“We are constantly endeavouring to give meaning and order to our lives in the past, present, and the future, to our surroundings, the world in which we live; with the result that our lives appear in our conception as total entities - which to be sure are always changing, more or less radically, more or less rapidly, depending on the extent to which we are obliged, inclined, and able to assimilate the onrush of new experience.” Erich Auerbach
My essay in response to this question for the Trinity College (Cambridge) Gould Prize for Essays in English Literature.
The responsibility to reflect a desire to give meaning and order to our lives does not lie with literature; it is not necessary for literature to reflect this desire in order to be a valuable experience for a reader. In fact, it is not a requirement of literature to reflect this desire; however, more often than not it does, because the compulsion to write is the compulsion to present to a wider audience a perception of the human condition, of which the endeavour to give meaning and order to life is a large part. Literature has always been a constant search for meaning in our lives, with one technicality: the desire to give meaning must never be satisfied, because to satisfy this desire would make life itself futile. To view our lives ‘as total entities’ is impossible because a life with meaning, other than the search for meaning, is a life ended. The agonising futility of life can only be dulled if the meaning of life in ‘the world in which we live’ remains an enigma that we puzzle over for the duration of our transient existence.
This is explored in The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster; characters constantly search for meaning and order in their lives, the supposed success of which leads them only to tragedy. The reflection of the endeavour for meaning and disappointment in finding it is portrayed in the malcontent Bosola’s character; he believes he finds meaning through his supposed self-righteousness and cynicism, but as the play progresses this disintegrates as he realises that his life appearing as a ‘total entity’ makes his life pointless. As his character develops, he becomes more at peace with the search for meaning rather than the supposed discovery of it. In Act 2 Scene 1, Bosola states that ‘Man stands amazed to see his deformity in any other creature but himself’, with the use of the declarative implying a genuine belief in his words. At this point in the play, Bosola’s character is depicted as simultaneously satisfied in this meaning of life, to ‘paint weeds to the life’ and to be ‘praised’ for it, and as villainous. Bosola is at his worst when he believes he has found meaning in life; here Webster conveys one’s urge to to seek meaning and order to our lives, while never thinking oneself to have found it, because to observe one’s life as a total entity will inevitably lead to disillusionment.
Webster’s character Ferdinand in the same play also experiences disillusionment in his supposed realisation of the meaning of his life. He desires to rid himself of the burden of his hatred of the Duchess, and this becomes the meaning of his life, as he believes it will deliver him relief from his distorted and perverse view of his eponymous sister. However, once he satisfies this desire to give order to a previously distorted view of her by murdering her, he is driven mad, even more so than before. He is tormented by the effect of acting on his supposed meaning to life, condemning Bosola for carrying out his orders: “why didst not thou pity her...I bade thee when I was distracted of my wits”. Ferdinand realises the futility of life in the supposed success in his search for meaning, and wishes to return to before his sister’s death, when he was still in the process of seeking meaning. In The Duchess of Malfi, Webster presents all characters that think they find ‘meaning’ to their lives as misguided, because the meaning of life and the way to give order to it lies in the acceptance that the search for meaning is perpetual, and never to be satisfied with an answer. In this sense, Webster reflects the desire itself to give meaning to life as the most meaningful thing in life. Literature tends to reflect the importance of the desire itself, and the comfort found in the acceptance of the ambiguity in life’s meaning, because ‘the onrush of new experience’ will only change the meaning we have found.
