La simbologia dello specchio

Bertoli Benedetta V^a Liceo socio-psico-pedagogico, Istituto Zappa-Fermi di Borgo Val di Taro (PR), anno scolastico 2007–2008

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Indice

• Introduzione..........................................................pag. 3
• Capitolo I: “Dorian Gray: the portrait is the mirror of the soul”........pag. 5
• Capitolo II: “Tutto cominciò a causa di uno specchio…”...................pag. 17
• Capitolo III: “Lo specchio incantato di Harry Potter e la conoscenza di sé nel bambino”........................................................pag. 21
• Capitolo IV: “Lo specchio non mente mai”................................pag. 28
• Capitolo V: “Quel Reich che doveva dominare il mondo per ‘1000 anni’ ”........................................................pag. 45
• Capitolo VI: “L’oscuro dell’inconscio in uno specchio”....................pag. 58
• Capitolo VII: “L’occhio è lo specchio dell’anima”........................pag. 63
• Bibliografia e filmografia.............................................pag. 73

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Introduzione

Avevo solo otto anni quando mi regalarono i primi due libri sulla vita e le avventure di un timido e dolce ragazzino di nome Harry Potter. Harry, da tenero bambino orfano desideroso e bisognoso di amore, si trasformò pian piano, con l’avanzare della saga, in un coraggioso e maturo ragazzo, che affronta problemi molto più grandi di lui, allegorie delle difficoltà che una persona normale deve superare ogni giorno. Io diventai grande con lui, leggendo e interessandomi agli sviluppi della sua storia: i sette libri di Joanne, infatti, non sono semplicemente un racconto per bambini, direi piuttosto che, a partire dalla terza puntata, essi diventano gradualmente una storia drammatica irta di pericoli e gravi difficoltà da contrastare, ma anche colma di sentimenti leali e sinceri come l’amicizia, che può legare anche tre ragazzi normali.

Una delle cose che più affascina ed intenerisce dell’intera saga, è il fatto che il protagonista ha perso entrambi i genitori e perciò è dovuto crescere troppo in fretta. La scena che colpisce maggiormente, infatti, anche al di là della persecuzione del protagonista da parte di Voldemort, suo malvagio nemico, è il momento in cui Harry, specchiandosi nello Specchio delle Brame, vede i suoi genitori accanto a lui e pensa che essi possano essere ancora vivi, da qualche parte. È da questa toccante parte del primo libro, che ho preso l’ispirazione riguardo la mia tesina, svolgendo un elaborato che toccasse le argomentazioni da me ritenute illuminanti e principali circa l’argomento.

Riferendomi a vari romanzi da me letti e ragionati, ho improntato il mio lavoro in larga parte riguardo al tema dello specchio come oggetto di vanità, come per la malvagia matrigna della bella Biancaneve. Grazie all’interpretazione dell’omonima fiaba da parte dello psicoanalista e psichiatra Bruno Bettelheim, ho colto l’occasione per interessarmi di varie complicazioni nella crescita del bambino, le quali possono essere arginate grazie anche ai numerosi consigli simbolici presenti da sempre nelle fiabe più classiche.

In queste storie, curiosità molto interessante, ricorre spesso il numero tre che, secondo lo studioso citato, è quello maggiormente associato al sesso: amando molto la “Divina Commedia” dantesca, ho eseguito così un percorso nell’opera, per ricercare gli infiniti cenni dell’autore a quel numero, dietro al quale si celano moltissimi simboli.

Essendo venuta a conoscenza, grazie ad un libro sulla vera storia della matrigna di Biancaneve, che la propaganda nazista aveva assunto come icona di bellezza ariana, fra le altre, anche la statua di Uta di Namburg, la musa ispiratrice di Disney che portò all’ideazione della figura della perfida Grimhilde, nel film di animazione su Biancaneve, mi sono interessata molto all’efficacia della propaganda nazista del tempo; in seguito, ho analizzato anche il comportamento del regime del Reich nei confronti della musica jazz, spinta ed ispirata dal mio essere musicista di una banda che predilige tale genere.

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Mi sono dedicata particolarmente, inoltre, all’enigmatica figura del dottor Goebbels che, come tutti coloro che si sono macchiati di un qualche crimine, ebbe alle spalle difficoltà affatto trascurabili, che spesso non si notano immediatamente.

Per quanto riguarda l’ambito artistico, ho scelto di analizzare ed interpretare autonomamente, ispirandomi ai concetti di Inconscio, Es e Super-Io di Sigmund Freud, un quadro surrealista eseguito da Paul Delvaux con tema centrale lo specchio, inteso in varie varianti e simbologie diverse. Un solo significato ha invece “lo specchio dell’anima corrotta di Dorian Gray”, nel famoso romanzo del decadente poeta inglese Wilde.

Il protagonista, infatti, “macchia” indelebilmente la tela di innumerevoli pecche, che lasciano sconcertato il lettore, a causa dell’apparenza ammaliatrice di Dorian. Nel libro sopra citato, vi è quindi l’importante tema della dualità in una stessa persona che, osservandosi come in uno specchio, si rende chiaramente conto degli orrori commessi nella sua vita, e cerca così di disfarsi dell’oggetto che ne è la prova, causando la propria distruzione. La stessa distruzione che travolge Faust che, in cambio di un’illimitata conoscenza, vende la propria anima al diavolo.

