[Jenny]

I am gonna get back to you on this one cos I am sure that on the FOG doc or it could be the commentary on the film that Blatty said Merrin is the exorcist. Which is what most of us feel. I will watch it again and get back to you. To be honest the guy who wrote the mail to the Cap could be fibbing!!

[hatter76]

Ive always felt that it’s almost like Merrin passing the torch to Karras.
If that makes any sense

[granville1]

Thanks Jenny and Hatter for your comments!

[granville1]

Oops, per my original post: Ilya Kuriakin in Man from Uncle was played by David McCallum (sp?), not “McCullough” – sorry about that.

[Jason Stringer]

I will forever regard Merrin as The Exorcist. He’s on the poster. He ‘top and tails’ the story. He comes to save the day. He is the experienced one.

Not saying Karras ISN’T an exorcist – but I believe the title totally refers to Merrin.

[granville1]

I tend to agree, Captain. Merrin is the “bookends” of both movie and book. Even the doubting Karras is led to think that maybe Merrin can do something where Karras failed…

[Jason Stringer]

Exactly. Great point, granville1. It looks like most people voting on the poll agree that Merrin is The Exorcist, too.

[Jenny]

Actually Captain, as you put it that way then Merrin is the exorcist because they have to go threough training to be an exorcist and Karras didnt. He was there purely as an assistant. It would be like having a car driver on a bus and having to take the wheel if the bus driver has a heart attack to slow the bus down and save lives. It doesnt make him a bus driver. Does that make sense?

[Jason Stringer]

Nice analogy. Yes it made sense. 🙂

[Jenny]

Thanks Cap! I read it back and wasnt sure but at least you understand what I mean!!

[granville1]

Since we have a Blatty citation of his idea that Karras was the exorcist, one would think this means “case closed”. After all, if the Source says it, who can argue? However, I think that reader interpretation is also of merit.

If one defines “exorcist” as “one who drives out demons”, then both Karras and Merrin qualify. Karras, not because he drove out Regan’s demon _by exorcism_, but because of his personal sacrifice. Merrin, because, under circumstances Blatty leaves vague, has driven out the demon “years ago in Africa”. In the novel, Karras is the more _effective_ exorcist – Merrin has some power over the demon, but it is Karras’ self-oblation that finally, actually, drives out the demon.

However, a case can be made that Merrin is the main exorcist. Karras does not function as exorcist until Merrin – who is already famed as an exorcist – comes on the scene. Even then, Karras’ role is defined merely as an “assistant” and a “psychiatric observer”. It is Merrin to whom Chris MacNeil looks for the ultimate solution to her daughter’s affliction, and whose poetry moves her to tears. It is Merrin whose appearance staggers Karras – “the towering intellect” whose mystical paleontology has “caused ferment in the Church”. The novel begins with Merrin’s intuitions in Iraq that he will soon “fight an ancient enemy”, and it ends with his re-appearance to drive out that enemy.

Therefore I wonder if it is not a case like the old TV series, The Man from Uncle. Both Robert Vaughn’s and David McCullough’s characters were _equally_ “The Man” (singular)from Uncle. So too, both Merrin and Karras are equally “The Exorcist” (singular).

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