At the end of volume 16, Guts, the titular hero of Berserk, is captured by the Holy Iron Chain Knights following a monumental battle against a demon which heavily weakened him , forced into captivity. It’s up to the commander of the Holy Knights, Lady Farnese, a young, religiously fanatical women, to interrogate Guts for information on the demonic creatures that follow in his wake. Here we see the breaks that create what John Berger would state is the difference between nudity and nakedness.

Here we see the ending of the interrogation. After Lady Farnese attempted to coerce Guts into confessing, he merely scoffs at her religion, causing Lady Farnese to lash out towards his nude upper body. Gut’s is a stereotypical strong man, whenever he is unclothed in any scenario denotes significance.

Here, we see Lady Farnese inflict blow upon blow on Guts. She is lashing out at his bare naked chest. Guts is nude to Lady Farnese right now, for she has all the control over him, too look at him, and do as she pleases. As we learn later, her hatred comes from Gut’s easiness to disown her religion. The religion that chains Lady Farnese to nudeness rather than the nakedness she wants to experience so overwhelmingly badly. For context, Lady Farnese’s mother was burned at the stake when she was a child for heresy. We eventually learn it’s over perceived witchness which we in the 21st century would call normal. This fractured Lady Farnese’s psyche. Scared to live the life of a modern women for shame of society, she takes power in nudeness for the clergy in order to suppress her wish for personal nakedness. Berger argued that nudeness occured at the gaze of others, whilst nakedness meant to be within one’s own self.

Here we see Lady Farnese in essence of nakedness. We see her as she sees herself naked: punishing herself for her sins. As Berger states, if nakedness reflects your true self, we now know why she hates Gut’s and his anti-religiousness too such a degree. Lady Farnese hates that society can view her as an object of nudity, and thusly rejects it at all costs to avoid her mother’s fate. Guts shows her that this fantasy can be a reality, making her fear burning at the stake. She must rid herself of this sin. However, as this page shows, Gut’s quickly turns her moment of religious nakedness into puritan nudeness. Now, at the whim of Gut’s and the demons that chase, her reality of only partaking in nakedness, not nudeness, is forever shattered.

After being kidnapped by Guts and pursued by dog demons, Lady Farnese is broken, forever severed from the now false-proven religion she used to disguise her nakedness. Inhabited by a dwindling evil spirit, slowly it begins to possess her, showing Farnese her true feelings. She badly wants to be in the vision of nakedness that Berger argues for, but uses religion as an excuse to make it seem as self nudity. Wanting to be a part of the society that condemns heretial actions, the demon preys on Farnese’s want to represent a free women, one that wants to be herself and expressive. Yet, in a dark fantasy set within times representative of the dark ages, society doesn’t permit this as non-heresy.

Aptly named the morning of truth, this chapter deals with Lady Farnese’s realization that religion and a society that hails such dogma ultimately stifles a women’s desires. As the devil incurs further into Farnese’s sexual desires, she becomes increasingly terrified of how her so desired nakedness is being overturned into nudeness. The same which she perceives killed her mother. The demon, who has omnipotence over Farnese’s emotions, alludes that Farnese used her nakedness as a perceived nudity with religion. Her sin was being washed away with her nudeness, as God observed Farnese cleanse herself. Here, after the demon takes control of Farnese, she literally straddles Gut’s gargantuan blade, the ultimate representation of the phallus. As day finally breaks, and the morning of truth arrives, the golden rays of sunshine cleanse Farnese of the demon. She weeps as she gains consciousness straddling Gut’s sword. She knows that her perceived nudeness with religion has now been revealed to be her own nakedness, and fears how society and ultimately herself can live with knowing her true self. Berserk presents such a harsh and unforgiving world, for at its core, it’s a story about how a male dominated society disenfranchises and puts women down.

Works Cited:

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series with John Berger. British Broadcasting Corp., 2012.

Miura Kentarō, et al. Berserk. Dark Horse Manga, 2019.