"Kaspar"

"Kaspar"by Peter Handke, was inspired by the life's story of a young man, who grew up captive in a small room. Isolated from the influence of society, he developed language, feelings and his own personality.Moreover, when he was found, the people from his town was perplexed by his condition of "a simplified version of a human being." Immediately, this young man was thought all what he was missing. He learnt to read , to write , and to play music. Also, he learnt the rules, the mores and the conventional behavior of society.Furthermore,the young man seemed overwhelmed by the complexity of life and felt trapped surrounded by the demands of people who wanted to immerse him into knowledge and into the world. It was ironic, but a person who lived captive part of his life felt trapped once he was freed. The play may suggest, that we cannot escape from the influence of others, and because of that we cannot see who we really are.

Handke used symbols in the play, to show the lack of freedom that human beings posses in life, and to exhibit that all individuals, in some way are similar to Kaspar. That is why there were two things happening a simultaneously through the entire play. One of the happening was that Kaspar moved on stage walking and talking. And the other happening was that some prompters were speaking, influencing Kaspar's actions and thoughts. In the same way, individuals cannot escape from the influence of "voices and signs" in life. Parents, bosses, and teachers, are always controlling and suggesting our next actions.They tell us what to do, what is right, what is wrong, and what they expect from us.These "authority figures"who instruct us along the way, are reflected by the speakers in Kaspar. These voices are represented though technological devices in the play, which sometimes are perceived as ethereal and omniscient.  These devices are presented in the shape of giant mouths or eyes suspended on the air, over the actors and spectator's heads to give a sense of  control and submission. In real life, voices randomly appear through speakers and through electronic devices, carrying messages that instruct us to behave according the pre-arranged rules.  Ultimately, these commands, instructions or suggestions become the voice of our consciousness.

Nevertheless, when Kaspar repeated that "[he] wan[ted] to be a person like somebody else was once,"the author pointed out that individuals submit to indoctrination in order to look like an average person. Furthermore, as individuals living in society , we assimilate and follow the customs in order to be accepted into a group and into society. It is part of the human nature, to act and to follow what the majority do without questioning it. We tend to conform because individuals who not follow what the majority do, are perceive as deviants and most of the time are seeing as strange or abnormal. However, because individuals behave according to what our outside expects, and not for what we want or think, the play suggested that we use "masks." Those masks are facades that do not show our real beings, our personalities and ideas.Perhaps those masks are a tool to show that we are content and self assured, when in reality we are in need to find some answers about life and ourselves.

To summarize, after reading Kaspar, my impression was that most of our thoughts had been implanted in us, and that our lives had been shaped by outside forces. These outside forces, have nothing to do with god or any other surrealistic being. These forces are the ideas of society. We, as human beings, create ideas and then, they shape our lives.Yet, if for any reason, an individual does not assimilate the ideas of society, how that person would be? Probably, it would be Kaspar!