Anziché dualista, è invece triadica l’identità di Vitangelo Moscarda, protagonista del romanzo “Uno, Nessuno e Centomila” di Luigi Pirandello che, partendo da un’analisi a 360° della realtà, si rende conto che esistono una pluralità di sé diversi, che in realtà lui non è affatto uno solo e, alla fine, decide di rifiutare la sua unica identità data dalla società civile, rifugiandosi in una natura ingenua, ma sicuramente più felice.

In campo scientifico, infine, ho esposto le funzioni dell’organo della vista, interessandomi in particolare ad una malattia della cornea, il cheratocono, dalla quale sono affetta.

Senza dubbio, uno degli aspetti più avvincenti del mio elaborato, a mio parere consiste nel tema della vanità, che molto spesso porta alla distruzione, come si è visto in vari personaggi presentati.

Per questo motivo, ho deciso di accennare anche al mito di Narciso, tratto dalle Metamorfosi di Ovidio. Narciso era l’avvenente figlio del dio Cefiso e della ninfa Liriope, che disprezzava l’amore delle ninfe, in particolare di Eco che, per la disperazione, si consuma sino a diventare solo una voce.

Le giovani da lui rifiutate, chiedono perciò vendetta al cielo: Nemesi le ode e fa innamorare Narciso della sua stupenda immagine, riflessa in uno specchio d’acqua e, siccome quest’immagine non può rispondere all’amore del bel giovine in quanto inanimata, egli si lascia morire. Ecco attuata, quindi, l’ineluttabile distruzione alla quale andò incontro Narciso, come la matrigna di Biancaneve o Dorian Gray, pensando strenuamente solo a se stesso. “Amare se stessi è l’inizio di un idillio che dura tutta una vita”.

Oscar Wilde

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Capitolo I

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Dorian Gray: the portrait is the mirror of the soul

“The picture of Dorian Gray”

This is Oscar Wilde’s only novel and the work that best embodies his aesthetic theories about a life of sensation and pleasure as the supreme form of art. The man of taste, like the artist, is above common morality and must pursue his own aesthetic goals – though this has a tragic outcome in the novel.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is considered one of the last works of classic gothic horror fiction, with a strong Faustian theme. It deals with the artistic movement of the Decadents and homosexuality, both of which caused some controversy when the book was published for the first time.

The story

The novel begins with Lord Henry Wotton that observes the artist Basil Hallward, who paints the portrait of a man named Dorian Gray. Dorian is a young man of outstanding beauty and is sought after by the best London society. Dorian arrives later and so he meets Wotton.

After hearing Lord Henry’s world view, Dorian begins to think that beauty is the only worthwhile aspect of life, and the only thing left to pursue. His picture wonderfully captures the young man’s extraordinary charms and Dorian, impressed by the perfection of his own beauty as it is portrayed by the painter, wishes never to grow old.

Under the influence of Lord Henry, Dorian now begins an exploration of his senses. Unaccountably his wish is granted. He discovers an actress, Sybil Vane, who performs “Shakespeare” in a dingy theatre. He approaches her, and very soon, proposes marriage.

The woman, who refers to him as “Prince Charming”, rushes home to tell her sceptical mother and her protective brother, James says that if “Prince Charming” ever harms her, he will kill him. Dorian, then, invites Basil and Lord Henry to see Sybil’s performance in “Romeo and Juliet”.

The girl, whose only previous knowledge of love was through the love of theatre, suddenly loses her acting abilities through the experience of true love with Dorian, and so her performance is very bad.

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Dorian rejects her, saying that her beauty was in her art, and if she could no longer act, he was no longer interested in her. Once he returns home, the young man notices that Basil’s portrait of him has changed: Dorian realizes that his wish has come true, in fact the portrait is expression now seems a subtle sneer, and later ages with each grave sin committed, while his own outward appearance remains unchanged.

So, he decides to reconcile with Sybil, but Lord Henry arrives in the morning to say that Sybil has killed herself by swallowing prussic acid.

One night before he leaves for Paris, Basil arrives to question Dorian about the rumours of his indulgences. Dorian does not deny the debauchery. He takes Basil to the portrait which has become ugly under Dorian’s sins. In a fit of anger, Dorian blames the artist for his fate, and stabs him to death.

He then blackmails an old friend named Alan Cambell, who was a chemist, into destroying the body. Wishing to escape his crime, Dorian travels to an opium den. James Vane happens to be nearby, and hears someone refer to Dorian as “Prince Charming”. He follows Dorian and attempts to shoot him, but he is deceived when Dorian says that he is too young to have been involved with his sister eighteen years ago.

After James is approached by a woman from the opium den, who chastises him for not killing Dorian and tells him that Dorian has not aged for the past eighteen years. While at dinner, one night, Dorian sees Sibyl Vane’s brother stalking the grounds and fears for his life. However, during a game-shooting party the next day, James is accidentally shot and killed by one of the hunters.

