David Harrower’s “Blackbird” is, in its dramatic heart, a two-person play even though other voices/characters make their mark on the journeys of Una and Ray. The foundation of the conflict between the two has to do with underage sex, an affair that occurred when Una was only twelve and Ray wasw forty. The morality of pedophilia is complicated by what sometimes seems to be genuine need and desire so that the spectator cannot easily come to decisions about right and wrong, historically or in the characters’ present-day lives.
Was Ray a child molester? A predator? Morally wrong? Should he have known better to have an affair with a twelve-year-old? Has he been more successful in absorbing and processing their shared history than she has? How? Why?
What about Una? Is she bitter and vengeful, or is she curious? Was she innocent in the events of their past or as culpable as Ray? Like the song, Una seems to have been waiting for this day to come face-to-face with her former lover. What do you think that she believes she can gain from this encounter? Should she have let sleeping dogs lie or…?
The question of consent is on the table in this play. Informed consent… uninformed consent… no meaning no… yes truly meaning yes, etc. Questions such as what is love, when is love possible, what is child abuse, etc., become central to investigating the beautiful constructions of character that are Ray and Una – like them or not.
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I liked how Harrower attempted to blur the lines on who instigated the affair and who suffered from it. He makes a case that Una was sexually excited by Ray and that she wanted him just as he wanted her. Harrower also paints Ray as tortured by the experience, having to make up a new identity and go to jail, and also as not just wanting sex from Una, but really having feelings for her.
ReplyDeleteThese attempts at humanizing both participants is interesting, but ultimately I don't buy it. Maybe it's the judicial system in which I was raised, and which Harrower is questioning, but I see Ray as the culprit both because of his status as the adult and because of the effects the encounter had on Una. Ray, as a forty-year-old, has the responsibility to keep his emotions, including his loneliness, in check. Satisfying his own self-loathing by doing what he wants with a little girl is disgusting. One may argue that Una welcomed the relationship and Ray was powerless against her charm. Bullshit. It doesn't matter if the twelve-year-old is attracted to you or is fascinated by you, as an adult you have the power and you have to say "no."
As for the effects on Una, she said that she has had a lot of sex with a lot of guys afterwards, which sounds to me like she was either searching for sex as an answer to why she felt abandoned by men, or she doesn't view sex as a big deal. Neither of which is healthy. Also, she has come to meet Ray to not only explore the past, but I think she wants to have sex with him again. She was left with a feeling of desertion when she was alone in the hotel room and she's trying to convince herself that he really did want her and that their affair was a good thing. She's a little messed up, and the end of the play perfectly illustrates her situation - still yearning for someone who's leaving her.
As you can tell by my immature psychobabble, this play is full of pyschological questions and subtext, which is why it was interesting to me. I'm still not sure what Ray's new job was or why there was garbage on the floor, but honestly it just distracted me. Otherwise, I found Ray mostly guilty and Una not quite innocent but at least worth pitying, and my convictions of responsibility and guilt intact.
I am one of those people who believes that people mature and grow at different rates and I therefore understand that there can often be a lot of genuine affection between people from various age groups. BUT, that being said, I think something is wrong with a person who is physically attracted to a 12 year old child. Seriously. When a woman is 16, 17 etc.--I understand how a person could be "hoodwinked," or"seduced" because women of that age actually look like women. 12 year olds look like children. As far as I am concerned--anyone is who is attracted to someone who looks like a child is a pedophile.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I have seen arguments on both sides of this issue presented by David Harrower. "Oleanna" and anything Lolita-like tend to portray women as predators while plays like "How I learned to Drive" etc. portray the men as predators (Interesting to note the sexes of the playwrights with the opposing points of view). This might sound a little odd, but I always feel after reading something like "Oleanna" or "Lolita" etc. that these men who are lusting after younger women are simply making up excuses as to why. One of my heroes(who is considered one of the most prominent feminists in Amcerica) completely fell out of favor with me when I read an old article she had written talking about how interns are "asking for it." This was an article, of course, written in regard to Bill Clinton, her longtime friend. She suddenly felt the need to defend him by blaming the woman--a trait I have never, ever seen her portray before. Anyway, it's a little off-topic but that's how I feel about men who write these "Lolita"--it's just the easiest method of justification. It's what Ray does both to convince himself and the audience that he is not a monster.
