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Truth As Signifier and Signified in „A Touch of the Poet“

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Truth As Signifier and Signified in „A Touch of the Poet“ Sonderdrucke aus der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg MONIKA FLUDERNIK Truth as signifier and signified in „a touch of the poet“ A deconstructionist reading Originalbeitrag erschienen in: Marta Gibinska (Hrsg.): Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference „New trends in english and american studies“, Cracow 1990 - April 2 – 7. Krakow: Universitas, 1992, S. 241-260 Alonika Fludernik University of Vienna TRUTH AS SIGNIFIER AND SIGNIFIED IN A TOUCH OF THE POET: A DECONSTRUCTIONIST READING In what follows I will argue for the relevance of a deconstruc- tionist reading of O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet, concentrating on the manipulation of binary oppositions in the text and on the pe- culiar status of truth, a concept repeatedly apostrophized by all the characters in the play. Whereas in the present article I have tried to outline the de- constructionist potential of O'Neill's crossreferencing technique, I have earlier studied the complexity of the interlocking strands of repeated key phrases and key words ("Byron, Napoleon, and Thorough-Bred Mares: Symbolism and Semiosis in Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet [forthcoming in Sprachkunst 1991], as well as the loaded relationship between Melody and his daughter and the handling of the key concept of truth in the play — an aspect which I can only deal with very briefly in the present pages. See "The Illusion of Truth in Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet" (forthcoming in Amerikastudien/American Studies 1991). Reference to A Touch of the Poet are to the Jonathan Cape edition of 1957 and are given in page numbers. For readers using a different edition the following figures might help. In the Jonathan Cape edition Act I occupies pp. 7 through 43; Act II (44-72); Act III (73-101); Act IV (102-138). 241 In the O'Neill canon A Touch of the Poet has suffered a his- tory of neglect and disparagement, an instance of which is Doris Falk's estimation of the play, in her 1958 Eugene O'Neill and the Tragic Tension. An Interpretative Study of the Plays. Falk cri- tiques O'Neill's repetition of key phrases and his symbolic expla- nations in the play, arguing that these make over-explicit what is apparent to the audience in any case: The play suffers from over-exposition of this theme [the Father as "Pride, Lust, and Greed", the mother as "submissive love", and the daughter as a "tormented combination of the two"]. Every action is explained by the characters — the word pride itself appears in one form or another in the text sixty-three times, usually followed by humiliation and shame. O'Neill is not satis- fied with having Con act out his ridiculous and pathetic illusion, but must always make him analyze them. [...] The symbolic meaning of the action [shooting the mare] hardly needs explanation, but we have it, anyway. [...] "For the love of God, don't take the pride of my love from me, Sara, for without it what am I at all but an ugly, fat woman gettin' old and sick' (Act I, p. 26) This is the bitter truth behind her [Nora's] constant submis- sion to and forgiveness of her husband — but need we be told?" 1 Falk, like most other writers on A Touch of the Poet, take such symbolic statements in the play at face value, believing them to mirror O'Neill's own interpretation. However, this forecloses any further play of signification and leaves the ambiguities of the ending as the only point of interpretative interest. 1 Dbris V. Falk, Eugene O'Neill and the Tragic Tension. An Interpretative Study of the Plays, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1958, pp. 167- 169. The second, revised edition has exactly the same wording: Doris V. Falk, Eugene O'Neill and the Tragic Tension. An Interpretative Study of the Plays, New York: Gordian Press, 1982, pp. 167-169. 242 In the wake of Ulrich Halfmann's discovery in O'Neill's oeuvre of what he calls the "musical theme dialogue" 2 — and what was concurrently described as "patterned language" by Egil TOrnqvist 3 — I would like to start out from a reevaluation of the repetitions in A Touch of the Post, which have a more radical function than the insistent retelling of commonoplace truths about the characters and their relationships. As TOrnqvist says, Far from making the issues too clear (as the critics would have it 4 , the verbal repetitions may, on the con- trary, be said to contribute to their mystifying com- plexity. For when we witness how one and same world. is used by several, often contrasting, characters in dif- ferent situations and reffering to different things, we experience how the meaning of the word expands as the play develops until, finally, it has become so com- plex as to seem mysterious. (193) TOrnqvist's examples are taken from