“Why Do Things Happen the Way They Do?”: On the Question of Existence and Experience in Lila by Marilynne Robinson

Abstract

This paper examines the process of a character’s change in the fourth novel by Marilynne Robinson. As the main character Lila experiences loneliness, destitution and abandonment, she asks an existential question, “Why do things happen the way they do?”, which is charged with theological meanings. In an attempt to understand the existential condition in which a person raises such a question, I explore the tradition of Christian mystics whose longing for God and prayer lives fully embraced paradoxical concepts such as “unknowing as knowing” and “presence in absence”, and draw a parallel with Lila’s experience. Also, borrowing John Calvin’s idea of human perception as “the theatre of God”, I look into how a subtle and gradual change in Lila’s perception comes about through her memories, her unmediated Bible reading, her relationship with Reverend Ames and, most importantly, her encounter with a stranger. Unlike some critics suggest, I offer a profoundly hopeful reading in her transformation.