For Plato, the connection between time and love is expressed by means of recollection. The equivalent mode of temporality that expresses the same connection in Augustine’s Confessions is repetition. Augustine’s Confessions follow a specific pattern and structure that make us reach this conclusion.
To begin with, once someone has read the Confessions, he observes that the entire book is based on a V- shaped structure. Books I through IV are considered to be on the left hand side of the V, Book V is the base of the V and finally, Books VI to IX are considered to be on the right hand side of the V.
In order to analyze the context and understand why the mode of temporality is repetition one has to look at the five general themes that torment Augustine throughout the book. First of all, we have his thoughts about life in general. In Book I, chapter 7, we see that infancy, the most innocent period supposedly, is viewed by Augustine in a morbid way. He believes that even babies are not innocent and free from sin. It is like being born into “living death”. However, after experiencing a lot he gets reborn into life through his baptism.
Moreover, we have his weakness concerning sexual lust. In the first part, he is unable to free himself from it, he even gets married because he thought it would help him control it but it does not. He ends up separating with his wife. He knew that he could not move with his life unless he freed himself from it. He became a tormented man, he was disgusted with himself and at the end he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane (Book VIII) where he manifests somatically what goes on within. And at the peak point God manifests himself through the child’s voice and Augustine reaches sexual continence.
The other point is the one about his friends. His choice of friends was bad at the beginning but at Book VIII his friends are of good nature and we can see that from the fact that even though they had found their truth, they waited for him and encouraged him instead of abandoning him. Furthermore, we have the fact that in Book I he reads bad poetry (Virgil) but towards the end, in Book IX, he reads good poetry (The Psalms).
One final point is his religious quest. He always had trouble understanding the different aspects of religion because he could only look at the literary explanation of things. And this is why in Book III he turns towards the Manicheans, which is the rational version of Christianity. In Book V he hoped to get the answers for what he was looking for from bishop Faustus but the bishop could not give them to him. He meets Bishop Ambrose and the bishop puts scriptures into terms by relating them symbolically, he teaches him allegorical reading. In Book VII he turns away completely from the Manicheans after encountering the books of Platonists. The final step of his conversion comes with his baptism in Book IX.
As we can see, Augustine moves in a circular mode. Everything is about his conversion, about changing the way he views certain things through repetitions. He faces the same issues all over again. The things that torment him do not change overtime, they just get solved. After many repetitions, after thinking about things once too many times, after acting on his problems more than once, he discovers the right way to go about life. He is trapped in a vicious circle that he cannot escape easily. God does intervene in the process and Augustine realizes it. However, God’s plan depends on your actions. He cannot make you be what he wants you to be; it is possible to choose otherwise. This is called synergy, God acts with you, not despite you. He respects your freedom.
The movie Groundhog Day parallels Augustine’s Confessions in many respects. To begin with, it has more or less the same structure. There are things that the main character of the movie does wrong in the beginning, such as his attitude towards his job, his female coworker, the beggar that he sees on the street in the morning, the man who works for the insurance company. And as a result he gets trapped. He is able to move forward only when his behavior and his actions change and he becomes a truly good man. The notion of repetition is present here as well. However it is in an exaggerated way, since it is difficult to capture this notion in a movie. Here again the main character moves in circles. There is no tomorrow for him. He is trapped in the same day.
The first reaction of the character of the movie is the most typical. Since he is able to get away with anything he does he starts breaking the law, stealing, trying to get women to bed in a dishonest way. However, everything is created to be good. Evil is the privation of good and its weakness is that it can be easily saturated. And this is what God uses against evil. Phil, got bored of breaking the law and doing whatever crossed his mind. The moment of God intervention is when he tries to commit suicide but he wakes up in exactly the same place every morning. The presence of God is not really felt in this movie and this is an indirect sign; that he intervenes in order to save man. After all of his failed attempts to die, Phil started, by taking it one step at a time, to live a decent and honorable life. In both works, there is this moment where the initiation of conversion takes place. When they stop their wrongdoings and try to reach the ultimate goal which is real happiness. In Confessions it was in Book V and in the movie it was after his failed suicide attempts. However, the conversion is not the same. This does not mean that one of them is right and the other is wrong. Phil’s conversion is in accordance with the modern world, the everyday issues that each one of us is bound to face.
In both works, the main characters move according to the historical time since there are human beings. Nevertheless, we can still trace their common point. It is where the eternal time crosses with the historical time, which is as well a sign of God. Even though the Confessions have big loops and it seems to us that the issues only repeat themselves twice, in Groundhog Day the higher frequency of the repetitions indicates exactly the same thing.
Augustine is freed when everything in his life falls into place, and in Phil’s case, he is freed when his behavior becomes more humane, more acceptable, i.e. he is polite towards the insurance company salesman (he even buys insurance), the beggar, his attitude towards his job improves, he learns how to play perfectly the piano, and most importantly of all, he does not use dishonorable means to get his coworker into bed, he only falls asleep holding her.
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