Horizon, where he concen- trates on the verb go, from Web, in which the curse Gawd recurs, Thrist (god), and Christie ('dat ole davil, sea"). Halfmann, on his part, takes his examples for the "musical theme dialogue" — re- peated key phrases that occur both in the dialogue and in the stage directions — from Mourning Becomes Electra, where he shows how Lavinia's transformation into the role of her mother is signalled tex- tually both in the description of her in the stage directions (which 2 U1rich Halfmann., 'Unreal Realism." O'Neills Dramatisches Werk im Spiegel seiner szenischen Kunst, Berne: Franc.ke, 1969, pp. 120 ff. 3 Egil Tarnqvist, A Drama of Souls. Studies in O'Neill's Super-naturalistic Technique, New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1969. T6mqvist's book first ap- peared in 1968 under the same title: Egil TOrnqvist, A Drama of Souls. Stud- ies in O'iVeill's Super-naturalistic Technique, Acta Universitatis Uppsalien- sis. Historia litterarurn, vol. 3., Uppsala: .Almqvist Niksell, 1968, 1968. TOrnqvist cites to earlier studies that have a positive view on the repetitions in O'Neill: Stark Young, Immortal Shadows: A Book of Dramatic Criticism, New York and London, 1948: 175ff; and Jose Quintero, "Postcript to a Jour- ney", Theatre Arts 41, 1957, p. 28; TOrnqvist: 192-193, footnotes 8 and 9. 4 TOrnqvist had earlier referred to critics' "assumption that O'Neill is trying to pound home intellectual. ideas" (p. 193). 243 echoes precisely the former description of Mrs. Marmon), and in what the two women say in the dialogue in similar and different sit- uations. Halfmann also analyzes more subtle correspondence and images. The cross-referencing to which TOrnqvist and Halfma:nn refer is a striking feature of the cycle plays, and in A Touch of the Poet it operates to undermine the literal reading of symbolic statements proffered in the dialogue. I will here use the terms -crossrefer- encing" or "verbal repetition" rather than either Halfmann's or TOrnqvist's "musical theme dialogue" and -patterned language". "Musical theme dialogue", besides implying that the device occurs only in the dialogue (whereas, as Halfmann himself so astutely pointed out, it is in fact part of a verbal pattern spanning the whole text, including the stage directions), also misleadingly suggests an affinity with the better-known "musical motif' (as, for example, employed in the "Sirens" episode of Ulysses). TOrnqvist's -pat- terned language", on the other hand, seems too vague for my pur- poses. In the following analysis I will attempt to demonstrate how the pattern of cross-referencing in A Touch of the _Poet, on the one hand, echoes characteristics of individual characters, which they share with others, but, additionally, manipulates these features in a deliberate pattern with some playful over-signification, thereby exceeding the uses of traditional motifs and themes. In the present paper I will concentrate on binary oppositions that recur in the text of A Touch of the Poet and are part of a more general network of cross-reference including the repetition of images and other key phrases. A Touch of the Poet, although its title seems to refer primarily to Simon Harford — a point to which we will return — centrally deals with the status, person and fate of Cornelius Melody, who is obviously the leading character. The interest, the intrigue, of the play seems to lie in the ques- tion of Melody's true identity. This question is put repeatedly and answered again and again both by Melody himself and by his sur- roundings. In the establishment of Melody's "essential nature" a number of binary oppositions come into play which are used to designate what he is or does. These views on Melody are contra- 244 dictory (hence the binary oppositions), and their application shifts throughout the play. As I will show below, these contradictory ep- ithets describe Melody in terms of negation and affirmation, and the continuous deconstruction of the binary terms results in a semi- otic system closely akin to that within which difference is said to operate. I will first name and illustrate the oppositions posited in the text and then show how they are undermined, exchanged and merged in the course of the play. Melody is described in terms of a series of contradictory ep- ithets. These oppose, first, true and falsehood/lies. (For easier reference, I capitalize relevant phrases). If you ever dared face the TRUTH, you'd hate and de- spise yourself! (Passionately). All I pray to God is that someday when you're admiring yourself in the mirror something will make you see at 1st WHAT YOU RE- ALLY ARE! That will be revenge in full for all you've done to Mother and me! (80; Sara) Ain't he the LUNATIC, sittin' like a PLAY-ACTOR in his read coat, LYIN' about his battles with the French! (76; O'Dowd) His PRIDE, indade! What is it but a LIE? (105, Nora) But he's DEAD now, and his last bit av MIN' PRIDE is MURTHERED and stinkin".
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