Marcel: The playwright philosopher

Renascence, Spring 2003 by Hanley, Katharine Rose

A changed situation requires fresh new questions, and should be open to unexpected responses. "Sunday we're having a floor party; and I wouldn't want to tell you not to come. But we could each do something different Sunday, and then we'd have fresh news to talk about when you come to visit Thursday." So creative fidelity within lasting commitments over time is possible if new situations bring fresh questions that are addressed not to a fixed image or caricature - the one who always spoils my fun, cramps my style, takes advantage of me - but the actual presence of the real person whose presence incites enthusiasm and inspires appropriate ways of loving and promoting the well-being of the other.32

In Creative Fidelity Marcel examines appropriate ways of living out interpersonal commitments over time. A 1955 play, Croissez et Multipliez (Increase and Multiply), portrays an inadequate way of living out "Belonging" or interpersonal commitment as "being with and for one another."33 Creative Fidelity's chapter, "Belonging and Disponibility," takes up this issue showing that it is scandalous to think of a person belonging to anyone as a slave or a physical object might. How can one speak of "belonging" in a way that is respectful of the unique dignity of individual persons? To say, "You belong to me," can mean: "Whatever affects you I take to heart as affecting me." And to say, "I belong to you," can validly mean: "All that I am and have is at your disposal, for you to draw upon in support of your projects."34

The Rebellious Heart shows that authentic human fulfillment occurs not through self centeredness, but that a person's self actualization occurs paradoxically through self-gift. This notion is stressed in "Concrete Approaches to Investigating the Ontological Mystery," when Marcel suggests that sanctity might offer a good basis for ontological reflection. "The Ego and its relation to others," in Homo Viator, also presents this idea.35

Most of Marcel's plays have domestic settings that show a family life that is far from ideal. In "The Mystery of Family," in Homo Viator, he affirms that the ego of a child matures within a family; learning that it is not only the object of care and affection but also that it is only one of several persons in a community that involves a constellation of interrelationships. In this way a child matures recognizing that each individual has his or her own dignity, and is deserving of respect as a human person.36

Many of Marcel's plays have characters who choose an attitude of hope in a situation of captivity where despair is a real temptation. Marcel's essay, "The Mystery of Hope" in Homo Viator, affirms this yet stresses that one who hopes looks to the future. Hope's cause is not temperament, superior knowledge, oscillating futures, or optimism versus pessimism. Hope's well-spring is liberty. Hope emerges as an act of will carrying an assurance that there is at the heart of being, beyond all data, beyond all inventories and all calculations, a mysterious principle in connivance with me, which cannot but will what I will, at least if what I will is really worth willing and is, in fact, willed with the whole of one's being. Hope is not lackadaisical, but actively takes initiative and works imaginatively to discover or create ways of bringing about what is hoped for, which are the essentials for a full life for us. Marcel recognizes death as the test of hope. He believes that hope, in its purest and most intense form, expresses itself as "I hope in Thee for us." Marcel also notes that the link between the "Thou" and the "us" only the most patient and probative reflection can discover.37