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Kenneth R. Mangurit Social Science Theories Applied to Theatre Professor Davidson G. Oliveros October 12, 2013

Insanity: A Statement
To be a mental patient is to wear a label, and that label never goes away, a label that says little about what you are and even less about who you are. -Rae Unzicker According to Albert Einstein, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Being insane does not refer only to a person who has mental illness but with a normal person also. For a person with mental disorder they tell a statement of what it feels to be far from reality while for a common person it shows a label whether you test or lie to someone on something. Insanity or cruelty is one of the major themes of The Duchess of Malfi, staged by the Dulaang UP at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater at Palma Hall under the direction of Tony Mabesa. We would be focusing on the part where insanity is most obviously put in the scene, the part where four actors act as mental patients but with four different professions. The costumes of the four do not tell the eyes what their profession is but the medium or the prop they are using tells it. One which uses the stethoscope that indicates that he is a doctor, the second wears a rosary that tells he is a priest, the third holds some kind of weighing or balancing scale that tells

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he is a judge, and lastly the fourth holds a crystal ball that indicates a clairvoyant or a fortune teller. We would associate these professions to a person with mental illness and what statement they are telling the society about these professions having mental disorder because only normal people or common people can acquire professions or skills like these. According to nami.org on mental illness these are medical conditions that disrupt a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. They cannot be overcome through "will power" and are not related to a person's "character" or intelligence. It tells us that the character of the four actors if we create each a background before they were mental patients was not related when they acquired the mental illness they have. Having this kind of illness may disrupt a person but what kind of disruption depends on the reason they are acting insane. The disruption of the ability to relate to others can refer to the part when the actors start to make deafening or irritating sounds and when they enter they start talking to the Duchess and throw some lines at her. The four mental patients does not disrupt their relation to the Duchess which defies the meaning of mental illness which tells us the idea that maybe mental patients do tell a statement that is why they are associated with four professions. Are the mentally ill violent? Are they more violent than people without mental illness? Violence refers to acts of physical violence against others, since these are the most fear-inducing for the public. According to nami.org again they cannot be overcome through will power this means that mental patients do not use violence to hurt themselves just because they are suffering from this disorder and therefore not using it to others to hurt them. This again defies the fact that the four actors character is hurting the Duchess of Malfi till she totally snap and become insane. Concluding that it is wrong to state that the four actors are mental patients and we really need to

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know the reason behind the four professions associated with them. They do not have mental illness but we can consider them insane. According to Wikipedia, the doctor is a word [that] is originally an agentive noun of the Latin verb docre to teach. From the meaning itself to teach, the character of the first actor is trying to teach a statement of what doctors really are. Teaching us how it is scary to carry this profession because two options are indicated here for patients, either you live or die. There are also fake doctors in which tells us the statement of their insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results which is life or death. The character of the first actor as an insane doctor tries to lead the Duchess to her death. Doctors are mostly seen in hospitals and associating the location of their profession is realizing what really lies in there and how they are associated with mental patients. Let us try to define the hospital where mental patients are held, Psychiatric Hospitals. According to Wikipedia, [these] are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders, such as clinical depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The idea focuses more on mental patients but not doctors. Hospitals are a place for people with different kinds of illness and disorders but it also a place where more people died rather than live because of different reasons like cant cope up financially, facilities were not that great, etc. This just lives to one thing, death. The medium or the prop used by the first actor is a stethoscope. According to Wikipedia, it is an acoustic medical device for auscultation, or listening to the internal sounds of an animal or human body. Stethoscopes are often considered as a symbol of the doctor's profession, as doctors are often seen or depicted with stethoscopes hanging around their necks. The

