Disagreeing with Pope and Whitelock's view of the seafarer as a penitential exile, John F. Vickrey argues that if the Seafarer were a religious exile, then the speaker would have related the “joys of the spirit” and not his miseries to the reader. This reading has received further support from Sebastian Sobecki, who argues that Whitelock's interpretation of religious pilgrimage does not conform to known pilgrimage patterns at the time. Instead, he proposes the vantage point of a fisherman. However, the text contains no mention, or indication of any sort, of fishes or fishing; and it is arguable that the composition is written from the vantage point of a fisher of men; that is, an evangelist. Douglas Williams suggested in 1989: "I would like to suggest that another figure more completely fits its narrator: The Evangelist". Marsden points out that although at times this poem may seem depressing, there is a sense of hope throughout it, centered on eternal life in Heaven.