Essay: Carnival – politically subversive act or restorative of the status quo?

Whether or not Carnival is a politically subversive act or restorative of the status quo is subjective to each individual. To argue whether or not it is a subversive act and challenges society or, is entirely reinforcing the status quo: I will engage with the ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin’s Rabelais and His World, Michael Bristol’s Carnival and Theatre (2014) and Sibylle Baumbach’s Introduction to the study of Plays and Drama (2019) as well as referring to ideas presented by Dr Catherine Rosario in her lecture ‘Carnival, Carnivalesque and Medieval Morality Plays’ (2019) to analyse the plays Mankind (1407) and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (1601) in the context of the question.
In Aristotle’s Poetics (330BC) Tragedy acts as a moral lesson in which fear and sympathy caused by the plight of the tragic hero serve to warn the spectator not to offend providence similarly. In a similar effect, Baumbach states that Morality Plays aimed at improving their audience, providing guidance on how to differentiate between evil and virtue; who were both fighting for the soul of man. Morality plays were performed during Carnival-like (carnivalesque) celebrations such as Eucharist. Carnival itself follows a topsy-turvy principle that governs the acts, according to Bristol’s Carnival and Theatre tools are used not for building but for breaking and killing. The inversion of rank is a critical part of the celebration, for example, a fool would be elevated to the status of a king for one day, and a king would be treated like a fool, making Carnival a special opportunity for all community members.
Mankind fits Baumbach’s description of a morality play, transcribed by a monk its contents are pious and the actions within the play are symbolic. Performed as a part of Christian celebrations, the themes disconnected from the rather pagan themes explored in Greek Theatre and instead connected primarily with themes of Christianity and purification of sin. In terms of Carnivalesque Mankind is filled with ludicrous and obscene humour ‘I pray you heartily worshipful clerk, to have this English made in Latin: ‘I have eaten a dish of curds, And I have smitten your mouth full of turds” where the audience is encouraged to enjoy the vice characters humour which disrupts society by establishing a dynamism in which radical new identities can be carried out with no risk of punishment.
Twelfth Night’s connection to the carnivalesque is that Shakespeare completely disregards daily dogmatic laws through his exploration of gender and disguise. The treatment of the puritanical character, Malvolio is similar to the treatment of Mankind at the hands of the three vices – Shakespeare connects weakness or villainy with antipathy towards music or theatre which juxtaposes how Baumbach mentions; the church condemned the art of acting as heretical and it’s use of dramatic techniques such as face painting and dressing in women clothes, disguise etc.
To some extent, Carnival is a restorative act and can be written with qualities which are meant purely to restore a status quo. In Mankind, as with all morality plays, there is a goal to be achieved of refining and delivering education to its spectators. Baumbach quotes Ricks (1987); “(if) the source of the texts of the cycles was the lector.. the source of the texts of the Moralities was the single vernacular item within the liturgy, the sermon”.
As with other Morality Plays, Mankind dramatises the war between the forces of good and evil over life and living as a Christian whilst continuing to sin, and repenting for the forgiveness of those sins. Eventually, Mankind embraces Mercy and his ideology, The play then ends with Mercy addressing the spectators, asking them to repent alongside Mankind. This ending reinforces the idea that the religious acts of Carnival in Mankind restore society and reinforce the status quo – ‘refining’ the audience.
In the Twelfth Night, brother and sister are shipwrecked and separated from each other. The sister, Viola must assume the identity of a man to make a living in Duke Orsino’s home, who is in love with the Lady Olivia. This play undoubtedly aligns with Bakhtin’s concept of the Carnivalesque – Scabrously shattering rigid oppositions. Birth and death, body and spirit .. are sent packing the tails between their legs. – Gender especially in this context, nothing is what it seems in the Twelfth Night.
Bakhtin says — the clown was first dressed as a king, but once his reign came to an end his costume was changed to transform him into a clown again — Malvolio’s tragedy in Twelfth Night is a cautious tale of desire that overcomes good sense, hoping in this instance that he will become Count Malvolio; the clown that becomes a king – doing this, he exposes himself to “abuse and thrashing” which, as Bakhtin puts it, tears away his ‘disguise and uncrowns him as king.
Both Mankind and Malvolio are subject to abuse and thrashing via the vice characters and laughed at respectively by the vice characters and audience alike. In her lecture on the subject of Mankind and the Carnivalesque, Dr Rosario says a typical morality play features an ‘everyman’ figure, between the forces of spiritual goodness and earthly sinfulness. This applies to Malvolio in the respect he is a puritanical character who is overcome with lust and gluttony and therefore sinful. He is then punished for his sins. Unlike Mankind, Malvolio is offered no repentance – likely due to Shakespeare’s aforementioned dislike of puritans.
The play ends with a marriage agreement between Duke Orsino and Viola and its discovered that Sir Toby married Maria. The idea of Marriage has the same idea of repentance as seen in Mankind – thus refining an audience as everything returns to the normal and social structure is reinforced. Again this would mean, although there is extreme Carnival, in Twelfth Night – ultimately, its plot reinforces the status quo.