Intimate relationships that can be developed and healthy with different ages and yes, I also believe that people develop differently and at different stages. But the act of pedophilia is wrong. To have a passionate or sexual relationship with a 12 year girl like Una is cruel. The child is not mature enough for one thing, both emotionally or psychologically, I don't care if a child flirts with you or not, there's no excuse. And that impacts the child on to adult so much so that to function and grow in society becomes stunted. On a sexual level, a 12 yr is not even fully developed and the risk that Ray took in even sleeping with her could have gotten her pregnant and possibly killed her. The difference between "How I Learned to Drive" and this, is the relationship is a one time thing and doesn't progress in stages, or at least with Ray. He let's go and moves on with his life, even though he gets caught and pays in time at prison, but Una never leaves from that moment. She can't grow because her first moments of intimacy and sex are taken by Ray. At his age, he should have known better and there is not an excuse in this world for him screwing Una's life like that. The product is a messed up woman, nearly psychotic, possibly suicidal, and the only thing that keeps her up constant at night is Ray, trying to find that intimacy with men again that she experienced with Ray. She goes to him hoping to get whatever she can from their past moment can answer on the sick reasoning of their relationship. There are alot of people that say that women or men are "asking for it" on how they dress or by flirting or that their excuse is that they aren't predators and it's not their fault, but I truly believe that sane adults (meaning 18 and above) consciously make the choice to have sex with whoever, whether it be consensual or not, and that no influence can make you decide to rape or have underage sex with a 12yr girl. They all have to answer for their actions. This play really hits hard for me. Una had my full support, she deserved better than to live a life of shame and sadness, and that Ray deserved worse for the damage done to Una.
ReplyDeleteIn Blackbird, Harrower does an incredible job of painting his characters in an unbiased way. I don't think I have ever seen, read, or heard another story in which there was any question of who the victim was in a relationship between a 12-year-old girl and her adult lover. However, my sympathies still fell on the side of Una. Twelve years old, as a couple people have said before me, is not anywhere near the fuzzy line between childhood and adulthood. Sure, many twelve-year-old girls are biologically capable of mothering a child (insert bad health class flashbacks here), but that does not mean that a twelve-year-old is in any way emotionally capable of making the decision to consent to a relationship.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Ray would even think to engage in this relationship makes me question his judgment. As humans, we are taught right from wrong very explicitly at a very young age. I know, for example, that it is wrong to physically harm someone. If a twelve-year-old came up to me and asked me--even begged me--to choke her because she liked the high she felt from it, I would tell her absolutely not and stay as far away from her as possible. How Ray could think that having sex with a young girl was in any way NOT wrong gets me thinking that maybe there is actually something wrong with him. Is he a pedophile? Certainly. But maybe, is this the result of something equally traumatizing that happened to him? It's a lot to read into the character, but I guess I want desperately not to just be disgusted by him that I am willing to imagine all sorts of scenarios that might give him even a little bit of an excuse for his actions.
As for Una... to me she personifies temptation. Whatever her motives are, they are somewhat irrelevant. As a child, she doesn't actually know what she is getting herself into. Then, as an adult, she has been so scarred as a child that I don't think she can be held accountable for her actions toward Ray.
There are many interesting questions brought up in this play. What exactly happened in the past and to what extent has it affected their futures? It is also easy to judge these characters, but to gain a fair understanding of the events I believe that judgments should be cast aside. Ray had an attraction to Una and Una, for her part, had an attraction to Ray. Although it is possible for the attraction to be a kind of mutual love, this seems unlikely considering the details. Ray, although we do not know to what extent, lived a lonely life, seemingly deprived of normal relationships with women. He may have found a sort of kindred spirit in Una, but it is just a delusion. Because of her age, the two are not truly able to have a common understanding. Ray seems to have forgotten this and taken a fantasy of love too far. Although he could be lying, it seems that he truly felt like he could have a real relationship with Una. I will not judge the morality of this action, but I will say that Ray's hopes were misguided and unhealthy.
