Caligula

He would have been a hundred on 7th November, 2013 had he lived. But why on earth should he have lived beyond his 46th year… He didn’t… On the way to Paris from Lourmarin on 4th January, 1960, his speeding car skidded of the road and hit two trees one after another.

Albert Camus’ life ended when he was 46 years 9 months & 28 days old. But by this time he had already written novels like the Plague, The Outsider, plays like Caligula, philosophical essays like The Rebel and The myth of Sisyphus…Won a noble for literature at only 44.

The play “Caligula” is perhaps his most shining testimonial among all the plays that he wrote during the time frame of the Second World War. In this play Caligula an emperor in ancient Rome, two thousand years ago, represents mans eternal yet inevitable path to self destruction.

From a very unique and novel perspective Camus establishes his protagonist as a man consumed with self glorification and a twisted pride. The death of his sister and lover Drusilla forces him to confront himself and face his mirror image. Time takes his own inevitable course and Caligula realizes an eternal truth….That man is essentially unhappy and therefore ultimately incomplete….. A deep dark shadow wounds and scars Caligula deep inside his soul. Caligula chooses the path of destruction and devastation over a safe and comfortable existence, which ultimately leads to self annihilation. Dictatorial and blood thirsty, Caligula is killed by his high ranking patricians who conspire against him leading to his death.

Up until now this can called the central theme of the play. But death is not the last word for Camus’s hero. He does not even acknowledge his birth. “Our criminals are no longer those helpless children who pleaded love as their excuse….. On the contrary, they are adults and they have a perfect alibi, philosophy, which can be used for anything, even for transforming murderers into judges – “Camus wrote these lines 62 years earlier in his book the Rebel”

Today in the year of his birth centenary he has become even more relevant in Bengali society which has become a complex mish mash of CPM, Trinamul, pornography, civil society, intellectuals and common people. Wounded and bloodied by his inner conflict, Camus realized that to protest would be mankind’s only hope for the future……. A protest without a revolution was the only way to usher in change, while not losing one’s freedom. Sometimes we have to say No in certain situations… Not because we are intellectuals or philosophers, but just because we need to live a simple life, we need to simply exist. And this NEED needs to be expressed in the face of grim disapproval. To say No is to Revolt. Who is a Rebel? A man who says no, but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation…. We have read the first line of Rebel many times over, we have been excited by it and we have brought about a revolution discussing it over cups of coffee….But have we been able to stand up and say No? This thought is what prompted the staging of this play.

On Albert Camus birth centenary we at Prachyo offer our respectful tribute…