Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Life in the mountains - "a cell of ignorance"?
Does the play make a clear statement on the distinction between pastoral and courtly life? We see similar statements (but from opposite perspectives) from Innogen and from Cymbeline’s two stolen sons on the ignorance that results from isolation in one of these spheres. In 3.3, Arviragus complains that through a secluded life of “bondage” in the mountains, he and his brother are “beastly,” and “have seen nothing” (33-43). Innogen later notes her own blindness to life and experience outside the court; after interacting with Guiderius and Arviragus, her “experience…disprov’st report” that “all’s savage but at court” (4.2.33-34). The goodness Innogen values in the pastoral world, though, is centered on the kindness of her brothers, and the reader knows them to be of royal blood. The only character who seems to praise the “quiet life” for its own sake is Belarius—a banished kidnapper. These points clearly undermine the value of the pastoral in the play, but is the view a complete rejection?
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