41 pages • 1 hour read
William Peter BlattyThe Exorcist
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1971A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Faith Versus Reason
Perhaps the most important theme in text is the conflict between faith and reason. Few of the characters are willing to accept that a supernatural entity has possessed Regan, instead doggedly pursuing scientific explanations for what has happened to the young girl.
Karras embodies of this theme most fully. He is a priest of faltering faith and a scientist who dismisses the supernatural with rationalizations as a coping mechanism. Karras struggles with guilt over not being able to help his mother; projecting reason onto an issue of faith is a way to control the uncontrollable. The tension between Karras’s rational and religious sides finally resolves when he accepts both aspects of his intellect. He challenges the demon to possess him, both acknowledging the existence of the supernatural and defeating evil with his reason.
Chris also reflects many aspects of this theme, though she starts as an atheist who knows nothing about science. Grasping at anything likely to help her daughter, she first wants doctors to provide a logical explanation, but then just as easily decides on a supernatural explanation. Unlike Karras, Chris isn’t troubled by the dichotomy—she acts pragmatically, seizing on whatever has the best chance to work in the moment. Afterwards, she remains an atheist, though one with a newfound belief in the devil.
Guilt and Parenthood
Guilt shared across the generations between parents and their children provides motivation and internal tension for many of the characters.
Karl keeps the existence of his and Willie’s daughter a secret from her mother, ashamed of her addict lifestyle and his inability to help her. Regan’s possession is at first blamed on the guilt the girl must feel over her role in her parents’ divorce. Karras is guilt ridden over his failure to lift his mother out of poverty and be there for her when she needs him; when she dies, Karras views himself as a failure. His mother’s suffering causes him to resent the church and, as a result, lose his faith. Chris’s guilt comes from worrying whether her divorce has caused Regan’s suffering and whether her career has cost Regan friends her own age. Chris needs to find a cure so that she does not have to blame herself for the pain she sees her daughter endure.
The demon capitalizes on this guilt in its confrontations with everyone surrounding Regan. As it lashes out at Regan’s caregivers, it speaks to Karras in the voice of his mother, taunts Karl and Willie with their daughter’s misery, and both physically and emotionally attacks Chris. Fighting back against the demon means confronting this guilt: Chris dials back her workaholic tendencies to care for her child, while Karras learns from the lesson of Merrin and leans into his internal battle between faith and reason to vanquish the demon.
The Failure of the Family
The novel blames some of the evil plaguing the MacNeils and those around them on the disintegration of the family unit. Karras and his mother, Chris and her ex-husband, and Karl and his estranged daughter all embody the various failures of the family. This surprisingly reactionary attitude idealizes the intact nuclear family, suggesting those who destroy it incur punishment—in this case, in the guise of demonic forces.
Chris often worries that her divorce from Howard caused Regan’s issues and the novel never suggests otherwise, since Regan’s demon certainly plays on Regan’s fears over the state of her family. The murder of Burke Dennings is an extension of this: The demon convinces Regan that her mother will marry the debauched Burke, so Regan and the demon kill this threat to the possible reconciliation between Chris and Howard. Karras believes he has failed as a son, so he is punished by losing his faith and perpetual bouts of depression. Karl and Willie live behind a veil of lies. She doesn’t know that their daughter is still alive, while he supports her heroin addiction in secret. The solution to this somewhat reactionary theme is the church—a kind of surrogate family. Through the church, Karras gains a parental figure in Merrin, while Regan and Chris gain a paterfamilias figure in Karras.
