Throughout most of his creative life Pär Lagerkvist has given artistic form to an inner conflict, a struggle between on the one hand a pessimistic view of life and man, and on the other a belief in man's ability to overcome the restrictions imposed upon him by life and gradually evolve into a truly spiritual being. (p. 128)

In many respects Mariamne (1967) reads like the antithesis of the Pilgrim trilogy, Ahasverus död (1960), Pilgrim på havet (1962) and Det heliga landet (1964)…. [Lagerkvist shows in the Pilgrim trilogy] that it was a woman's pure and gentle love that guided Tobias to his ultimate goal. In Mariamne the influence of a pure and gentle woman is again shown, but the results on this occasion may appear on first reading to be little more than complete desolation.

The man with a troubled soul is this time Herod, an example of the "desert...