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When writing an allegory, what are your thoughts on capitalizing the pronouns of the figure who is portrayed as God or Jesus? In my story, I have the word ‘Prince’ capitalized, but I’m wavering back and forth between capitalizing the ‘his’ and ‘he’ and such. It’s not as if it’s capitalized in the original Greek…that’s just something we’ve done in English. Actually, it’s not always capitalized in the Bible either.
I’ve a friend who thinks it looks a bit cheesy, and I’m inclined to agree with her in the currently allegory I’m writing. In other allegories, I’d likely capitalize the pronouns. Thoughts?
INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.
@hope I don’t see any problem with it, but it just doesn’t seem necessary.
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@Hope hmmmm… the capitalization of His name always seems to give it more awe and reverence. Not that there’s anything worshipful in the form of a letter or that it is wrong to do one or the other, but visually, His is more impressive and impacting than his. So I guess it depends on your goal. Do you want that? Or for the sake of your story would you rather have it more normal… more human, if you will?
Personally, I think it’s pretty obvious who the Christ-figure is in your work anyway, so it probably wouldn’t hurt a thing if you decided to not capitalize it.
Cheesy though? Hm… that seems a bit harsh.
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I never did like cheese….
I think that if you want your readers to know that He is the Prince, and that it might not be clear to some extent, that you should definitely capitalize the pronouns and names.
If it is clear who God is in the allegory, then it is up to you, and don’t let the opinion of some cheese-lover get in your way.- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
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@hope I think it’s fine either way, though it would be sorta unique if you did capitalize it.
I think it would be neat if you capitalized it. There’s nothing cheesy about that (in my humble opinion, anyway 🙂 ).
Here’s the deal, when I talk about the King, I have His pronouns capitalized. In the next novella, I’ll have the allegorical equivalent of the Holy Spirit and those pronouns will probably be capitalized. However, in my current novella, I’d like it to be subtler. The Prince is the Prince, but he’s among his people as a general. He’s there to serve them. To, in the end, die for them. Because of the way this allegory flows, I think it would work well if I didn’t capitalize the pronouns.
But (since all the novellas take place in the same world) would it be theologically sound to capitalize the pronouns of two figures of the Trinity and not with the third?
INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.
@Hope I think that would work. I really do. Because when you think about it, (I assume you’re talking about Song of the Sword here) since the Prince was down amongst the people as one of them, it makes sense that he would be considered one of them. If you don’t capitalize it, the sense of him becoming one of them is intensified.
@kate-flournoy and then, maybe, if the Prince is mentioned in future novellas (like when He comes back) I’ll use capital pronouns. But I don’t want it to seem like He became something else by dying…
INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.
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Okay, I’m back with a stronger opinion; hope you don’t mind.
I think that you should capitalize His names, and all names that relate to Him, because in the Bible, pronouns referring to God are capitalized. It gives a sense of importance and sovereignty. That is my opinion.
If you’re capitalizing the pronouns of the Father and the Holy Spirit, then I think your readers might be a little confused if you don’t capitalize the Prince’s. And even though Jesus was human, He was also God at the same time, so I don’t think capitalizing them will compromise your message. But you know what will fit your story best; that’s just my take on it.
Sometimes I feel like capitalizing puts to much emphasis on the pronouns. An occurrence in a different book that I was beta reading drew enough attention that I commented on it being clumsy. For those who aren’t used to God’s name being capitalized it might look odd.
On looking the aforementioned occurrence, it was a time when he wasn’t clearly known to the POV character to be God. Later one when He appeared in all his majesty there wasn’t any problem. So in general go for it, but there could be a few occasion where it might be better not to and it doesn’t have to be perfectly consistent. For example you might avoid it in possessive pronouns.
Of course my opinion might be affect by the fact that I mostly read the Bible in the ESV which doesn’t have capitalization of pronouns.
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