37 pages • 1 hour read
Francine RiversRedeeming Love
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1991A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Names
Names carry a great deal of meaning in the text. Sarah is the best representation of this. She operates under many different names, all of which carry different meanings. Sarah is her given name, dating back to a time when she was innocent and pure. It is also a biblical reference to Abraham’s wife, who was barren but miraculously gave birth to a son. Angel, the name given to her by Duke, is a cruel juxtaposition to her career as a prostitute. Her husband Michael tries out several names for her: Mara, meaning “bitter”; Amanda, which he finds more fitting; and Tirzah, when he is feeling amorous.
Sarah’s real name remains a mystery to Michael for most of the book. She hides it from him because she harbors shame for her past life and still has not accepted God. She refers to herself as Angel or Amanda, fully inhabiting those personalities. Indeed, the only mention of “Sarah” before she reveals her true name is when God speaks.
As such, when Sarah tells Michael her real name at the end of the novel, the moment carries a great deal of symbolic weight. It is a sign that she accepts who she is and wants to share it with the world. She trusts God, she trusts Michael, and she trusts herself to be open with the world. The name is a symbol of this trust and openness.
Sarah is not alone in understanding the importance of names. After bringing her back to his house, Michael notices that she never uses his name. She is polite, friendly, and even loving but never addresses him as ‘Michael’. Gradually, this desire to hear Sarah say his name becomes overbearing: “Michael was consumed with the need to hear her say his name” (122). When they have sex and she says his name, it is one of the most intimate moments in the novel. Calling out Michael’s name is an instance of unencumbered passion, and that is when Sarah realizes that she loves him.
The Story of Hosea
The novel is replete with references to the Bible, but the most integral is the book of Hosea. In many ways, Redeeming Love is a retelling of the story of Hosea and his wife, Gomer.
In the Bible story, Hosea is commanded by God to take a prostitute for a wife. The woman repeatedly run away, and each time, Hosea must find a way to bring her back. The parallels are quite clear, with Michael and Sarah playing the roles of Hosea and Gomer, respectively. To make the allusion as explicit as possible, Michael’s surname is Hosea—a similarity he even points out to Sarah.
Though Michael is aware of the spiritual context and importance of the Book of Hosea, he seems unable to draw anything more than a cursory parallel between his own life and the story. He has raging arguments with God after Sarah runs away instead of taking comfort knowing that Gomer ultimately returns to Hosea and bears four children. This reveals a certain shallowness to Michael’s own understanding of his religion; while he is the most faithful character of the novel, he still has much to learn.
The Wedding Ring
A wedding ring is, in and of itself, a symbolic object. One of the most common metaphors found in the Western world, it symbolizes the bond between the partners in a marriage.
The wedding ring Michael gives to Sarah is mentioned numerous times, with each character understanding its symbolic significance. It first appears when Michael carries Sarah out of the Pair-a-Dice brothel and slips it onto her finger. The ring once belonged to his mother, so clearly it means a great deal to him and is not an object given away lightly. Paul, recognizing this importance, deems Sarah not worthy of wearing the ring.
Sarah herself understands the importance of the ring, which is why she often chooses to leave the ring behind when she runs away. The first time, it is as though she is trying to annul the marriage, as though removing the ring removes the marriage along with it. On her second attempt, she accidentally takes the ring and regrets it. The last time Sarah runs away, she gives the ring to Miriam because she hopes Michael will marry Miriam and have the children he has always wanted. By passing the ring to Miriam, she is blessing the partnership. When she returns for the final time, Michael gives Sarah the ring and—from that moment forward—she does not take it off.
The significance of the ring is not just personal but societal. It turns Sarah into a married woman, thereby removing her from the horrors of prostitution. When she removes the ring, she is in danger of returning to that lifestyle. By slipping the ring onto her finger, Michael demonstrates his desire to keep her away from a lifestyle her considers beneath her.
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By Francine Rivers
