Bacchae with Johnny Depp and Tom Hollander

If I were to cast “The Bacahae: A Communion Rite” I would cast Johnny Depp as Dionysos and Tom Hollander as Pentheus. Initially, I was inspired by the movie “Pirate of the Caribbean: At World’s End” where Johnny Depp is casted as the mischievous and mysterious Captain Jack Sparrow and Tom Hollander is casted as the antagonistic Lord Beckett.

In this movie, Captain Jack Sparrow was the center of attention.  He is depicted as unpredictable, adventurous and strange. Often times, Jack Sparrow is seen drinking alcohol and enjoying the time of his life while making everyone else’s life more chaotic. However, despite his chaotic methods, the captain always seems to have a plan to triumph in the end. Thus, everyone always obey and follow his orders. On the other hand, at many moments in the movie, the captain is calm, collected and devious. Throughout the movie, the captain causes the audience to wonder whether his acts and stunts are intentional and strategically planned or successful by luck.

Johnny Depp would be the perfect candidate for Dionysos due to his convincing performance in “Pirates of the Caribbean.” The Character, Jack Sparrow, in itself represents parts of Dionysos’ abilities. In “The Bacchae,” Dionysos is a god who wishes to liberate the citizens of Thebes through alcohol and release of wild emotions.  He despises Pentheus’ ideals and is eager to liberate Thebes from Pentheus’ rule and often uses strange ways to punish and trick Pentheus into worshipping him. In addition, Dionysos also calls himself Bromius. When Bromius is in the context, he is portrayed as a calm, collected and dignified character. This is illustrated clearly when Pentheus could not shake the will in Bromius when he was imprisoned by Pentheus. Jack Sparrow is similar in that he uses playful approaches to solve the dilemmas at hand and never reveals his true plans. The captain is also always seen with his arms around women and rum indicating his lack of concern for manners and proper image. Furthermore, Johnny Depp has also demonstrated the diversity in his acting through many of his other works. His flexibility and skill is what ultimately convinces me to cast him as Dionysos in “The Bacchae.”

Lord Beckett in the movie “Pirates of Caribbean” was the main antagonist. He directs the British military and planned to take over the seas and eliminates the last of the pirates. Lord Beckett is power hungry and is very rigid towards rules and regulations.  To defeat the pirates, Becket had to black mail and team up with Davy Jones to gain enough power. In other words, Lord Beckett had to strategize against the pirates in the their own territory.  Although he seems to succeed at first, Lord Beckett is overpowered under the attack of the pirates in their final battle leaving him awestruck and dumbfounded standing in the middle of a sinking ship.

Tom Hollander was very successful in portraying Lord Beckett in the movie. His movements and speech was formal and cordial but at the same time very authoritative. Similar to Pentheus, Lord Beckett indulged in the materialistic ideas of entrapment, power and control. In “The Bacchae,” Pentheus is depicted as a cold and cruel dictator. Pentheus is fixated on the idea of a proper life and order just as Lord Beckett insisted upon the elimination of piracy. Ultimately, both Pentheus and Lord Beckett failed to defeat their opponents. Furthermore, both lost to their opponents when they attempted to assimilate to their opponents’ culture and environment. Other than his depiction of Lord Beckett, Tom Hollander also performed a perfect image of Mr. Collins in the movie “Pride and Prejudice.” Mr. Collins was also an uptight and orderly character that seems boring and strict. Through my assessments of these two movies, I am confident that Tom Hollander would carry out Pentheus’ character brilliantly. 

Tom Hollander: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0390903/

The Metamorphosis and Endgame

In both works, The Metamorphosis and Endgame, Kafka and Ballard surface an issue in which society suppresses personal identity in different respects of society. The metamorphosis emphasizes the superficiality one’s economic value dominating their worth. In the Endgame, Ballard emphasizes the elimination of individualism as one discovers and accepts that their identity is incongruent to society. 

