"This storm is different. This storm is not the Romans. This storm is the SS."--German officer (Spielberg) Under the aegis of sumpatheia, a Senecan character is largely a bundle of drives found elsewhere in the world. (Rosenmeyer 177)
Under the aegis of sumpatheia, a Senecan character is largely a bundle of drives found elsewhere in the world. (Rosenmeyer 177)
Why would a philosopher concerned with dismissing the passions of the heart and being ruled by reason (Seneca, De Ira 1. 17. 1-7) write plays so full of "revenge, tyranny, and furor" (Miola 175)? Braden tries to go beyond the reductionistic answer that they serve simply as negative exempla of what we should avoid. Instead, he sees the same drive producing both the stoic hero and the madman--the will to power (30). The stoic is inspired by the hope of being more than "a bundle of drives found elsewhere in the world" (Rosenmeyer 177). Stoic calm and aloofness is a strategy for establishing the self and declaring independence from circumstances which one cannot control (Braden 219). The goal was to rule over oneself as a king ruled a kingdom, to establish in oneself the "kingdom of the soul" (Arnold 239). The individual would thus be immune to the injuries inflicted by the outside world (Seneca, De Ira 3. 5. 8). Such detachment, however, is not only difficult to achieve, but also once achieved isolates the stoic inside "the wintry kingdom of the self" (Percy 85).
The madman is other side of the coin, directing the same drives toward the outside world. Such a villain tries to impose his or her will on the outside world, to right the wrongs he or she had suffered. Passion fuels this drive to conquer the world, but the same passion also conquers the one who indulges it. Especially dangerous is the passion of anger. Seneca follows the traditional Aristotelian definition of anger that it is a reaction to a perceived injury (Seneca, De Ira 1. 3. 1-5; Aristotle, De Anima 403. a. 30), a reaction that compounds the victim's injury. "It is anger that overleaps reason, that rushes off with it" (illa est ira, quae rationem transilit, quae secum rapit. Seneca, De Ira 2. 3. 4).
In the movie, Oskar argues that wrath and clemency are two sides of the same coin, just as the movie presents him and Goeth as mirror images, the reverse of each other. At one point, the movie does so literally; it alternately shows the men, dressed alike in t-shirts, standing in front of their mirrors shaving. Later it cuts from one man to the other as Goeth draws near to Helen Hirsch to kiss her and a woman draws near to Schindler to kiss him. Keneally portrays the Goeth-Schindler relationship in much more negative terms than does Spielberg. "There had in fact never been a time when to sit and drink with Amon had not been a repellent business" (Keneally 15). He uses terms like "loathing," "revulsion," and "abomination" to describe Schindler's attitude toward Goeth (15). Keneally's Schindler is thus a far cry from the Schindler of the movie who defends his friend Goeth to his other friend Stern. Yet even Keneally calls Goeth Schindler's "dark brother" (Keneally 171). If there is a brotherhood, it is the brotherhood of the power of life and death. At one point, Schindler tempts Goeth to exercise his power for to spare rather than to kill, explaining that what makes their power frightening is its arbitrary nature. The implication is that sparing others can be more fearsome than killing them, and more powerful.
Schindler: Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't. Goeth: You think that's power? Schindler: That's what the emperors had. A man stole something. He's brought in before the emperor; he throws himself down on the ground. He begs for mercy. He knows he's going to die. And the emperor pardons him. This worthless man, he lets him go. Goeth: I think you are drunk. Schindler: That's power, Amon. That is power. Amon the good. Goeth: I pardon you. [laughing] (Spielberg)
Seneca held up a similar example to his pupil Nero. Augustus found that Lucius [actually Gnaeus] Cinna, a "dull-witted man," (stolidi ingenii virum) was plotting against him. Having put down several such plots only to have other such plots arise, he decided to try a new approach. He pardoned Cinna, who responded to this action by becoming Augustus' loyal subject. Furthermore, the other plots against Augustus stopped (Seneca, De Clementia 1. 9. 1-12).
Ignovit abavus tuus victis; nam si non ignovisset, quibus imperasset? (Seneca, De Clementia 1. 10. 1) "Your great-great-grandfather pardoned the defeated; for if he had not pardoned, over whom would he have ruled?"
"Your great-great-grandfather pardoned the defeated; for if he had not pardoned, over whom would he have ruled?"
According to Seneca, even if it could be controlled, anger would still not be beneficial. But once started, anger by its nature is beyond control (Seneca, De Ira 1. 7. 1-4). Therefore the person is out of control.
Optimum est primum irritamentum irae protinus spernere ipsisque repugnare seminibus et dare operam, ne incidamus in iram. It is best to spurn immediately the first incitement of anger and to fight against its very seeds, and to commit ourselves lest we fall into anger. (Seneca, De Ira 1. 8. 1)
It is best to spurn immediately the first incitement of anger and to fight against its very seeds, and to commit ourselves lest we fall into anger. (Seneca, De Ira 1. 8. 1)