The Cry for Myth by May Rollo

Author:May, Rollo [May, Rollo]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 1991-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

The self for him, thus, exists on the archaic, infantile level of selfhood. The world of relationship, the complex, fascinating, difficult, endlessly new, this world is rich in demands but copious in rewards. In short, this world of people is wholly omitted from Peer’s life. The secret, he says, lies in always avoiding commitment:

PEER: … The key to life

Is simply this. Close your ear against

The infiltration of a dangerous serpent.

COTTON: What serpent, my good friend?

PEER: A little one that is most seductive.

The one that tempts you to commit yourself.

The art of success is to stand free

And uncommitted amid the snares of life.

To know that a bridge always remains open

Behind you.*

In the next scene Peer, standing on the coast, looks out and observes that his friends are stealing his yacht. For a moment he is tremendously shocked. He cries for God to help him—he forgets God’s name and only after some thought remembers it—instructing God, “Now listen carefully.” And of course nothing happens: the friends make off with the yacht and Peer is left stranded on the seashore.

Pondering his grandiose plans as he wanders anew through the desert, he comes upon an emperor’s camp, with horses, jewels, and clothes waiting at hand. Appropriating these, Peer now proclaims himself a prophet. Here Anitra comes on the scene and dances, both in the drama and in Grieg’s music. He tells her, as an aid to seducing her, that he is a prophet sent by Allah, but this time the seduction doesn’t succeed. Riding off on his horse, Anitra abandons him as his friends have done.

Like a typical Victorian, Peer than proclaims the clichés all over again,

In short, I am master of the situation….

How fine to set oneself a goal

And drive one’s way remorselessly towards it!

To sever the bonds that bind one to one’s home

And friends.†

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