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narcasseGlancing over Act 42, sans translation at present, two images in particular struck me as a rather clever act of mirroring.
The close-up of Šahrzād’s empty eyes framed by her hair immediately made me think of the close-up of Süleyman’s in Act 29 when he delivers what might just be one of the most significant lines in regards to the entire Imperial structure. Because the Empress herself is so old that it’s no wonder that her children can’t begin to understand her schemes and rebel against them. Arguably, Seth has lost sight of the trees for the forest and is treating her subjects as a means to an end without recognising that they’re also ends in of themselves, which is abhorrent and decidedly un-Kantian but at her great age it’s probably quite easy to see why she’s so utterly disconnected from humanity. Aside from that the two images do illustrate disillusionment and an absolute loss of faith quite nicely, Süleyman’s in the Empress and Šahrzād’s in humanity though interestingly enough both in their last moments prove that while their faith has been shaken it still remains and is strong enough that they both do retain some hope for the future. Which would be the general theme of Esther’s journey throughout ROM anyway.
The close-up of Šahrzād’s glove followed by the full length shot also mirrors an earlier Süleyman image though the full length shot appears on the next page. In this case again the image really is mirroring in so far as Šahrzād extends her left hand and Süleyman his right. She also bows her head while he looks straight forward, though in the latter case that may be due to the fact that he’s firing at Astaroth rather than the Empress where as Šahrzād is attacking humans who collectively aren’t individuals she’d want to harm. Though in Act 28 when Süleyman does blast the Empress of a cliff that dull-eyed lack of focus on the object he’s destroying does occurs.
And there’s further mirroring in the wistful smiles and sad explanations that occur in between the action along with Abel in both cases arriving to save the shocked and saddened focus of those explanations.
They’re really nicely paired sections and under closer examination make a good fodder for considering just how matters went on behind the scenes in Byzantium. After all Esther gets to see her dear friend lose her faith right before her eyes and recover it enough to hope for a better future for the world she leaves behind, which leaves the question of who witnessed Süleyman’s fall? And the only answer I can come up with to that right now is the Empress, because she must have seen it, especially if she’s the focus of his final revelation. But somehow in her disengagement with humanity she saw but most likely missed the significance of his fading faith and as such did nothing. All of which only adds to the reasons why it’s Esther who’s given the task of righting matters as queen because in contrast Seth simply wouldn’t understand how to.
The close-up of Šahrzād’s empty eyes framed by her hair immediately made me think of the close-up of Süleyman’s in Act 29 when he delivers what might just be one of the most significant lines in regards to the entire Imperial structure. Because the Empress herself is so old that it’s no wonder that her children can’t begin to understand her schemes and rebel against them. Arguably, Seth has lost sight of the trees for the forest and is treating her subjects as a means to an end without recognising that they’re also ends in of themselves, which is abhorrent and decidedly un-Kantian but at her great age it’s probably quite easy to see why she’s so utterly disconnected from humanity. Aside from that the two images do illustrate disillusionment and an absolute loss of faith quite nicely, Süleyman’s in the Empress and Šahrzād’s in humanity though interestingly enough both in their last moments prove that while their faith has been shaken it still remains and is strong enough that they both do retain some hope for the future. Which would be the general theme of Esther’s journey throughout ROM anyway.
The close-up of Šahrzād’s glove followed by the full length shot also mirrors an earlier Süleyman image though the full length shot appears on the next page. In this case again the image really is mirroring in so far as Šahrzād extends her left hand and Süleyman his right. She also bows her head while he looks straight forward, though in the latter case that may be due to the fact that he’s firing at Astaroth rather than the Empress where as Šahrzād is attacking humans who collectively aren’t individuals she’d want to harm. Though in Act 28 when Süleyman does blast the Empress of a cliff that dull-eyed lack of focus on the object he’s destroying does occurs.
And there’s further mirroring in the wistful smiles and sad explanations that occur in between the action along with Abel in both cases arriving to save the shocked and saddened focus of those explanations.
They’re really nicely paired sections and under closer examination make a good fodder for considering just how matters went on behind the scenes in Byzantium. After all Esther gets to see her dear friend lose her faith right before her eyes and recover it enough to hope for a better future for the world she leaves behind, which leaves the question of who witnessed Süleyman’s fall? And the only answer I can come up with to that right now is the Empress, because she must have seen it, especially if she’s the focus of his final revelation. But somehow in her disengagement with humanity she saw but most likely missed the significance of his fading faith and as such did nothing. All of which only adds to the reasons why it’s Esther who’s given the task of righting matters as queen because in contrast Seth simply wouldn’t understand how to.
