The Injustice of God

The main theme of the book is the injustice of God. It is important that the reader realize, however, that this injustice is, in all likelihood, metaphorical. It is doubtful that Lautreamont actually believes in God. Rather, he is probably providing a poetic adaptation of one of the classical arguments against the existence of God: the so-called problem of evil. According to this objection, God, who is defined as supremely good and supremely powerful, cannot exist because, if he did, he would stop all the suffering in the world. This objection is personified by Maldoror himself, a man who God does not stop from victimizing humanity again and again, generally without consequence (though he is punished a few times, as in Book V, Stanza 7). God's impotence, then, is not literal—it is not as if Lautreamont believes that there is God who is literally...