R.Magritte “Le double Secret”
The problem of the double is not only concerned with a split personality evident in private or public relationships , however if it had been object of study and analysis by Freud in 1900, in past times from the Renaissance (and before in ancient cultures) alienated psyche was interpreted under a very inner level, anticipating what psychology would investigate in the following centuries. In this sense I want to mean that the Alter Ego became a theatrical device through the function of the “fool” especially in the Elizabethan Theatre and in Shakespeare in particular..
The Shakespearean world is full of characters who show true madness , alleged or inconsciuous, as we can see nowadays in violent behaviours from attitudes who hurt and abuse, lamenting or pretending to be victims towards the criminal actions they are architects of .
“The “fool” has a double value in the duality “fool like melancholic/ humorous ”, it does not simply entertain , rather it represents the image of the consciousness of the protagonist, usually a noble or king, , eliciting him to reach awareness through jokes, riddles and fooling around.
Insane split personality becomes , in the historical vision,a metaphor for the human condition in the long path of metamorphosis ,somewhat to weaken the aspect of “being bizarre” avoiding symbolic connotations and focusing on the real clinical case.
Ancient ,classical and christian conceptions affected this process together with modifications in social reality as to relationships between collectivity and “the diverse”-In general social ,cultural and religious conventions help build a literary communication on the stage, just when the author projects alienated situations charging the “fool” on the double condition of being entertainer and intellectual itself.
The new interest for the “abnormal”,as a hidden manifestation of a psychological illness belonging to human beings, has been an instrument used by writers such as Sebastian Brant “Der Narrenshieff”/Ship of Fools- and in modern times by F.Fellini in “La Nave Va” , an old stage where humanity is set inside the ship metaphor for a gathering of people with peculiar and apparently extraordinary personalities, very close to be bizarre or mysterious , in a kind of “suspension” expecting to be accepted and welcomed by society even if enigmatic, strange, peculiarly unique. “What is right or wrong? what is normal or freak? who is regular?
”Madness has an enormous
pavillion
where it receives folk from every
region,
Especially if they have gold in
profusion”(S.Brant)
Following the path towards the double, symbolically represented in plays or movies and going back to Skakespeare , one of the tragedy reaching a great number of opposites, similarities and split consciences is “King lear”: the tragedy highlights pathological behaviours, exploitation of the duality”simulation-reality” (connected with the contemporary behaviour of the manipulator), the use of madness in the design of the story. All this is is possible thanks to the figure of the fool,a sort of go-between whose function is enpowered by psychological and social meanings returning to anthropological studies connected with real tragedies so far.
It is interesting to reflect on the importance of the disguise on a side reinforcing the future role of the character , his intention to turn into another person till complete identification with the new figure expressed in the camouflage, just as if his consciousness felt the need to destroy the alienated inner part to speak and live through his true self-even changing social status and self-annihilation (see Norman Bates in Psycho)
I always connect past and present which run in the same line up to the present, so that to reflect on the necessity of wearing a mask -“disguise”- to be well accepted by social conventions, receive large consensus , deceiving sincere and honest minds , especially when violence blows up into abuses, offenses, demeaning one’s dignity , nowadays related to women especially. Cordelia, the mirror image of the father Lear, is not a politician but a strong young woman, sensitive and sentimental, she does know much of the King’s soul, like his father she is determined and intovert, however she will suffer repudiation for not being hypocrital to him. Lear , an old man refusing old age and vain in his claims, will get into despair and disorientation after Cordelia ‘s words
“what is natural and unnatural”? Such a contemporary topic"!
How many men absolutely want to be the masters of others’ feelings and emotions, without understanding different forms of giving love, above all without defining the very role of loving after natural way..In Cordelia there coexist vices and virtues also typical of Lear ‘s attitude : it ‘s a double definined in “similarities” and just for this in a sort of “love-test- who loves me more? Cordelia naturally answers following natural impulses, sane and not disguised by false proclaims of abnormal love. Cordelia is a young daughter who can love her father as a father, not a deity with wrong insicere words pronounced by her sisters.
In the same time she strongly shows a natural manifestation to react the King ‘s power together with a rebellion to duty conventions, leading the reign to danger regarding the political unity ,furtherly Lear sends her away without dowry and estates, only the King of France for affection and reason of state will accept to marry her..
When speaking on the question of “double” in many forms and contexts we have to keep in mind the correlative level of “natural /unnatural”, love is not adoring or suffering pains for being accepted by who we feel to love, it is not natural if a woman often cries in an affair, wastes energies to be loved and recognized as a life partner, it is not natural, as out of mental health is Lear’s violence to Cordelia who represents the natural truth of things and the very alter image to the king..
The correlation “fool-Cordelia” is very strict, here the double as an unicum is established ,they seem to be the same person, even their words seem to be pronounced with the same logical speech, besides the genius of Shakespeare makes the fool appear and speak to the king when there is not Cordelia and viceversa, they never appear together, this device wants to mean that both the two are a unique and as a unique the double of Lear’s soul.
“I love your majesty
According to my bond, no more nor
less” (Cordelia)
part 3…