After returning to London, Dorian informs Lord Henry that he will be good from now on, and has started by not breaking the heart of his latest innocent conquest, a vicar’s daughter in a country town, named Hetty Merton.

At his apartment, he wonders if the portrait would have begun to change back, losing its senile, sinful appearance, now that he has changed his immoral ways. He unveils the portrait to find that it has become worse.

Seeing this he begins to question the motives behind his act, whether it was merely vanity, curiosity, or seeking new emotional excess. Deciding that only a full confession would truly absolve him, but lacking any guilt and fearing the consequences, he decides to destroy the last vestige of his conscience.

In a fit of rage, he picks up the knife that killed Basil Hallward, and plunges it into the painting. Hearing his cry from inside the locked room, his servants send for the police, who find Dorian’s body, suddenly aged and withered, beside the portrait, which has reverted to its original form; it is only through his rings that the corpse can be identified.

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The innovative and strange themes of the decadent novel

Conscience and soul are the central themes of the novel and they are present in many chapters of the book:

• In the first Chapter Basil believes that the way people could see his soul would not be to look at him, but rather to look at his best work, the painting of Dorian. He put all of himself into it, and fears that a person could look at the painting and know everything about him;
• In Chapter 7, Dorian, as well as Basil, believes that this painting holds the secret to their respective soul, and neither wants the picture to be seen. Dorian is afraid even to look at it himself, for he does not like what he sees; he has made a mistake, and as a result his “soul” has gotten uglier. He can look at the painting to judge what kind of person he is, and he does not want to see that much;
• In Chapter 8, Dorian decides to use the painting as his conscience; since it tells him how good or bad his soul is, he will be able to look at it as a reminder that he should be good. Without the painting as a reminder that he has done wrong, he might not have decided to go back to Sibyl. Seeing a reflection of his soul, however, has prompted him to do the right thing and marry Sybil regardless of the pain she has put him through; he cannot bear the idea that his soul is ugly;
• Dorian’s plans to be good have been ruined; he cannot marry Sybil, and it is apparent that the painting knew this before he did. He has an opportunity to take this as a blessing in his life, and relish the youth and beauty that he has been given indefinitely. He realizes that he can do whatever he wants and he will still be beautiful; he can ignore conscience and watch the corruption of his soul as it happens. This will afford him a sort of pleasure, knowing that everyone around him will grow old and he will not; his soul may suffer, but his outward appearance will not;
• In Chapter 12, Basil believes that evil is always evident on a person’s face, and thus cannot believe that Dorian is evil. He seems to be too innocent to be evil on one side, that evil is always evident. In this case, Dorian’s soul has been transferred to the painting. Looking at the portrait, one would know immediately that the subject is evil. Basil has seen Dorian’s soul in the painting, and tries to convince Dorian to be good again. We can see that Basil is acting as Dorian’s conscience in this scene; Dorian is used to being able to cover his conscience with a curtain and hide it, and when it suddenly has a voice, the urge to silence it, just as he has been able to silence the portrait, takes over;
• Harry’s comment about losing one’s soul affects Dorian deeply. Dorian had previously thought that the soul does not matter, as long as one has pleasure. But now he realizes that in order to gain all of the material wealth and hedonistic pleasure of the world, his soul has become ugly. He feels very badly about this and tells Harry that the soul is not something to be taking lightly. He wishes he had treated it with more reverence when he was truly young and when his soul was still pure. Just as he destroyed Basil when he was acting as his conscience, Dorian is filled with rage at the painting for ruining his life. There is a strong parallel between Dorian’s murder of Basil and his murder of the portrait; he kills art and the artist, and in doing so kills himself. Basil put his soul into the painting, as he told Harry in the first scene, and since the painting became Dorian’s soul, Basil, the painting and Dorian were inextricably linked. There is no way to destroy the painting without destroying Dorian as well.

In this masterpiece, there are also the themes of Aestheticism and of duplicity. Aestheticism is tied in with the concept of double life. Although Dorian is hedonistic, when Basil accuses him of making Lord Henry’s sister’s name a “by-word”, Dorian replies “Take care, Basil. You go too far” suggesting that Dorian still cares about his outward image and standing within Victorian society.

Wilde highlights Dorian’s pleasure of living a double life, describing how Dorian returns home sometimes to look at his portrait, and, when looking at the changing of the portrait, “(grows) more and more enamoured of his own beauty, more and more interested in the corruption of his own soul.”

Not only does Dorian enjoy this sensation in private, but he also feels “keenly the terrible pleasure of a double life” when attending a society gathering just 24 hours after committing a murder.

This duplicity and indulgence is most evident in Dorian’s visits to the opium dens of London. Wilde represents the images of the upper class and lower class through the visit of Dorian in the districts of London.

Lord Henry asserts that “crime belongs exclusively to the lower orders...I should fancy that crime was to them what art is to us, simply a method of procuring extraordinary sensations”, which suggests that Dorian is both the criminal and the aesthete combined in one man.

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This is perhaps linked to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.