This same dilemma of searching for meaning (with no good coming from finding it) is further explored, centuries later, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Jay Gatsby believes he has found meaning in life: to pursue his desire for Daisy’s love. The perpetual nature of endeavouring to find meaning in life when to stop doing this means inevitable disillusionment, is what is presented in the novel as the meaning for life. But, similar to the characters in The Duchess of Malfi, Gatsby is misguided in this meaning he has found. Gatsby wishes only to adore the perfect, fantastical and unreasonable image of Daisy he has created himself in the process of his endeavour for meaning through a potential relationship with Daisy. Once this endeavour and supposed ‘meaning’ for his life has been fulfilled, the actual meaning, to constantly want to give meaning to life, is lost. Any fulfillment he finds in his short-lived relationship with Daisy at the end of the novel is unsatisfactory, because the “green light” and his “extraordinary gift for hope” is a far stronger desire, and therefore a more satisfying meaning to life, than the satisfaction of being with Daisy at the close of The Great Gatsby, because it gives Gatsby purpose. By constantly searching to give meaning and order to our lives, one distracts oneself from the blatant distressing ambiguity of life, and Fitzgerald presents Gatsby’s desire to give meaning and order to his life through his ceaseless attempts to attract Daisy. Gatsby is bound to be disillusioned by this meaning he has given his life because he bases it on a fantasy of his own love. The Great Gatsby does, as a result, reflect the desire to ‘give meaning and order to our lives’ through the character Jay Gatsby, who, on achieving what he finds to be the meaning of life, is inevitably “restless” just like the other characters, as both money and love in excess have not been enough to give meaning to his life.
Furthermore, the character of Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby presents this disillusionment. His life can never be viewed as a total entity, because people are, particularly in the novel, “restless” as soon as they have achieved, or inherited, a lot in their lives. All supposed meanings for life are best left unconfirmed, lest we become redundant; our occupation is to wish to find meaning in life but never to discover it, because the meaning of life is paradoxical, is to be constantly searching. Tom Buchanan becomes lost and purposeless, searching for things that allow a meaning to life: be that having a mistress, money or a desire to, as the “dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things”. Beneath Tom’s overtly masculine and aggressive exterior, he fears perhaps more than anyone, the obscurity of order to life, and attempts to grasp some tangible meaning to life. This is Tom’s downfall - had he accepted that life is a constant endeavour for order and meaning, he would not fear the ambiguity of life as much.
The reflection of the desire to give meaning and order to our lives in literary work itself is not the only way that literature can present this desire. It is also reflected in the effect literature has upon, in the case of The Duchess of Malfi, playwright and audience, or The Great Gatsby, author and reader. Literature, and the action of creating it, is, in itself, the creator’s pursuit of elucidation of life. Literature is undeniably cathartic; the universal fear of the ambiguity of life compels us to create literature that explores this, and to read literature that portrays this fear accurately. To create literature is a release from perpetual fear of the unknown, and to experience literature is to feel relief that we are not alone in this fear. However, this unease is inevitable - literature does not provide answers to the meaning of life, it only reworks the questions, because to answer would be pointless. Throughout history, any meaning provided for existence has not been enough. Whether we believe in Genesis or that the answer to the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is 42, as a species we have a disposition to doubt and question. Ever since we had the ability to write, we have used literature as a vehicle through which we can explore the human condition; it is an essential, cathartic practice, and Webster practises it in this play. The composition of The Duchess of Malfi and The Great Gatsby reflects Webster and Fitzgerald’s own desire to give meaning and order to their lives and thereby explore life’s meaning. Webster and Fitzgerald’s production of these two texts reflect their own yearning for life’s meaning; and our role as an audience reflects ours.
In L’Étranger or The Stranger (translation) by Albert Camus, the intimation is that we should accept the absurd nature of human existence while simultaneously continuing to search for meaning in it - by doing this we find meaning in our existence. This is reflected throughout literature - the pursuit of meaning and order in life is the meaning to life. But if our lives appear to us as total entities, and we believe we have discovered meaning to life, we are bound to find life pointless, as new experience is perpetual, so the search for meaning must also be perpetual. Literature has no obligation to reflect this desire to give meaning and order to life through the search for a meaning to it, but literature is bound to reflect it, because it is a reflect of the human condition, of which meaning to life is a large and agonising part. Any life with a supposed ‘discovered’ meaning aside from searching for the meaning, is destined for disillusionment. No meaning for life is enough - as John D. Rockefeller, when asked “How much money is enough money?” said “just a little bit more”. This applies to a meaning to life too: any meaning provided is not quite enough, because people are doubtful of satisfaction by nature.
コメント