Mobius continuously mentions the
great King Solomon, and how he appears to him and gives him knowledge, and it
isn’t until the very end that he claims to be Solomon himself. In the Bible, King Solomon was wealthy and
prosperous, as he is given wisdom that he may impart on the world. He breaks some code that kings are supposed
to follow and this leads down the road to following other gods. He is then abandoned and he loses
everything.
This isn’t
unlike Mobius, who is approached by some divine figure (in this case Solomon)
and told the secrets of the world. These
secrets are so vast, so encompassing, that he chooses to keep them secret
despite being told to share them with the world since knowledge is not for one
man to possess. In fact, he finds it so
hard to keep his secrets that he abandons his family and has himself locked in
an asylum, where he encounters more people who wish to have his secrets. He and his cellmates seemingly senselessly murder
innocent nurses, committing one of the ultimate sins, and so punishment is
exacted on the trio. The wisdom is
passed on to the head nurse, who then does as they should have done and teaches
the world. This is similar to the story,
where all of Solomon’s kingdoms were lost save a fraction that was passed on to
David.
In the end
the characters were punished and locked away, as the Fraulein Doktor puts it so
elegantly, in a prison of their own construction. It seems as though justice has been exacted,
but the story is left open ended as to the consequences of the Fraulein’s
actions.
That's a very interesting point. I didn't pay much attention to the King Solomon reference, I just figured he was crazy and that was a random allusion to the past. However, that makes a lot of sense now that you have connected the two.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting. I also noted that the last lines spoken by Möbius were "I am King Solomon... I am poor King Solomon." It's nice to have this all cleared up in a post, definitely. It's interesting that King Solomon truly was the most powerful of all men, and that it's directly stated in the play how Möbius is the "most important man on Earth."
ReplyDeleteI thought it was incredibly interesting that Mobius would be selected by King Solomon of all people. I was surprised that Solomon knew so much about physics too... But during the play, I couldn't tell if Mobius was just making Solomon up to seem mad or if he ACTUALLY saw him.
ReplyDeleteI'm also not so sure it is a good thing that the nurse ended up with the information. She seemed as crazy as the scientists, if not more so, and her use of those thugs dressed in black uniforms bodes ill. I don't think she plans on doing anything good for the world with King Solomon's information.
What intrigues me is how Mobius transitioned from claiming to see Solomon into actually being him. There was a little bit of foreshadowing when he went on a rant about how they had upset King Solomon when it really seemed like HE was the one who was upset. I became suspicious after that.
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