For his first and experimental opera, Penderecki chose a story about a sensational scandal that happened in France long before his time. Surely, the story was stimulating enough to catch the attention of the audience. Moreover, it has a stronger connection with the audience below the surface; in a deeper level, the psychological aspects of the story make allusions to various historical events and tendencies in the society and its people of the time. In "The Devils of Loudun", the social outsider, Grandier, struggles alone against intolerance, fanaticism, and organized violence of the society. Tuchowski shows various ways that the psychological subtleties of the relationships between value systems (i.e. religious or political organizations, etc.) and an outsider in this work could be analyzed.