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Analysis Of Isaac Asimov's 'Nightfall'

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“Nightfall” by Isaac Asimov started his story with Robert Emerson quote: “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how men would believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God?” (113, Asimov).This quotation by Emerson, is the preface of the story where Asimov tries to test the statement made by Emerson. In Asimov’s universe, the stars are not the city of God, but natural phenomena to be explained scientifically. Also, this scientific knowledge is to be used to help humankind. However, on the contrast there are the Cultists in Lagash, who oppose scientific knowledge, even when it validates their beliefs, because it destroys the need for faith. For this reason, as the story progresses, the conflict between science and faith evolves through the characters in order to demonstrate the reoccurring themes: darkness and lightness, and deprivation and need.
Throughout the story, Scientist and the Cultist demonstrate the conflict between science and faith. Asimov started the story with Emerson’s quote, but Asimov took a different direction then the quote. Instead, Asimov envisioned …show more content…

These two tried to experiment with the darkness, but failed. Apparently, because they felt like the walls were closing in. Asimov puts this scene twice in the short story to emphasize that the people are cluster phobic and are not trying to adapt to darkness. The people have too much fear of the darkness. Additionally, when they were asked what happened, they replied nothing happened to them. Illustrating that their fear took over and in their head they believed the walls were going to crush them. Yet, when they turned on the lights they were okay and the walls were still at their original places. Although the experiment sort of failed, it was another example of how science helps to prove and test in order to let the people know what to expect and not fear

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