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Stethoscope tells a statement that we should listen to doctors but this is not the catch to the scene. Stethoscopes are usually used to listen to lung and heart sounds. It clearly tells us to listen to our deaths because a sudden stop to our breathing and beating of our heart leads us to dying. A priest could be the kindest of all person to a normal person who sticks to his religion but in this story it tells differently. A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities according to Wikipedia. The priest administers sacred rituals which can also include sacrifices for these rituals that clearly tells us that the role of the second actor as an insane priest lets the Duchess be the sacrifice for his ritual. It is a sacrifice that means death for the Duchess. The place where a priest is seen is the church. The church is a place where usually used for religious activities. The church can also be the place for rituals to be performed which many sacrifices was already loss for the rituals to be finish and be successful. The church may be the safest place for a person but to this it can be the scariest place because it will lead you to your death just like what the second actor did to the Duchess. You may not be really into the place but the priest will guide you to your death and be his sacrifice. The purpose of the rosary is to help keep in memory certain principal events or mysteries in the history of our salvation and to thank and praise God for them According to How to Pray the Rosary. The Rosary is the prop used by the second actor as an insane priest. A rosary has a cross on its end and According to Wikipedia, the word cross comes ultimately from Latin crux, a Roman torture device used for crucifixion. We can also say that a dagger looks like a cross, the crucifixion and the dagger just leads us to one thing, someones death. It says that it is a torture device; we can relate this to the scene and tell a statement where the second actor as an

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insane priest tries to torture the Duchess of Malfi till she snaps just by making deafening and irritating sounds. We now go to the judge. According to Wikipedia, a judge is an official who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the parties of the case, assesses the credibility and arguments of the parties, and then issues a ruling on the matter at hand based on his or her interpretation of the law and his or her own personal judgment. This refers the judge as a life savior in some ways but also gives a statement of a death bringer in different ways. Just like what he brought the Duchess of Malfi with him, death sentence. The house of the judge or where we usually see them is the trial court in which most trials are conducted. It is a place where both parties are waiting whether they live or die and even battle it out who lives or who dies. In the case of the Duchess of Malfi, she do not have the choice whether she lives or dies but the character of the third actor as an insane judge just leads her to one thing, her death. The medium or the prop used by the third actor as an insane judge is a weighing or balancing scale, a two pan beam balance. According to Wikipedia, the scales are one of the traditional symbols of justice, as wielded by statues of Lady Justice. This corresponds to the use in metaphor of matters being "held in the balance". The symbol of justice but in the situation for the Duchess of Malfi, no justice is seen and it says it should be held in the balance but it clearly shows that death is heavier than life and there will be more deaths than there is to live. Next is the fortune teller or the clairvoyant. According to Wikipedia, fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. And a clairvoyant is one who has the

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ability of clairvoyance and clairvoyant means one who sees clearly. Two things that only tell us one thing, that their prediction or vision is not exact and may also tell lies. There are five kinds of clairvoyants in which they manage to tell prediction and these are clairsentience for feeling or touching, clairaudience for hearing or listening, clairalience for smelling, claircognizance for knowing, and clairgustance for tasting according to Wikipedia. In the scene the fourth actor uses all of this to deaden the senses of the Duchess and can easily predict her future and it states that it would be her death. How unfair the practice of this fortune teller or clairvoyant and clearly defies the meaning of his profession or skill because he does not predict he tells and guides you to the way he want to happen to you. It tells a statement that the Duchess is controlled that will eventually lead to her death. We could see fortune tellers in a fair in feasts. A fair is a place where all acts are amazing but all lies and just there for the money and all rides are quite not enjoyable and scary to take for a ride. It is a perfect place for con artists where they do it for the sake of profit and sales and not for the happiness of their audience. Usually, fortune tellers are under a tent waiting for customers to come in and quite ready for some tricks up their sleeves. The prediction here are all lies and not a single one may come true but in the scene the prediction is to come true and will happen a statement where the third actor as an insane fortune teller tells the Duchess and leads her to death. A crystal ball is a fortune tellers best friend. A crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball believed by some people to aid in the performance of clairvoyance according to Wikipedia, whereby images are claimed to be seen in crystals or in water. A crystal ball should be the first in line if you survey what best suits a fortune teller on telling a lie to their customers but in the case

