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You can find part one of this article by clicking here, or by going back to the articles list. I am starting to realize that the splintered sin I try to remove from my students' eyes is logged heavily in my own. When I read plays or see productions, I try to find some meaning from the words and wonder what I am supposed to do now. Every once in a while, this works to improve life. Every time I read or see No Exit, for example, I become determined not to be anyone's torturer and not to accept anyone's torture. Sometimes, I believe this helps; other times I am convinced that I simply share Garcin's hopes and failures. While I realize theatre is not to be viewed as a persuasive medium where we simply want to know what the author is trying to get us to do, we have to handle expression in some form. In other words, even if we fail to change our lives after reading a play or seeing a performance, we may at least understand how pleasant it would be if we had real wisdom. The best plays, I believe, are often the most confusing, and by confusing, I mean in terms of expression. What makes many plays, or screen scripts for that matter, confusing is the equal motivational strength between the antagonist and the protagonist. Often, the characters find themselves in situations where they have no choice but to act as they do, even if this brings their downfall. Antigone provides a good example of this because Creon's stubborn ways meet Antigone's equally stubborn ways, bringing destruction for both characters and for the characters' family. In a modern tragedy, Linda Loman is right; no one blames Willie for his misfortunes any more than we can blame Biff for his opposition. Milton's attempts to explain the ways of God to man does not keep man from feeling sympathy for Milton's Satan. The key to the confusion in The Bacchae is the Herdsman's speech where he tells Pentheus of the destruction to the villages. While presenting a great argument that Dionysus is truly a god and that the Baccante's actions are, in that way, divine, he also convinces Pentheus that Thebes is in danger of destruction from this god. While the Chorus is convinced that Dionysus is the greatest of all gods, Pentheus is convinced that he and his men must act quickly to stop the "Bacchic arrogance" that spreads like fire, "disgracing [them] before all Hellas." In many ways, the theme here is not greatly unlike that of The Odyssey where Odysseus learns that man is nothing without the gods. But Odysseus brought Poseidon's wrath by boasting of his own omnipotence and failing to thank the sea god for his favors. Not only has Dionysus done Pentheus no favors, but he also threatens Thebes' way of life and has taken his mother as a Bacchanal. In The Odyssey we wonder why he doesn't ask the god's forgiveness, just as we wonder why Hamlet doesn't decide "to be" in acts one or two, but Pentheus seems to have no choice. He could simply suffer the slings and arrows of his outrageous fortune, but such an action is not that of a man and a strong character. Certainly we must agree with the Chorus who says, "...he who best enjoys each passing day is truly blest," but Pentheus' head, heavy with the crown, does not seem to have that option. His fate, and the Hell that comes with it, may be best described by the New Orleans philosopher Doctor John, who sings about being in the right place at the wrong time. |
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