In The Metamorphosis, Gregor is trapped in an insect’s body and unable to work. Eventually, Gregor conforms to live in a bug like environment. “He especially enjoyed hanging suspended from the ceiling…one could breathe more freely; one’s body swung and rocked lightly…”(Kafka 115) As Gregor slowly starts to enjoy his own living situation, His family distance themselves from him. Ultimately, his inability and complacency in this strange situation causes him to lose societal value and causes his death. “It was like a confirmation of their new dreams and excellent intentions that at the end of their journey their daughter sprang to her feet first and stretched her young body.”(Kafka 139) In the end, his family leaves him behind to die to lighten their burden as they move on leech off of his sister, Grete, as they marry her into a wealthy household. This indicates the intolerance for diversity in society. Kafka stresses that once a person loses his or her economic value, he or she is rendered useless in society. Furthermore, if the aspirations of an individual are not of value in society, his or her identity would be suppressed. Kafka uses Gregor to demonstrate this point. When Gregor is in his human form, he carries the burden supporting the family; however, when Gregor turns into the bug and is no longer able to provide for the family, he is locked inside a storage room along with the unwanted furniture. In other words, Gregor’s death indicates the intolerant society and the superficial emphasis on the economic value of a person. In addition, Kafka uses Grete to demonstrate the superficiality in this society as well. When Grete’s parents discovered that Grete has grown to be a beautiful young woman fit to marry, they immediately acknowledged the economic prospects of their lives disregarding her preferences to be a musician. This illustrates the shallow perspective of economics value overpowering dreams and aspirations that do not revolve around money.

Similarly, in Endgame, Ballard suggests that an individual is exiled from society as soon as he or she is accused of offending society. In the short story, Constantin, the Condemned, is accused of an unknown crime that hasn’t gone through proper trial and imprisoned in an empty villa. Constantin’s unknown sentence of imprisonment symbolizes the discrimination society has against individuality. Ballard makes this parallel by stating that  “[Constantin’s] case [was] permanently one file but never irrevocably closed. Above all, the fact of his guilt was never established and confirmed.” (Ballard 507)  In other words, Ballard compares Constantin’s crime to being discriminated and excluded from current society. He illustrates the vague but equally strong verdict that discrimination puts on people.  Once you are excluded from society you are ignored and misunderstood.  Furthermore, in Endgame Ballard suggests that “if [a definite date of execution] were known in advance there might be a last-minute rally of sympathy, an attempt to review the sentence and perhaps apportion the blame else where.”(Ballard 506) Which relates to the obscurity and ambiguity that lies within the discriminatory judgments of society and how fast someone can be exiled from society without truly being understood. In addition, Constantin’s death symbolizes the consequences for individuality. As Constantin fights for his innocence, the executioner tells him that “When [he know he is] innocent, then [he is] guilty.”(Ballard 520) This demonstrates that by accepting and boasting one’s own unique identity, one is susceptible to society’s elimination.

In both The Metamorphosis and Endgame, the symbolism revolves around the isolation and suppression of one’s identity and value. Both Kafka and Ballard use death as a prime consequence for not conforming to society.  They also use the physical segregation to represent the isolation from society.  In the Metamorphosis, Gregor is trapped in his room, not allowed to come out, whereas in Endgame, Constantin is not allowed to leave the villa. In addition, both of the main characters were rejected and excluded from society for unclear and unjustified reasons. No explicit reason was given as to why Gregor becomes an insect nor was there a clear crime pinned on Constantin. In short, Kafka and Ballard both created a situation in which individuals are suppressed and suffocated by the homogenous society.

However, Kafka explored this idea with a different perspective. Kafka specifically inferred to the economic value one has in society. Gregor’s isolation did not begin until he began to lose his financial abilities in the household. In Kafka’s work, one’s identity is overpowered by the capitalistic society.  In contrast, Constantin in Endgame was isolated due to an unknown crime that was not strictly established. Through that Ballard addresses the inexplicable prejudices that circulates in a homogenous society isolating the unique aspects of individuals. Thus Ballard suggests that suppression of one’s identity stems from the discrimination and prejudices of others in society. Although both works discuss isolation, Kafka and Ballard definitely approached this thematic issue from different perspectives and aspects.