ReplyDeleteUna comes to Ray looking for something. As a 12 year old in her situation she did not have the clarity of understanding necessary for what she was getting into. She and her friends had some sort of crush on Ray, but she took it too far. I doubt that she really understood what love and sexuality were in her situation. I do not know that Ray took advantage of her, but I will say that neither of them had a realistic perception of the situation. I am inclined to say that Una had a crush, and that she believed she could have a romantic relationship with an adult, and that maybe she felt some sort of feeling of security around him. Where she obtained her knowledge of sexuality, I do not know. Nonetheless, her present life has been greatly warped by the events of the past. She is on bad terms with her mother, and she continues to pursue meaningless sexual relationships to try and fill some kind of void. She comes to look for Ray hoping to find some kind of resolution, and although she is seemingly accusing at first, it becomes apparent that she has a desperate need for Ray's acknowledgment. She wants to feel like they are still in love, like they can pick up from where they left off. It is my guess that her other sexual relationships were motivated by a need to have Ray in her life. It is an unhealthy attachment driven by her experience. She never moved on from the past, while Ray has seemingly tried his best to leave it all behind. Although the details are unclear, he has made a sort of new life for himself by the time the event of the play occurs.
Ray and Una's sexual relationship was undoubtedly in conflict with man's law, and Ray has, by the open of the play, served time in prison. What is so very interesting is that the events are rehashed in a way that casts guilt on all parties, and leaves us with more questions that we came in. It was interesting that in class we were shocked at the deed and even more shocked that it was a 12 year old. Age is extremely important in this play, because it seems to play a role in the average human being's ability to reason. If we were able to analyze every relationship for innocence, perhaps we wouldn't need a law condemning all sexual deviants preying on those younger than us. But this wasn't To Catch a Predator, this was a great mock trial case, in which the reader is a quasi-jury, but the point isn't even to establish guilt or innocence. We are left with an overriding question: Do we still rely on physical age as the end-all qualifier of mental age? If both parties are guilty, do we lock them both up or send them both away into the world with the emotional guilt trailing behind as their sentence? Can 6 years in prison really rehabilitate? In no way does this undo or condone Ray's inability to control himself with a 12 year old. In fact, the open end of the play leaves us with a haunting question: Although Ray seems to have moved on, and Una seems to be constantly tortured with regret and memory of the past (If you can't accurately remember the past, how can you assuredly process events to come?), has Ray truly been good in the eyes of the law since this incident? Can/should we ever know? The more questions Ray answers, the more questions I have about what he has been doing in the lapse of time not covered in the play.
ReplyDeleteWith that being said, we can't completely get inside the minds of these people at the time of the incident, so fleshing it out years later makes for a perfect trial of morality vs. law vs. human nature. Seeing them years after the fact, with Una definitely more affected, and Ray with a seemingly new career and life, do we still do away with men completely if they commit such a crime? Do we give them a few years and see if they relapse? How about a man who is above average, say a politician or a president?
I know of a few cases of this involving mutual friends involving a mutual sexual relationship that was wrong in the eyes of the law, but it was an 18 year old male and a 17 year old female, both in the same grade, but one obviously more mature. I agree with Chris, flirtation may be a reason, but it is not an excuse. This couple I mention was caught by the girl's father, and one of the characters in our production of Fiddler on the Roof was suddenly incarcerated. They were both extremely affected by it, whether they admitted it in public or not. Granted, this is a case between an older man and an even younger girl. I believe that in the eyes of the law, they should be punished equally, but a judge is likely to give the 18-year old a lesser sentence. Sometimes we think that those who "get away" or are those unreported statistics get away scot-free. In the case of the couple above, I can tell you had they not been caught, the male (now unemployed in Milwaukee) almost certainly would have continued seeing his actions as perfectly normal and not as him preying on someone with less of a developed sense of self-importance. And he has been extremely affected. When private becomes public, suddenly we realize aspects of humanity that are not taught in any school. Some laws we learn only through the experiences of others, that we won't commit the same mistake of self-indulgence. Anywhooo speaking of deviating from the norms, I will end this now as it seems to be meandering a bit.
This play seems to have created a lot of reflection on the psychologies of Una and Ray. I think that's excellent. A play should motivate controversy and discussion. I see that central issues for our discussion have been age in terms of moral responsibility and also the timing of rehabilitation. Greg said something interesting about the "age," if you will, of rehabilitation, raising the question of whether or not it is possible to rehabilitate someone in a mere six years.
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