The Bible Through Sade's Eyes

On Thursday, I saw “Marat/Sade,” a play about “the persecution and assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as performed by the inmates of the asylum of Charenton under the direction of the Marquis de Sade.”  This play is absolutely insane (much like the characters in it), but I believe it to have a much deeper meaning than a murder acted out by mental patients.

During intermission, all of the AP Literature students collaborated together to try and figure out the hidden meanings of the play--after all, we are AP Literature students!  The general consensus was that the play is a allusion to The Bible.  While there may be many different interpretations, this is the one I find the most believable.

The character of Marat is closely associated to Jesus.  He leads the patients to find strength inside themselves and risks everything in his life in order to tell the patients what they need to know: they can be free if they revolt.  In the end of the play (caution, a spoiler alert is coming) the patient who is playing Marat is murdered in his hydrotherapy tub in front of the crowd of followers, much like Marat is murdered in his bathtub; this scene is the reason for the revolt.  The murder is an allusion to the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross.  A cross is typically thought of as a symbol of Jesus, much like the bathtub is a symbol of Marat.

A small allusion that I almost did not catch in the beginning adds fire to the flame of the argument of Marat being Jesus; a crown of leaves is placed upon his head, much like the crown of thorns on Jesus’s head.  The act of placing the crown on the head of Jesus happened before Jesus died on the cross, and the crown of leaves was placed on Marat’s head before the play-inside-the-play began.  This act is foreshadowing of the death of a leader, and at the end of the play, the murder ensues.  Though I did not notice the importance of the crown at first, I now understand it to be one of the most important symbols of the play.  This is the foreshadowing of an on-coming death of a leader and it is the most direct link that connects Marat to Jesus.

A strange happening that took place during this place was when Sade made leading lady Charlotte Corday whip him repeatedly.  This act is very closely related to religious allusions.  I believe the whipping is the cleansing of Sade’s soul since he is confessing all of his sins.  The fact that he made Corday beat him is still confusing to me; I have thought of it from many different angles but I still wonder why he chose the poor girl who was nervous and scared of committing the act.  I was not able to go to the morning discussion, however I do feel that there should be a discussion that takes place  discussing why Corday was chosen to beat Sade and the importance of the beating to the play.