Pelagia’s character is developed further but she maintains the same as in previous chapters ‘Pelagia was living up to her reputation as a scold’. Although the other characters are portrayed to slightly fear and respect Pelagia they have such a close community relationship that a degrading comment about Pelagia will not affect the bond that the inhabitants share, ‘shoot Pelagia before she bites someone’s balls off’.
The sheer description of Father Arsenios has a visual comedic contribution to the chapters ‘Father Arsenios lacked respect not because he was a walking human globe, perpetually perspiring and grunting…etc’ through the eyes of the narrator it is simple to grasp the feeling that most other Cephallonians have towards Father Arsenios and the comedy arises in the reduction of his status. When described in chapter seven first as ‘needs to urinate,’ compared with ‘a priest cannot be seen to have pissed himself’,he has suffered a reduction of status and this creates humour.
Traditionally a ‘Father’ is seen as a figure of prestige and importance but Father Arsenios is constantly ridiculed both by the Cephallonians and de Bernieres. When Velisarios lifts Father Arsenios ‘up onto the wall’ the crowd responds with ‘a few giggles, but then a guilty hush descended.’ The crowd find the act amusing because it humiliates Father Arsenios whom most dislike but continue to feel guilt because they show a sincere lack of respect for the authoritative position Father Arsenios holds, (priest), again the reduction of status is used to create humour.
Throughout the novel there are constant references to Alekos’s ‘goats of Mount Aenos’. The goats on a basic level contribute humour to the novel by possessing such status and being regarded as so significant, but they can also be taken as a metaphor for the importance of Cephallonia in its natural and traditional state in which the goats are a symbol for uniting all Cephallonians within the Cephallonian spirit.
The first character in chapter three is ‘Alekos, the herder of the goats’, also a symbol of traditional and undamaged Cephallonia. Alekos can be seen demonstrate how Cephallonians value community and local life more importantly than they value the political decisions taking places by the powerful dictators beyond the island. The political figures have a short-lived life of power, on the contrary to Alekos who’s ‘life was timeless’. It can be considered that de Bernieres regards Alekos as a metaphorical God to the local Cephallonians as he lives up the mountain ‘on the roof of the world’ and as a God is never seen on ground level, only Dr Iannis goes up the mountain (as did moses). Alekos is also a symbol of how significant religion is to all the characters in the community, even Dr Iannis who does not seem to conform to modern religion often writes about ‘Zeus and Athene’, traditional and ancient Gods proving he has a place in his life for religion.
Stamatis is used for comic value in chapter seven when asking Dr Iannis ‘can you put it back?’ referring to the pea extracted from his ear in the first chapter. The comedy is created by Stamatis and Dr Iannis being derogatory towards women ‘have you tried beating her?’ and later Dr Iannis decides ‘you shouldn’t beat her anyway, they just find more subversive ways of getting at you.’ Family relationships is a very prominent theme running throughout the novel and present in these chapters, again a reflection of traditional undisturbed life. Stamatis is also humorous when he ‘snapped the stem of the flower, concealed it within his coat and sauntered away with an exaggeratedly insouciant and casual air.’ The comedy works in this incident because of the comparative image between manly Stamatis talking of beating his wife and sensitive Stamatis touched by a flower, supposedly associated with women.
The overall image gained, although each character has a developing personal identity, is that there is a very strong feeling of community spirit within Cephallonia where all the natural beauty and native people will stand together to preserve the traditional life style of Cephallonia.
