Have you ever walked past a mirror stopped and stared for a split second and thought to yourself “damn, I look good today”? For most of us that’s the be all and end all of that situation. Unfortunately for a percentage of the population they are unable to look away, or after looking in a mirror they may continue to obsess about their appearance or consistently talk about themselves without concern for others. I am indeed talking about people suffering from the personality disorder, Narcissism. Narcissism today is defined as the excessive or obsessive interest in oneself and physical appearance. The original term narcissism stems from the Greek myth of a demi god called Narcisuss who was in love with his own appearance. The term narcissism began to be used in the 1914 when well known Phycologist Dr. Sigmund Freud wrote an entire book on Narcissism and narcissistic tendencies. Narcissism has been portrayed in the artistic society since the origination of the Greek Myth, there have been many depictions of the same lesson whether that be in art, music or poetic writing. The lesson seems to have changed as artistic styles evolved and stood the test of time, morphed to teach the same lesson by being relatable in different artistic styles.
The original myth stars a demi god called Narcissus who was a self-obsessed and arrogant young man who’s self-love ultimately consumed him. Nemisis the god of revenge and retribution heard of Narcisuss’ arrogant ways and the many women who had fell for him and been left in despair. One day while Narcisuss was out hunting Nemisis led him to a pool, there the man saw his reflection and became so in love and infatuated by the reflection of himself in the pool although not originally realizing it was a reflection. Once he understood that he could not materialize the love he had seen in the pool he decided to sit and allow himself to be consumed by his own beauty, eventually dying and turning into the flower we call the Narcisuss flower or daffodil today. The story of Narcissus concerns the dangers of self-love and self-obsession. There are many versions of the Narcissus myth however most of them contain the same lesson. As per usual with Greek mythology elements in nature and the imagery created by the story take on and become part of the story. By setting the story of Narcissus in a dream like forest setting down by a river, where he eventually dies, the Greek story tellers linked the lesson of beauty in with the picture that they are able to create in the mind of the reader. The myths lesson warns the reader that by becoming self-obsessed and arrogant will eventually lead to your death, that lesson is pretty clear, how about the transition into the flower however. Narcissus turning into a flower at the end of the story is without a doubt makes for a pretty image at the end of the myth, in that transformation though there are a number of symbolic clues. Even though the subject of the story is Narcissus being punished for self-obsession the flower at the end leads the reader to believe that beauty is not the source of the evil. His body transformed into a flower in order to save the beauty of the Narcissus in the myth without the arrogance and selfishness getting in the way.
In the late years of the 15th century a painter called Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio composed a visual representation of the myth. The painting consists of a young man dressed in 16th century style attire, staring deeply into a pool of black water as he seems to be leaning into it for a drink but in actual fact he is falling in love with his own reflection. Caravaggio was painting at the end of the Italian Renaissance just before the baroque era in art, the baroque era being a period of artistic style that exaggerated drama, tension and exuberance. The Italian Renaissance was renowned for its classical perfection and that’s what you are able to see in the incredibly realistic depiction of Narcissus and his youth with his idealized features. At the same time, you are able to see the extreme shadow that was beginning to develop in the baroque period of art to develop dramatic and emotional response to art. The questions for all artists is what was their inspiration to paint of depict certain stories or scenes, in this case Caravaggio and most other artists in that era became obsessed with Greek Mythology and sought to include these stories into their art. In particular they sort out stories which could be perceived as lessons and incorporated into modern Christianity. This would explain why he is dressed as a 16th century Italian instead of an ancient Greek.
With a few exceptions, the story of narcissus is prominent in today’s society when it comes to the selfie culture. A selfie in simple terms is when and individual takes a picture or video of themselves with a camera being held by the person in the image. The issue is artistically depicted in Frieda Hughes poem titled “Selfie”. The poem in itself is free verse, there’s no punctuation restricting the natural rhythm and pattern of sound, this allows the reader to immerse themselves into the poem. This creative writing style could’ve have been done on purpose by Frieda Hughes in order to draw the reader into the poem the same way narcissistic personalities get totally immersed in their own image comparatively the same thing people obsessed with selfies do. When an individual takes a selfie, there is a total lack of consciousness to what is going on the in the background because to the person taking the selfie they are the most important thing in the image. “The volcano, or street killings, or house fire, or fornicating bulldogs", In the poem Frieda creates concrete images within the mind of the reader to hammer home the point that people taking selfies have a disregard for what is going on around them. Within the first stanza and line, Frieda chooses to use the word “you” in order to address the reader, this technique forces the reader to relate the rest of poem to their own personal experiences. Frieda’s poem artistically demonstrates the issues with selfie culture and narcissistic tendencies that come along with it, the last line of her poem powerfully portrays that to the reader. Frieda says “But forever with your back to it”, this is a direct comment on people who are absolutely obsessed having themselves forever fixed to an image, time or event in a selfie. Frieda is saying that the people that are obsessed with taking selfies are always going to miss the exact event that they are trying to capture because they will have their back to it in order to get “the perfect selfie”. Frieda Hughes poem is poignant in today’s society, with less and less people enjoying witnessing the events of their lives instead of trying to capture it in order for the benefit of other people on social media, we are losing touch with reality slowly. The people Frieda was attempting to connect with are the same people that the Greek Mythologists were trying to teach, that self-obsession and arrogance will cause that person’s relationships and life perish with them being none the wiser because they are too obsessed with their own image.
The lesson in the story of Narcissus has stood the test of time, it has been able to evolve to become relatable in every time period and every artistic style. Narcisism itself has evolved with time, whether that be a King in the mediaeval era having many portraits of himself around his castle or a highschool student taking two hundred plus selfies a day. Both of these are narcissistic tendencies warned about in the Greek Myth about Narcissus. The painting shows the repercussions of self-obsession by having black water which has been known to portray death in art and a black ground showing the viewer that there is nothing but loneliness in narcissism whether you love yourself or not. Frienda Hughes wrote about someone missing out of all of life’s amazing reality because someone constantly obsessed of capturing the moment in a picture with their back turned looking at it through a screen. Its amazing to see a life lesson stand the test of time and evolve with artistic style and modernization.