On suicide -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 10:01:30 03/11/08 Tue
Author: Betsy Peters
Subject: On suicide
In reply to: Erin Risch 's message, "Re: Jonah, God, and Nineveh" on 20:30:30 03/09/08 Sun

An interesting thought--suicide as never an acceptable method for dealing with God's wrath. Playing with the theme of suicide...

I was reading Antony and Cleopatra for Smith's Shakespeare and was tracing the escalation of the mimetic rivalry breaking out between Antony and Caesar. It has reached fever pitch and Caesar has sent his men after Actium to go and lay hands on Antony and bring him to Caesar alive. By the time the men arrive, however, Antony is dead. He has killed himself. While a certainly tragic act, it seems to restore the necessary space between the two men. In fact, Agrippa notes to Caesar that Antony's death was exactly what Caesar had wanted. He wanted to destroy the imitative competitor. I wonder, however, what suicide does to the model. Antony peremptorily recreates space between himself and Caesar. This Caesar notes:
"That thou, my brother, my competitor
in top of all design, my mate in empire,
friend and companion in the front of war,
the arm of mine own body, and the heart
where mine his thought did kindle, that our stars
unreconciliable should divide
Our equalness to this 5.1.41ff
When Caesar, therefore, considers the act at the end, instead of using the language of rivalry that he has adopted for the last few scenes, the bitterness of rivalry disappears and the men remain irreconcilable--far apart once again from one another.

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Replies:

Row against the storm to stop reciprocation -- Betsy Peters, 10:08:38 03/11/08 Tue