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aviv_b_artworkBlaming the Victim
The Damnation of Faust – Hector Berloiz, Lyric Opera
Trust – by David Schwimmer, Lookingglass Theater
Let me first start by saying that this review has no pretensions of being a scholarly work. But having seen these two works performed in less than a week, I was struck by the similar themes running through both works.
Both stories revolve around the seduction of an innocent and how the victim as well as society views the victim in the aftermath.
The Damnation of Faust is based on the Goethe story, but unlike Gounod's much more famous opera, Faust, it’s written as a series of vignettes rather than one continuous narrative. In Gounod’s Faust, the main character sells his soul to the devil in order to gain the love of a young innocent, Marguerite. After he gets bored with her, Marguerite is abandoned by Faust, becomes pregnant and kills her new born child. She is miraculously redeemed at the end because her only crime is that she ‘loved too much.’ I’ve always been troubled by this phrase implying that somehow her love for Faust absolves her from the infanticide. Consent isn’t much of an issue here, at least as far as Gounod is concerned, but it could be argued that Faust’s attractiveness to Marguerite is manipulated which certainly raises the issue of fully informed consent.
In Berloiz’s opera the innocent Marguerite is literally under a spell cast by Mephistopheles. He places a dream into her so that she will believe that she and Faust are destined to be together. He convinces her to give a sleeping potion to her mother so that the lover from her dream may come to her. There is no question that without this manipulation, she would not have consented to have a physical relationship with someone she never met. Afterward, she does not even remember anything beyond him appearing in her room and kissing her.
Her condemnation from neighbors is linked to her being with Faust. As written it appears that he snuck into her room, raped her, and leaves reluctantly when the outraged neighbors approach. (How the neighbors found out is never explained). Her mother is berated for not keeping an eye on her daughter. In the hopes of Faust’s return, Marguerite continues to administer the potion to her mother eventually culminating in her mother’s death. Marguerite is arrested and sentenced to death for killing her mother.
In a very interesting twist on the Goethe story, it is at this point, when Faust learns that Marguerite is going to be executed, that he ends up selling his soul to the devil in exchange for Marguerite’s salvation. In this version it is clear that Marguerite is a confused, manipulated character and though she may believe differently, her relationship with Faust lacks true consent. I was astounded by how closely this aspect of the story mirrors the situation we are introduced to in Schwimmer’s Trust.
In the play Trust, a young teen is raped by an Internet predator. Much of the story is also told episodically in IM conversations between the teen and the predator. Using well established techniques of ‘training’ his victim, the predator lures her into on-line conversations, into believing they are soul mates, and eventually meeting up with him. As in Damnation of Faust, she is left bewildered and confused and for a time maintains that she consented to having sex with him.
The reactions of her friends and family run from supportive to angry and confused to ridicule. Eventually she is able to come to realize what has happened to her and can begin the process of healing. The ‘identity’ of her rapist is revealed at the end, which was absolutely chilling. And no, I’m not telling.
The most striking parallels between the stories are that the young women are condemned by others for being the victims of rape. Both are clearly under the control of their molester, Marguerite by the dream and magical appearance of Faust in her bedroom and Annie through psychological manipulation of the predator over the Internet. But both are blamed to varying extents for what happens to them, and both are as devastated by the blame as the rape itself. Not a whole lot has changed in 200 years as to the way people react to a rape victim.
Among the many things that have changed in this time period is the ability of the predator to more easily access his victim. Marguerite has to be approached though a dream in the Damnation of Faust; Annie meets her attacker in a teen chat room. Marguerite has no access to the outside world and has no knowledge of physical love; Annie is constantly bombarded by sexual messages from other teens, the world of fashion and song lyrics. And it’s this contrast that adds an additional layer of complexity to Annie’s story. At the start she appears very young and naïve. Through the play we learn that Annie is more knowing about sexual matters and has had several very explicit conversations with her rapist.
We know (I would hope) that this in no way implies consent of her part. And legally in the
I’m still processing this powerful play. I found Trust highly disturbing but for such a dark topic, there are moments of laughter and happiness and love. And while everything isn’t happily resolved at the end of the play (far from it); there is a sense that Annie is forever changed but not broken by the experience.
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Other Thoughts
I wanted to make a few additional comments about both works. The Berloiz opera is rarely performed due to the episodic nature of the piece. Much of the story doesn’t hold together and with more than twenty separate scenes it is difficult to stage. More often you will see a portion performed in recital format. I went with my BFF and both of us thought it was incredible. The music is beautiful, the sets and costuming and voices were amazing, I would see it again tomorrow if offered another ticket. Another long time friend who I almost always agree with called me the week before and said it was the worst opera he had seen in 20+ years. Hated it with a passion that I found disconcerting (he’s not a terrible emotional person by nature). Urged me to turn my ticket in and to run for my life. I’m awfully glad I didn’t. I have emailed him to find out why he disliked it so much.
I saw Trust with my father. When I realized what the play was about I really, really, didn’t want to be viewing it with my father sitting next to me. A lot of the play centers on the father and daughter’s relationship and his reaction to the rape. It turned out to be a perfect play for us to see together. On the drive home, we had a very interesting conversation about the nature of father-daughter relationships and how difficult it is for father’s to accept their daughter’s growing up. He also commented that he was glad I was a teen before the introduction of the Internet, rightly pointing out that given some of my teenage antics (and he doesn’t know the half of it), he couldn’t imagine what I would have gotten up to had the Internet been available.