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of the scene for the Duchess of Malfi, the crystal ball that helped the fourth actor predicted the death of the Duchess. All the profession of the actors showed different meanings from their actual definition and most of it are negative based on the scene of the Duchess of Malfi except for one, the profession in which predicting the future is involved the fortune teller. Three out of four showed the dark side of the profession but the fourth showed much what it really means regardless of what we experience, the prediction of the death of the Duchess of Malfi. Regardless of it being different from the three it just leads to one thing only, death. All four professions will directly and happily guide you to your death. Will check your heartbeat and breathing if it stops, offer a last prayer before your sacrifice, weighs you before your sentence, and sees you till your death. The place where these professions are mostly seen are the places where most lies, deaths and tricks are conducted but the scene does not indicate any of this which tells me that whether the body that they are treating is not in their territory they can make their place come with them wherever they are therefore the palace of the Duchess of Malfi became a place for a patient in his last resting place, a sinner in his last prayer, an accused last stop in his journey, and a customer in his last look in reality. One out four tells this that it is true through its meaning the fortune teller in his place again. And it only tells us one thing again about the home of these professions, sacrifice. Sacrificing the reality of life and entering the crucial process of death. Black and white is the color of the costume of this mental patients with four different professions. In Europe and America, black is the color most commonly associated with mourning. A black day or week or month usually refers to tragic date. The term is often used to remember massacres. It could be associated with the death of the Duchess of Malfi we could say

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that the death of the Duchess is the black day for Malfi. It may not be a massacre but it will feel like it because the Duchess is one of the important person in Malfi. In western popular culture, black has long been associated with evil and darkness. It is the traditional color of witchcraft and black magic. We can refer this evil to the doings of the four actors as an insane professional on how they are like using witchcraft and black magic to deaden the feelings of the Duchess and lead her to death. Black is frequently used as a color of power, law and authority. The four professions of the actors are mostly one who has the power, the law and the authority over things just like the doctor in his patients, the priest in his followers, the judge in the law and the fortune teller in his power over time. Black is definitely a powerful color and black is commonly associated with secrecy. The color black for their costume tells it all the statement that they have this secret that is yet to be revealed. White is the color produced by reflection. As a symbol, white is the opposite of black and often represents light in contrast with darkness. If we say it is the opposite of black and in contrast with darkness that means that it is mostly associated with the good. In Biblical times, lambs and other white animals were sacrificed to expiate sins. Therefore it is not as good after all; the costume of the four actors has a touch of white that foreshadows the sacrifice of the Duchess of Malfi. Concluding that the black of the four actors in their costume is dominant than the white and you see a little of it but you still see some therefore tells that good and bad is fighting inside the character of the professionals in the mental patients because it cannot be overcome by will power. In taoism, the two opposite natures of the universe, yin and yang, are often symbolized in black and white. Therefore the costumes of the actors shows the opposite personalities of the

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character they are portraying one which is a mental patient and one of each is a doctor, a judge, a priest, and a fortune teller or a clairvoyant. It is starting to build in place the connection between the four with each other. For Example the Doctor of the Church, In Roman Catholicism and several other Christian denominations, a Doctor of the Church is an eminent theologian from whose teachings the whole Church is held to have derived great advantage. The character of a priest and a doctor can be as one in the scene and so is the judge and the priest because in the Biblical Book of Judges revolves around a succession of leaders who were known as "Judges" but who - aside from their judicial function - were also tribal war leaders, leading in war against threatening enemies. The relation of these characters shows how powerful and effective they are as mental patients and as one who brings death to the one they are treating. But these four actors are not really mental patients if we consider the definition. They are an insane person who keeps on doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The one thing that they are doing is to show, lead, and guide their victim to death. This tell us one very special statement that what if mental patients are the ones who are showing us the real stuff, giving us the truth, making us realize the things we do and helping us to embrace life but we are just too busy staring at nothing and waiting for death. And the professionals are the ones who are making us buy the fake ones, telling us lies, pursue us to the things we shouldnt do and worst for us to enter death. Maybe the ones who are inside the mental hospital should be outside and never be locked out and the ones outside should be inside because there are the ones who keeps on talking and hypnotizing or confusing us with what to do with reality. Maybe someday well get tired of their lies and go through with life and soothing sound of their voices then will be the reason for the deafening and irritating sounds of morning.

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Insanity tells a statement, it test us on how we look on reality in which way we realize we should not be controlled and should embrace life at its fullest and later have the courage to enter death. We have to be insane sometimes in order for us to define reality and give it wonderful meaning to us. Insanity hides this statement. We have to earn the right and be the one who sees clearly because it is the reality.