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ROMANTIC IDEALISM AND THE TRAVAILS OF THE ARTIST IN ESIABA
IROBI’S THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MASK
By Norbert Oyibo Eze
Introduction
The Romantic attitude to subjective reality as well as
emphasis on individualism is extensively used by Esiaba
Irobi to unequivocally dissect and illuminate the travails
of the artist in his play, The other side of the Mask. In
this tumultuous tragedy the artist grapples with his object
of representation and the problem of recognition. His
conception of himself and his art as excellent, deserving
wonderful acclaim is negated by the existing subversive
social morality, the hard facts of life. In spite of his
dazzling academic records and tremendous toil in the
farmland of creativity, the society turns the artist’s
dreams into ‘vegetable ambition’, thus driving him to
nihilism and suicide as means of transcending the vulgarity
of the world of objective reality. In this great play, Irobi
discloses his understanding of the fundamental human nature,
even as he celebrates life of interiority.
Synopsis
The Other Side of the Mask recapitulates the travails of the
great artist in a gruesome manner. In this play, Jamike, a
first class sculptor and a university lecturer, is driven to
atavism by years of denial of recognition by the organising
committee of the national art competition, which views his
works as “excellent specimens of decadent petty bourgeoisie
art”, lacking “any trace of material dialectics”. In a fit
of rage and frustration, Jamike kills Dr. Animalu the
secretary of the organising committee, not only because of
the subterfuge involved in their judgements, but for coming
to sneer at his works in his studio. Eventually, the burden
of un-fulfilment compels him to take his own life, just as
the daughter of his mentor, Kayine, returns from Paris with
the laurel he won in an international competition.
The play in focus
As the play opens, we find Jamike encountering distraction
from the outside .The coming of his brother and Naval
officer Kamuche with Elsie the supposedly abandoned fiancée
of the artist, paints the picture of the humdrums of life
impinging on the artist’s chosen life of solitude. Life of
solitude is an escapist tendency which the Romanticist
employs to avoid the objective world he cannot change. The
Naval officer’s perception of himself as an important figure
in the society constrains him to ignore Zhipora’s appeal to
restrain himself from tampering with Jamike`s peak movement
of creativity. Kamuche`s thunderous order to his orderly to
destroy Jamike`s door by all means, is a way of devaluing
the artist, and this is most unfortunate because as
Zhipora’s tells us, Jamike’s concentration period which the
naval officer abuses recklessly is:
when his feelings are most intense and his intellect more at
ease. This is the moment in the day when his visions harden
into distinct images. And he pummels them into shape like a
blacksmith at his anvil (7).
The hammerings on Jamike’s door by the naval officer’s
orderly diffuse the sculptor’s concentration, eternally
dislodging his vision. Whatever reason Kamuche has for his
unruly interruption, the damage done to Jamike’s creative
spirit is irreparable because the vision of that moment may
never crystallize again. The artistic loss can not be
quantified. For the intellectual, especially the creative
artist, silence is golden and is consciously cultivated
because it affords him the opportunity to attain spiritual
buoyancy necessary for an uncommon embrace with the goddess
of sublime art. This is the reason the great artist eschews
noise, unnecessary pleasantries and in fact prefers a life
of solitude. Kamuche’s show of brazen force, and atavism
demonstrates the degree in which militarianism pervades the
psyche of the average Nigerian man of authority, and the
extent to which the university lecturers are held in
contempt by the establishment. All these indicate that the
artist lacks a conducive atmosphere for his work. Jamike’s
flight into his garden is, therefore, a way of running away
from the humdrums of life.
Kamuche’s insistence on gaining access to Jamike’s house by
force in the artist’s most treasured moment, incredibly
betrays man’s selfishness. The naval officer’s discussion
with Zhipora demonstrates that he respects the ethics of his
profession, yet he decides to mock those of his brother, the
artist. This is the reason Zhipora gazes at him and his
atavistic behaviour with utter consternation. However, the
naval officer’s act of impudence is Irobi’s undisguised
illustration of his deep-seated hatred for the military as
destructive elements and symbols of corruption. In fact, the
playwright makes Kamuche indulge in acts of impunity like
one bereft of the faculty of reason, in order to reveal the
military as zombies who are wanting in contemplative life.
As a despot, the naval officer’s guiding philosophy is to
permanently destroy every perceived obstacle to his
intention of wielding absolute power. As an image of
friction and noise, Kamuche’s cacophonous exhibition of
power demonstrates unabashedly, the military’s mindlessness
in brutalizing normal sensibilities and their reckless abuse
of fundamental human rights. But his “compelling need to
assert self and authority … overshoots the bounds of
civility and human dignity … and reduces the despot to an
unsettling state, very incongruous, yet laughable as a
result of the foibles of a psyche gone paranoid” (Ezeji,
24).
A major cause of agony
that frequently wracks the mind of the artist as exemplified
by the character, Jamike, is the need for recognition. Every
great artist expects public acclamation of his greatness.
The dialogue below shows that this is exactly the case for
Jamike:
Kamuche: I hear
he wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, “I am the
next. I am the next”. Lady, you who minister onto him in his
hour of need, what does he mean by “I am the next”.
Zhipora: (with
zest) The next great artist! Like Michelangelo. Leonardo da
Vinci. Van Gogh. Pablo Picasso. Greatness! That is his
favourite theme. He is always pondering over the magic, that
mysterious phenomenon that makes a work of art endure the
menace of time. He is a great mind. He will be the next.
Kamuche: I hear
that even in the midnight hour, even when he is alone, he
talks to himself.
Zhipora:
Spiritedly!
Kamuche:
Punching the air and slashing the wind… muttering wicked
imprecations at some bearded sentinels…to give him his
laurels (13-14).
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