“I’m better than everybody else” is the disturbing theme underlying Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film Rope. Dostoevsky developed the same idea in Crime and Punishment as did George Bernard Shaw in Man and Superman.
Rooted in Nietzsche’s idea of the übermensch—”Superman” or “Above Man”—the idea is that a new breed of humanity will emerge who will be superior to the old, joyless Judeo-Christian ethic. Striding confidently into a brave new world, this new super-humanity will rise above the old humanity groveling before their gods. For this new strain of humanity to emerge certain superior individuals will step out of the lumbering lemming herd of hoi polloi. Such individuals will live for higher ideals and will be able to disregard the petty rules and moral codes that govern lesser mortals.
Dostoevsky’s student Raskolnikov therefore chooses to murder the old pawnbroker—a human cockroach if ever there was one—in order to take her wealth and do untold good with it for the rest of his life. He sees himself in the same category as Napoleon, who could trample the laws and lives of millions for a greater goal and greater good. In Shaw’s play, John Tanner is the young revolutionary anarchist who represents the emergent human genius. In Hitchcock’s film, Brandon Shaw (a nod to Bernard Shaw?) and Philip Morgan are young college graduates who strangle a classmate and hide his body to prove that they are, like Raskolnikov, superior creatures who are above the law.
.................
Read more: www.theimaginativeconservative.org
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario