A Candle in the Window
Posted by David New on 1/23/2009The very first stage direction in The Seafarer involves the entrance of Sharky. McPherson writes:
Sharky comes downstairs, pausing to tap the red light under a picture of the Sacred Heart which has gone out. It flickers to life for a second, but goes out again as he descends and surveys the scene.
The Sacred Heart, depicted in a picture on stage, is the religious devotion to Jesus’s physical heart as the representation of his divine love for humanity. It depicts a loving and adoring Jesus and the red light in front of it represents our devotion to the Sacred Heart. It is this that Sharky is struggling with at the beginning of the play. His self-loathing is so deeply felt that he cannot believe he is worthy of being loved, even by the constant and unconditionally forgiving heart of Christ.
There is another instance of a symbolic candle in the play. In keeping with Irish Christmas Eve tradition, Sharky places a large lit candle in the window. This tradition symbolizes a sign of welcome to Mary and Joseph who sought shelter to no avail on that first Christmas Eve.
What’s interesting is that the placement of the candle in the window directly precedes the entrance of Mr. Lockhart who is the devil himself. Ultimately, the play suggests that there is a higher power that saves Sharky from having to leave with Mr. Lockhart for “the old hole in the wall.” What’s interesting is that in placing the candle in the window, Sharky is symbolically saying, “there is room here for the Christ child to enter.” And there are those that would argue that by the end of the play, with the devil defeated, he has.
January 24th, 2009 at 2:03 am
I noticed that at the end of the play, the last light to go out is the one by the picture of Jesus. During the majority of the play the light is out, and sometime towards the end of the card game, the light turns back on by itself. This parallels the level of closeness that Sharky feels to Jesus.
During the after show discussion, someone pointed out that although there is a lot of profanity in the play, Sharky is the only human character that doesn’t use Jesus’s name in vain.
January 24th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
It was a bit of cool foreshadowing of Mr. Lockheart’s presence by having Sharky’s first action of the play taping the red light below the picture of Christ. Again, the lighting in the play was really well done. At times the changes in light were so sudden that I did not even notice the stage becoming darker until it was obvious. My favorite part was in Mr. Lockheart’s monologue when he was describing that hell was like being a cold box deep at the bottom of the ocean. The blue lights surrounding the stage actually made me feel panicked as I increasingly felt trapped and claustrophobic.
The naming of the characters was brought up in the discussion and I thought that it was interesting that the devil’s name was Mr. Lockheart. A prominent theme in the play was love and the ability to love someone and accept them for who they are. The devil is who is because he has a locked heart and no one loves him or cares for him, and as consequence he lives in a world that is like a coffin under the sea.
January 25th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
For me, the most poignant part of the play was not when the light under the sacred heart resumed after Mr. Lockheart’s departure or even after Sharky was saved by his friend and brother in the card game. It was that moment of pause right before he bounds up the stairs to exit the stage. That pause was not filled with complete hope or did not signify that everything would be happily ever after, but something greater and far more important than that. As Sharky paused to consider the stairs, he makes the final decision regarding his life, the decision to live again, to attempt to change his direction. I think that this is really reflective of reality. No matter how much his brother and friends love him, and no matter that God loves him as well, in the end it is all in Sharky’s hands to do what he will with the gift of love that he’s been given. No matter how one’s life turns out, he has to realize and be proactive in getting to that point. While this play ends on a hopeful note, it is grounded in a reality that can resonate with the whole audience.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I thought that besides the foreshadowing of the coming of Mr. Lockheart, the light under the Sacred Heart represented the absence of hope for Sharky. Only when he realizes that people do in fact love him and care about him, and more importantly, he is worthy of being loved does the candle come back on, conveying that hope and love have reentered his life. Almost as if things for him are darkest just before the dawn, it took an encounter with the devil in which he narrowly escapes losing his soul for him to realize that he is not alone and that life really is worth living.
I really was impressed that Macpherson was able to explore such serious themes as alienation and aloneness in a play that at the same time is very comedic, it really shows the depth of both the play itself and of the cast.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
The Candle does play a strong role right for the beginning Sharky is playing with it trying to make it go on, hinting to the audience that there will be some religious struggle going in the play. When Lockhart reveals himself as the Devil when he says, “I want your sole” all the lights are flickering revealing his power. I would think the candle would have flicker when Richard offered him the 20 euros so he would not have to go into the whole in the wall because Richard was in some sense playing Jesus. Richard was willing to sacrifice for Sharky and that is what ultimately made the candle come back on the Love that Richard and Ivan have towards Sharky. The Devil said hell is where there truly is no one there to love you but Sharky is not ready for that yet because of the Love Richard and Ivan and even Nicky have towards him.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:37 am
The play opens with Sharky trying to fix the light attached to painting of Jesus. As this is the opening scene it is natural that the crowd is paying careful attention to this light and notice its inability to stay lit. However, at the end of the play, the light is shining brightly without flickering as a symbol of God’s reacceptance of Sharky. What is interesting is that no attention is drawn to the light when it is fixed. In other words, I just noticed it as fixed at the end of the play but I don’t remember the specific moment at which the light came on. Although the play has a happy ending, I think the greater attention paid to the failure of the light as opposed to its repair is reflective of the dark theme of the play. McPherson seems to draw more attention to the more “evil” details. Another instance of this is when we see the back of the stage a dark cold blue to reflect hell. However, we there is no expression of the sunny version of Hell, as described by the Mr. Lockhart.
January 27th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Dear Anish and Kate,
Thank you both for your insightful posts about The Seafarer. It is a testament to the tremendous skill of the playwright that the play is receivable on many different levels, instigating this kind of interpretive discussion in post-show discussions and here on the blog.
January 27th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Dear Kimberly,
What a thoughtful response. It’s true that, in the end, the agency resides in Sharky himself. The Sacred Heart and the love it represents has been there all along - it is Sharky’s response to being reawakened to it and to his life that leads to the hopeful moment when he decides to bound up the stairs, recommitting himself to living and moving forward. And it’s perceptive of you to be aware of the pause - the moment of lingering - which makes the decision to move forward all the more poignant when it happens.
January 28th, 2009 at 1:46 am
Although I didn’t notice it in the play itself, on hindsight I realize that it is indeed very ironic that after placing the candle in the window, presumably as a Christmas tradition to receive the Christ child, it is not the Christ but the devil who appears instead. But in some way, I feel that this further contributes to the poignancy that is felt when the candle in front of The Sacred Heart reappears with the leaving of Mr Lockhart, because we could see Lockhart’s entering the home after the candle is lit as another incidence of Sharky’s supposed tendencies to ’screw up’ everything he does - in trying to bring in Christ, Sharky ends up bringing in the devil into his abode. However, when Lockhart leaves, the candle in front of The Sacred Heart relights, indicating that despite Sharky’s ’screw ups’ there is still hope and redemption, and a ’someone up there’ watching over everything. The two candles, that in front of the window, and that in front of The Sacred Heart, both contribute to the sense that despite everything, there is hope in the play.
January 28th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Dear Mark, Charles, Johnathan, and Jerlene,
Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughtful responses to The Seafarer. In the post-show discussions with our audiences it is clear that the play is multi-layered and open to various interpretations in addition to being a darn good yarn. While some enjoy exploring the symbolism, others just sit back and enjoy the muscular ensemble acting and give themselves over to the unfolding of the narrative. Glad you continued the conversation here on the blog.
January 29th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Building off what Kate said, I found the juxtaposition of the name “Lockhart” over the theme of the “Sacred Heart” to be a very effective insight towards the role of the devil. I am sure that this was hardly a coincidence as the Sacred Seart represents the ultimate good while Lockhard represents the ultimate evil. Additionally, even though the candle in the frame of the Sacred Heart may flicker, the Sacred Heart is nonetheless perpetually present.
Unrelated, the poem “The Seafarer” provides a great alternate telling of essentially the same themes. In the poem a seafarer describes in detail the isolation of one at sea. As the poem progresses the focus shifts toward God and what he is capable of. The poem concludes by reminding the reader that the hope of heaven and the prospect of seeing God is greater than everything, that the reader should leave his earthly indulgences and evils behind. The poem, like the play, implies that if one does not stay on a lobing openhearted path, that he will end up in hell, or the sea: “No kinsman could offer comfort there, to a soul left drowning in desolation” (The Seafarer, lines 25-26).
January 30th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Fantastic Stefan! For those who are interested, here is the complete 1970 Richard Hamer translation of the medieval poem, The Seafarer:
I sing my own true story, tell my travels,
How I have often suffered times of hardship
In days of toil, and have experienced
Bitter anxiety, my troubled home
On many a ship has been the heaving waves,
Where grim night-watch has often been my lot
At the ship’s prow as it beat past the cliffs.
Oppressed by cold my feet were bound by frost
In icy bonds, while worries simmered hot
About my heart, and hunger from within
Tore the sea-weary spirit. He knows not,
Who lives most easily on land, how I
Have spent my winter on the ice-cold sea,
Wretched and anxious, in the paths of exile,
Lacking dear friends, hung round by icicles,
While hail flew past in showers. There heard I nothing
But the resounding sea, the ice-cold waves.
Sometimes I made the song of the wild swan
My pleasure, or the gannet’s call, the cries
Of curlews for the missing mirth of men,
The singing gull instead of mead in hall.
Storms beat the rocky cliffs, and icy-winged
The tern replied, the horn-beaked eagle shrieked.
No patron had I there who might have soothed
My desolate spirit. He can little know
Who, proud and flushed with wine, has spent his time
With all the joys of life among the cities,
Safe from such fearful venturings, how I
Have often suffered weary on the seas.
Night shadows darkened, snow came from the north,
Frost bound the earth and hail fell on the ground,
Coldest of corns. And yet the heart’s desires
Incite me now that I myself should go
On towering seas, among the salt waves’ play;
And constantly the heartfelt wishes urge
The spirit to venture, that I should go forth
To see the lands of strangers far away.
Yet no man in the world’s so proud of heart,
So generous of gifts, so bold in youth,
In deeds so brave, or with so loyal lord,
That he can ever venture on the sea
Without great fears of what the Lord may bring.
His mind dwells not on the harmonious harp,
On ring-receiving, or the joy of woman,
Or wordly hopes, or anything at all
But the relentless rolling of the waves;
But he who goes to sea must ever yearn.
The groves bear blossom, cities grow more bright,
The fields adorn themselves, the world speeds up;
Yet all this urges forth the eager spirit
Of him who then desires to travel far
On the sea-paths. Likewise the cuckoo calls
With boding voice, the harbinger of summer
Offers but bitter sorrow in the breast.
The man who’s blest with comfort does not know
What some then suffer who most widely travel
The paths of exile. Even now my heart
Journeys beyond its confines, and my thoughts
Over the sea, across the whale’s domain,
Travel afar the regions of the earth,
And then come back to me with greed and longing.
The cuckoo cries, incites the eager breast
On to the whale’s roads irresistibly,
Over the wide expanses of the sea,
Because the joys of God mean more to me
Than this dead transitory life on land.
That earthly wealth lasts to eternity
I don’t believe. Always one of three things
Keeps all in doubt until one’s destined hour.
Sickness, old age, the sword, each one of these
May end the lives of doomed and transient men.
Therefore for every warrior the best
Memorial is the praise of living men
After his death, that ere he must depart
He shall have done good deeds on earth against
The malice of his foes, and the noble works
Against the devil, that the sons of men
May after praise him, and his glory live
For ever with the angels in the splendour
Of lasting life, in bliss among those hosts.
The great old days have gone, and all the grandeur
Of earth; there are not Caesars now or kings
Or patrons such as once there used to be,
Amongst whom where performed most glorious deeds,
Who lived in lordliest renown. Gone now
Is all that host, the splendours have departed.
Weaker men live and occupy the world,
Enjoy it but with care. Fame is brought low,
Earthly nobility grows old, decays,
As now throughout this world does every man.
Age comes on him, his countenance grows pale,
Grey-haired he mourns, and knows his former lords,
The sons of princes, given to the earth.
Nor when his life slips from him may his body
Taste sweetness or feel pain or stir his hand
Or use his mind to think. And though a brother
May strew with gold his brother’s grave, yet can gold
Bring no help to the soul that’s full of sins,
against God’s wrath, although he hide it here
Ready before his death while yet he lives.
Great is the might of God, by which earth moves;
For He established its foundations firm,
The land’s expanses, and the sky above.
Foolish is he who does not fear his Lord,
For death will come upon him unprepared.
Blessed is he who humble lives; for grace
Shall come to him from heaven. The Creator
Shall make his spirit steadfast, for his faith
Is in God’s might. Man must control himself
With strength of mind, and firmly hold to that,
True to his pledges, pure in all his ways.
With moderation should each man behave
In all his dealings with both friend and foe.
No man will wish the friend he’s made to burn
In fires of hell, or on an earthly pyre,
Yet fate is mightier, the Lord’s ordaining
More powerful than any man can know.
Let us think where we have our real home,
And then consider how we may come thither;
And let us labour also, so that we
May pass into eternal blessedness,
Where life belongs amid the love of God,
Hope in the heavens. The Holy One be thanked
That He has raised us up, the Prince of Glory,
Lord without end, to all eternity.
Amen