as the voice of truth on earth. Thus, in the song, Louise tells him: 'Ya can't look at much, can ya man?' This echoes TS Eliot's Four Quartets: 'human kind/Cannot bear very much reality'. And again: "We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it."

The handful of rain here symbolises the illusions which, if direct inspiration is the only spiritual way forward, are what the Catholic Church's claims to represent truth must amount to.

Faced with the temptations of personal despair and a supremely self-confident Church, however, Dylan's constant refrain in the song is that, however despairing, however confused he may feel, the truth lies with Johanna's visions, representing as they do for him God's direct inspiration of the individual.

Thus, Louise's temptation is discounted by the 'visions of Johanna that conquer my mind', bringing to mind the 'white horse' of the Apocalypse that 'went forth to conquer'.

According to this interpretation, therefore, by implication, the 'pale horse' of Revelation, the horse of Death, represents organised religion, or, in this instance, the Catholic Church.

If we would seek some confirmation that Johanna is indeed Joan of Arc, however, this comes not in Visions but in another song on Blonde on Blonde, 'Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again', where Dylan writes: 'Well, Shakespeare, he's in the alley Speaking to some French girl, Who says she knows me well'. The reference to Shakespeare conjures up 'Hamlet', which is concerned with probably the best-known debate in literature between worldly concerns and those of the questing soul. And the reference to the 'French girl'--Joan of Arc--'Who says she knows me well' contrasts with another song on the album, One of Us Must Know, which is about Dylan's debate with the Catholic Church: 'I couldn't see how you could know me But you said you knew me and I believed you did... Sooner or later, one of us must know That I really did try to get close to you.”

The relationship with the Church, however, is already in the past tense: 'I did try to get close to you'. Thus, although Sad-Eyed Lady follows One of Us Must Know on the album, Dylan's decision between mysticism and established religion was effectively already made before he wrote the song.