Invoking Deliberate Values Dissonance
Deliberate Values Dissonance is when the morals of a character or culture in-story (whether historical or fictional) that modern people don't agree with are presented in-universe. Not because the author believes in them, but because the culture being represented in-universe does.
My series features a character who is heavily implied to be Jeanne d'Arc (and goes by the name of Catherine Romée) as it's deuteragonist. In the series, "Catherine" is subjected to quite a culture shock, after having her soul contained within an ancient artefact called a "Divine Tool" for 600 years. Throughout the series, I plan on having instances where "Catherine" encounters aspects of the modern world that conflicts with her Catholic values.
Key highlights include:
Expressing shock at women being able to serve as soldiers.
Displaying bafflement at modern society being very accepting of homosexuality.
Being awestruck at people's rather lax attitude towards profanity and atheism.
Expressing horror and disgust upon learning that the protagonist had premarital sex with a girl prior to the events that unfold in the series.
None of this is played for laughs, as it suggested that "Catherine" is suffering from suicidal depression due to her loved ones being dead, existing in a world that is radically different from her own and having to work with the protagonist, who she doesn't get along with. It's also implied that she may be insane, due to being in social isolation for 6 centuries. But, rather than writing her as a stereotypical homophobic, God-fearing Catholic or making it look like I condone her beliefs, I wish to portray her as someone who hails from a period in time when her religious views were commonplace.
Is anyway that I can achieve such a feat?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/38606. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
The values of the Middle Ages existed for more reasons than church dogma. For example, sleeping with a girl before marrying her meant a fair chance of her getting pregnant. Which was also why men wanted their bride to be a virgin - when resources are scarce, nobody wants to raise another man's child. Woman's modern position in society too is connected to modern ability to choose when to get pregnant, as well as to a higher measure of safety from rape. Your Catherine could confront the other protagonist with the expected consequences of such actions, and then struggle to re-evaluate things in light of different consequences.
Regarding profanity and atheism, be very careful about doing your research. If you read Shakespeare, for example, he uses more profanity than would be considered reasonable for theatre nowadays. It's just different profane words, so we don't perceive them as all that dirty. And while people did not actually say they did not believe in God back then (there was no alternative explanation for natural phenomena), actual religious observance was meh - there's ample record of churches being empty except for holidays, and of the Church being angry at people sinning right and left. Tolerance towards homosexuality is also older than we think. A homosexual couple appears as background characters in Alexandre Dumas' Le Comte de Monte Cristo, for example.
Instead, how would Catherine respond to the Protestant heresy? Heresy is not a word we use nowadays, but it is a word she would be quite familiar with. Worldview is reflected in the words we use. BY using outdates concepts, you can invoke a worldview that is different from our modern one, and within which certain beliefs are understandable.
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