Discussion Topic
The Old Man's Motive for Murder in "Purgatory"
Summary:
The old man's motive for murder in "Purgatory" is primarily driven by his desire to release his mother's spirit from the cycle of torment and to seek retribution for the ruin she brought upon their family. His actions are fueled by a combination of personal anguish and a sense of duty to end the suffering tied to their family legacy.
What is the old man's motive for the son's murder in "Purgatory"?
The Old Man could argue that he killed his son in self-defense. After all, the young man tried to steal some money from him and threatened to kill him. Under the circumstances, the Old Man might argue that he had no choice. It was either him or the boy.
But the real reason for the Old Man's killing his son is altogether different and more disturbing. As the Old Man tells his dead mother he felt he had to put an end to the seemingly endless cycle of greed and dissolution that has destroyed this family for many years.
The Old Man's father was a notorious drunk and all-round ne'er-do-well, whose riotous spending habits brought the family to ruin. And the Old Man is worried that history is repeating itself in the shape of his son. All the indications seem to be that the young man will grow up to...
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be a dissolute rake just like his grandfather. There's simply no way that the Old Man will every tolerate going through that again.
So he metes out the same punishment to his son as he did to his father amidst the burning of the old family pile. In doing so, he finally puts an end to this tragic cycle of events.
Why did the Old Man in Purgatory kill his father?
The Old Man killed his father because the latter squandered the wealth that belonged to the Old Man's mother. In the Old Man's mind, his father (by squandering his wife's wealth) also defrauded his child (the Old Man) of his rightful inheritance.
In the play, the Old Man tells his sixteen-year-old son that his mother once owned a grand mansion. In her youth, she had fallen in love with one of her grooms. She married him, despite her own mother's wishes. After the marriage, her mother disowned her and never spoke to her again.
The Old Man relates that his mother never knew how his father squandered her wealth. She died while giving birth to the Old Man. After her death, the Old Man's father spent the wealth of her estate on horses, women, drink, and cards. To pay for his accumulating debts, the Old Man's father even had the trees on the property cut down. The Old Man tells his son that he will never forgive his father for laying waste to an illustrious mansion, especially one that was inhabited by the great men of his age. The Old Man describes his father's actions as a "capital offence."
As we can see, the Old Man still resents his father for squandering his mother's fortune, and he also hates him for defrauding him of his inheritance. The Old Man is also angry that his father never provided him with an education. Instead, the Old Man had to learn how to read from a gamekeeper's wife, and he had to rely on a Catholic curate in order to learn Latin. Eventually, the Old Man had to earn a living as a lowly peddler. So, the Old Man killed his father for what he considers were immoral actions against him and his mother.