One of the key scenes within the play was when Judith (the Minister’s wife) went to speak to Richard about him sacrificing himself for who she sees as her cowardly husband. This scene shows Richard’s brave opinion and the idea that even though he is not conventionally religious, he in fact has higher and more admirable morals than those who are strictly religious:
JUDITH “Do you realize that you are going to kill yourself?”
RICHARD “The only man I have any right to kill.”
This important scene indicated that Richard was to some degree being forced to compromise his life by sacrificing himself because of the ethics he had forced upon himself. This scene also portrayed the ironic contrast within ‘The Devil’s Disciple’ of a non-religious person having higher morals than those who are religious. A second key scene was when Antony Anderson came to Richard’s rescue, declaring Richard was not him, however, Anderson had safe conduct and therefore could not be hung. This brought a conclusion to the play; all of the characters’ lives being spared. The twist however, was that due to Richard being prepared to sacrifice himself for Anderson, this made Anderson realise that being a minister was not the job for him:
ANDERSON “I though myself a decent minister of the gospel of peace; but when the hour of trial came to me, I found that it was my destiny to be a man of action.”
This quotation tells us that Anderson had realised he in fact was the rebel – not Richard. In the end of the play he truly becomes an honest man.
Theme plays an important part in ‘The Devil’s Disciple.’ One theme which I feel affects the outcome of the play is the narrow-mindedness of the Puritan beliefs. This theme affects the outcome of the play because if Richard’s mother – Mrs Dudgeon had not drove Richard to be against the Puritan beliefs then he would not have become the moralistic man that he was and therefore would not have been prepared to compromise his life for another and so Anderson would not have realised his true path in life – to be a captain. A second important theme within ‘The Devil’s Disciple’ is the role of women. Within the time period that the play was set, women were not entitled to money or property – their husbands owned everything. This fact played a role within the play as Richard’s mother did not inherit the house when her husband died and she only received the interest from the money that she had originally brought into the marriage. This therefore meant that Richard inherited the house as the eldest son and if this had not happened then Richard would not have been given the chance to sacrifice himself to prove he was a good man and could help someone else, despite being called a Devil’s Disciple just because he disagreed with the narrow-mindedness of the Puritan faith.
In conclusion, ‘The Devil’s Disciple’ contained a character that was forced to compromise his life because of his own ethics and morals. The character’s decision affected the ideas and the outcome of the play to be a positive one rather than a negative one and made the play more enjoyable.