Conceptually, “Lost” has always been heir to the tradition of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” (which itself is heir to ancient sea adventures and Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”): travelers are stranded on a mysterious island with seemingly supernatural goings-on. As the series progressed, the character of Ben was introduced, and with his puppet-mastery seemed to parallel the magician/exile Prospero in Shakespeare’s play. Now with the latest installments, we have a direct reference with the Tempest station, and the increasing political complexities are in line with the intrigue of Shakespeare’s Elizabethan drama.
In “The Tempest,” Prospero had been the Duke of Milan, until his brother Antonio plotted with Alonso, the King of Naples, He was exiled with his daughter Miranda, but the supplies given to him by Gonzalo allowed him to survive on the island. Prospero freed the sprites imprisoned by the witch Sycorax, thus obtaining the servitude of the sprite Ariel. Sycorax’s son, the half man/half beast Caliban, was put in chains. When a ship with the players (Alonso, his brother Sebastian, his son Ferdinand, Gonzalo, Antonio) sails near the island, Prospero commands Ariel to conjure up and storm and an imaginary fire on the ship, which causes the people onboard to jump over the sides. They wash up on the island, and Ferdinand is separated from the rest. Ferdinand and Miranda meet each other and immediately fall in love. As the play ensues, Antonio tries to convince Sebastian to kill the king, and the castaways Stephano and Trinculo try to convince Caliban to kill Prospero. Power plays from off and on the island interlace.
Shakespeare borrowed from ancient sea adventures from the “Argonautica” to “The Aeneid.” [He would blend ancient tradition with contemporary stories of wonder in faraway lands and tales from the New World.] In such mythic works, harpies (who in ancient mythology were finally depicted as creatures who were half women/half birds) were sent by the gods to punish those who had angered them. In “The Tempest” near the play’s end, Ariel prepares a feast for the castaways and then shapeshifts into a harpy. However, rather than rip these characters to shreds, she tells them that they are evil men, which leads to their “redemption” and ultimately reconciliation with Prospero. Seeming to appear and disappear out of thin air – along with the disquieting whispers – Harper Stanhope of “The Other Woman” may be an allusion to the harpies. Intriguingly her personality and appearance have the qualities of contemporary usage as a bad-tempered or vindictive woman or as someone who preys on others. Certainly she has a score to settle with Juliet, who transgressed in having an affair with Harper’s husband.
An aside: Do we necessarily believe Ben, the puppet-master, when he professes his obsessive love of Juliet?
March 9, 2008
The reveal of Kate’s son as Aaron (supposedly Claire’s baby) calls for a re-examination of his biological parents. Claire is Jack’s half-sister. The father is Thomas, who some have pointed out bears a striking resemblance to Ben. I have read one theory that Thomas is the son of Ben and Ann, who somehow got off the island, and that Thomas may have actually been on the island. The latter notion is based on the similarity of his work to the painting in the Hatch (must find this website again). Given Jack’s inability to deal with the innocent child, some connection to Ben seems highly likely. As developed thus far, no other character causes such repulsion. But is Thomas the result of Ben’s seed? Or the result of his cloned DNA? [Which comes first? The chicken or the egg?] Let’s allow for even a third possibility: that Thomas is Ben himself in some sort of time loop/travel.. Another event that suggests the possibility of cloning or of time warps is the encounter of the young Ben with Richard Alpert, the future Other who will appear not to have aged.
February 23, 2008
We have accepted that Season 4 of Lost includes flash-forwards, but are these future events necessarily determined? Remember the classic narrative device of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” in which Scrooge sees Christmas Past and Christmas Future. With fear and trembling, he asks if this must be his fate, and he learns that changes in the present can alter the outcome. We have the spectral figure of Jacob (as in Jacob Marley) along with Ben (as in Ebeneezer), which doesn’t necessarily situate us in “A Christmas Carol” territory, but viewers might consider that the flash-forwards function differently than the flashbacks.
February 18, 2008
