Sybil

In September 1957, conflicted feelings about religion emerge and begin to take over analysis. Though Sybil has always felt trapped by the dictates of her religion, and wants to be free, she is also terrified that analysis will cause her to lose her faith entirely.

The more divided and doubtful she becomes inwardly, the more the “waking” Sybil expresses a commitment to the orthodoxy of her church: no dancing, no smoking, no birthday parties on the Sabbath.

The other personalities express different attitudes toward religion. The duo of personalities named Peggy remonstrate that religion is supposed to be a source of comfort, but religion has never helped any of them. Peggy Lou exclaims that she’d like to tear the church down. Vanessa is contemptuous of the Church’s prohibitions, and scathingly derides the hypocritical bigotry of the congregation in Willow Corners. She says she can’t understand the meaning of God’s love and indeed can’t understand what love was at all, but she “did know [she] didn’t want God to be like [her] mother” (297). Marcia remembers feeling troubled by and scared of her father’s talk about the end of the world, knowing it was something she was supposed to look forward to but was secretly upset because there were so many things she wanted to do in this life that she wouldn’t be able to.