Marcel: The playwright philosopher

Renascence, Spring 2003 by Hanley, Katharine Rose

The questioning of grounds for authentic interpersonal commitment occurs in The Double Expertise's comic portrayal of a search - involving former first wife and her second husband, second wife, and an appraiser - investigating grounds for matrimony between a man, not sure of his tastes or his fortune, and a Swiss Miss (the prospective third bride to be). In Homo Viator and Creative Fidelity, Marcel notes that objective generalized criteria are insufficient to ground a genuine interpersonal commitment. So a prerequisite for a valid interpersonal commitment is that the persons involved know who they are and what, with all their heart, they want to live for. Then an interpersonal commitment to be authentic requires that this act of choice must be based on knowledge of the other in his or her subjectivity; which is first knowing, and then willing, what it is the other loves and wants to live for. An authentic commitment involves a mutual sharing of that inter-subjective knowledge and then both persons' tree choice that what each wants with all his or her heart is to create a fullness of life for each other. This commitment is a vow, spoken as a prayer; "let it be given to me to be faithful to this person." This vow becomes more sacred as one realizes that the other is powerless to force the other's commitment.

In "Obedience and Fidelity," in Homo Viator, when Marcel inquires how a commitment of belonging can be lived out authentically, he clarifies fidelity, unlike obedience, can not be commanded or forced, for fidelity is a free response to the quality of a person. He also notes that a betrayal of fidelity can be interpreted as a betrayal of someone's true self as well as a betrayal of another.31

Marcel also takes up questions about the possibility of fidelity over time. How can one commit one's freedom for the future, and then have the living out of that commitment seen as creatively free? How can someone validly promise fidelity knowing that people, circumstances and life situations change over time? Marcel has pointed out that fidelity does not mean conformity, or rigid compliance to fixed patterns. Genuine fidelity is essentially creative.

Marcel presents a scenario that helps illustrate how creative fidelity to authentic commitments is feasible. Imagine one has promised to visit a friend in a nursing home. Having received free tickets to a baseball game or ballet, one does not feel inclined to miss that opportunity. One can regret the promise made in a fleeting moment of enthusiasm, and decide to disappoint the other, or grudgingly go. But these alternatives are envisioned without invoking the real presence of the other, and without asking new questions open to unexpected answers that genuine fidelity involves. One could do this by contacting the friend in the nursing home, describing the surprise offer of an invitation to a special cultural event, stating that one would not want to disappoint the other, and will come if that's important to the other; but if coming Thursday instead were acceptable the visitor would be grateful.