In retrospect, Carnival is a potentially subversive and at times violent act. Bristol refers to the fact that living in a symbolically representative world where we confuse the spiritual truth of symbols with their functional effectiveness in everyday life has led to a hierarchical social system in which there is a strong belief in the authority of symbols and social rankings. This coincides with Bakhtin’s metamorphosis regarding the clown and the king. Bristol says “A crown is not just a fancy hat”. However, in Carnival, we diminish the meanings of symbols, and therefore the angel (the crown) becomes the anal (whatever you want).
Therefore by Bristol and Bakhtin’s standards, the performance of Carnival diminishes the meanings of symbols and objects – surely implying Carnival is a subversive act which alters our perception of society and spiritual trust in symbols.
Morality plays such as Mankind which is meant to serve as ‘instructions’ can also be used to attack and serve a political agenda. Baumbach uses the example of John Skelton’s Magnyfycence (1519) It’s not a religious or educational play, it’s a political one. The play was read like an open assault on young Henry VIII and as a satire focused on greed, arrogance and mystery in his courthouse.
Carnival is purposefully meant to contradict and confuse social structures placed by society. The foolishness behind the masquerade of carnival shows the impermanence of any relationship between the individual and the social identity claimed by the symbolism of his clothes. The idea of costumery and disguise plays a large role in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The character of Viola would have been played by a male actor, dressed as a woman, dressed as a man – adding to the comedic value of the play. Viola’s cross-dressing as a whole is politically subversive however, it seems that in society, the position of an individual in life is more determined by what they wear and how they act than by anatomy.
Bristol touches on the ‘topsy-turvy’ behaviours of theatre, the notion of smashing and destroying is not something we particularly encounter in either Mankind or Twelfth Night, at least not literally. Bristol notes that Carnival celebrations indiscriminately attack both legitimate authority and illicit sexual activity. The violence suffered by constables and bill-men is an act of resentment and resistance. The abuse suffered by Malvolio and Mankind is an attack on the hierarchical characters and peace-keepers. Malvolio’s status is arguably ‘smashed and destroyed’ using his love for Olivia as a tool.
Carnival seems to have an anarchistic tone, where Bristol states that an oppressed social group is acting out their frustration by victimising an even more disadvantaged group, such as bawds and panders, which he calls ‘ displaced abjection. The Carnivalesque deemed useless as it contradicts itself and (according to Bristol) reinstates order and hierarchy, even though order’s true attributes are easily discovered.
Bristol says that carnival is therefore anarchistic and anarchy does not work as it reinforces the status quo – This idea is also contemplated by Rosario in her lecture where she writes that the Carnivalesque could even reinforce the existing hierarchy by how people (society) feel a visceral shock to invert such rules and thus become more aware of their power.
Rosario continues to compare Carnival to James DeMonaco’s The Purge (2013) which discusses an annual 12-hour period in which all crime is lawful across the world, including murder. The Purge should “purge” humanity from its most basic instincts while reducing crime and strengthening the economy of the country for the remainder of the year. This would establish the same ‘cathartic’ quality as the Carnival festivities and follows Aristotle’s purging technique discussed in Poetics.
What we see in the film universe is mass violence and fear, the use of the Purge by the rich and powerful people to prey on vulnerable communities – reinstating Bristol’s initial description of Carnival, where the oppressed attack the oppressed, and where no real progress has ever been made. This would thus support the notion that the status quo is reinstated by Carnival and its anarchistic, ‘ purge’-like qualities.
The anarchistic characters who prey on the weak, pure and ‘good’ in Mankind, Twelfth Night and The Purge act in groups. There is a redistribution of accountability that arises in large groups, in which aggression is viewed as the actions of the collective rather than the action of the individual. Individuals (especially human individuals such as Sir Toby, Feste and Maria) may not feel responsible for actions that are performed within a community. Whereas New Guise, Nowadays, Nought and Titivillus are pure evil.
Other factors, such as anonymity allowed through concealment of identification, by the use of mask and costume often lead to actions that we would usually prevent outside a carnivalesque setting – such as Viola’s actions while disguised as Cesario (a woman working a mans place in court). We see this in Twelfth Night and The Purge. This is supported by Ulrich von Hutten’s Letters of Obscure Men, which Bristol quotes in Carnival and Theatre stating; There should be a difference between Jews and doctors; it is a distortion of sacred theology … There’s no reason that a Jew who’s a traitor and an enemy of God should walk like a doctor of holy theology.
To Conclude, it would be highly plausible through my research and analysis of the above material that Carnival is a temporary anarchistic celebration that displays itself in many forms. Throughout Mankind, and other morality plays addressed, the Carnivalesque is used as a brief outbreak of evil to teach and reform the viewers, reinstating the status quo very simply and promoting an authoritarian structure. In Twelfth Night, the haphazard and topsy-turvy events of metaphorical and literal abuse and torture all come to a perfect ‘ happy end ‘ devaluing the meaning of any politically subversive viewpoints; ending in marriage and unity among the characters, returning to the norms of society. The arguments of Bristol and Rosario state that the simple shock of the Carnivalesque is enough to keep society under control. Thus Carnival would reinstate and retain the status quo.