The lie of truth

Perhaps, sometimes you have questioned the imposed reality in which we live nowadays. As a matter
of fact, this thought came to my mind when I was reading  O Neill's play "Long Days journey into night" because all the actors within the play are constantly trying to evade reality whether lying to each others or drinking in the case of Jamie. For example, take the following dialogue into account.

Mary

...Or I should say, the rheumatism in my hands knows. It's a better

weather prophet than you are, James.

She stares at her hands with fascinated repulsion.

Ugh! How ugly they are! Who'd ever believe they were once beautiful?

They stare at her with a growing dread.

TYRONE

Takes her hands and gently pushes them down.

Now, now, Mary. None of that foolishness. They're the sweetest hands in the world.

 By and large, when a family family have to face the sickness of one of its members, for example Edmund having tuberculosis, and the rest of the family may choose not to confront him or his mother with the truth to avoid or reduce the suffering. However, is this in the name of benevolence or selfishness? I would personally dare to say  it is the latter. Have a look at the following dialogue between James and Jamie.

TYRONE

You're a fine lunkhead! Haven't you any sense? The one thing

to avoid is saying anything that would get her more upset over

Edmund.

JAMIE

Shrugging his shoulders.

All right. Have it your way. I think it's the wrong idea to let Mama

go on kidding herself. It will only make the shock worse when she has to face it. Anyway, you can see she's deliberately fooling herself
with that summer cold talk...

In this dialogue Tyrone who is the father of Jamie is telling off his son for having discussed his brother illness in front of his mother, who is in poor mental and physical health. Even though, they are aware of the damage they could cause to Tyrone's wife when she finally has to face the truth, they still go on with the lie.

We actually grow up in a world that deceives us since our childhood. For example, the myth of Santa Claus , that is told to us by our own parents following social conventions. Obviously they do it with the best of  intentions, but aren't  enough lies in the world  already?




In theater,  as well as in other literary genres, the public have to accept the reality that is being presented by the writer, even though this reality is often hard to believe, authors such as Coleridge have called that sort of agreement willing suspension of disbelief which is defined by Alan Nathan as "a literary term of art referring to one of Aristotle’s principles of theater in which the audience accepts fiction as reality so as to experience a catharsis, or a releasing of tensions to purify the soul.” Saffire (2007)  . A reality which is artificial, however, is not our own reality artificial as well? In Ibsen's "Enemy of the people" Dr. Stockmann  declared the essentially impermanent nature of truth. Bradbury & McFarlane (1991). That is to say, that maybe today's truth could not be tomorrow's since the truth which is being told us ,most of the times, is to maintain the establishment.

Having said that,  are not all of us hiding behind a mask which gives us a sense of comfort?

Tyrone's family is always trying to avoid reality, namely, the three men of the family behind an alcohol consumption mask and Mary behind her morphine addiction mask.

Nowadays, a very good example may be facebook, a social media that most of the people  are part of it (I can name one or two persons who still buck the trend), on it, everybody show off they wonderful lives, how interesting they are, how intellectual, etc.  but that is no reality at all behind that, it is just a facade that make us feel comfortable to avoid reality. facebook is our drug.



All in all, I think that reality is always there to be found but there just a few who are constantly seeking for it, the rest is too comfortable behind their masks.

However, those who want to know the truth be aware that knowing it is not for free , because, either, you find out that you are dying or that Santa does not exist, your life will never be the same again. having said that,  are you brave enough to contemplate the truth?

So, what would you choose?

Bibliography:

William Safire. (2007). Suspension of Disbelief. 05-08-2015, de NY Times Sitio web: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/magazine/07wwln-safire-t.html?_r=0

Eugene O'Neill. (1956). Long Day's Journey Into Night. New Haven, USA: Yale University Press.

Bradbury & McFarlane. (1991). Modernism, a guide to European Literature 1890-1930. London: Penguin.