Melancholy Play, which Gordon put on as its Fall production, was written by Sarah Ruhl and originally produced in 2002. It follows Tilly, a young woman who is so attractively melancholic that everyone she meets falls for her. The Inferno, written in 1321 by Dante Alighieri, explores morality and the nature of sin by depicting hell.
Reading Canto VII of The Inferno while working on Melancholy Play sparked a note of connection for me. Melancholy is not a major theme in The Inferno, but there is a circle dedicated to the wrathful and melancholic. Why? Why is melancholy treated so differently in these two works?
Advance warning – spoilers for Melancholy Play if you are unfamiliar with it.
In Canto VII of The Inferno, Dante the pilgrim enters a marsh populated by the wrathful and the melancholy. The melancholy – or the slothful, the sluggish the apathetic, etc. – are sunk beneath the surface of the slimy marsh water, sighing “sluggish we were / in the sweet air…and the smoke of sloth was smoldering in our hearts” (VII.121-123).
In Melancholy Play, melancholy can be a beautiful thing. It is cellos and light slanting through windows. It isn’t being sucked into disgusting muck.
Dante doesn’t seem to have much use for melancholy, whereas Melancholy Play kicks off with one of the characters providing a “defense of melancholy”.
Part of the discrepancy seems to come from a disagreement on what melancholy, in its essence, is. The Inferno presents melancholy as a choice. The melancholy were “sluggish,” but perhaps they could have chosen to overcome this sloth and act. Like everyone else in hell, the melancholy chose to stay in this sin rather than try to escape it.
In Melancholy Play, melancholy is more of a character trait. With Tilly, part of who she is is melancholy. She doesn’t exactly choose it; it just is part of her until she becomes happy. Likewise, Frances doesn’t choose to be so melancholy that she turns into an almond. Melancholy becomes part of who she is.
The other significant difference is how melancholy is dealt with. When Frances goes too deep into melancholy (and turns into an almond), Tilly says this: “When someone in your social circle becomes so melancholy that they stop moving, it is your duty as a human being to go find them…you must go where they are and get them” (p.319).
It’s hard to know what Dante would think about the idea that we need to go meet people where they are to bring them back from melancholy. It is already too late for those in hell.
Taken together, The Inferno and Melancholy Play make me wonder how our view of melancholy has changed along with changing views on mental health. While I personally tend to side more with Melancholy Play’s view on melancholy, I think these works together can create a richer picture of the feeling.
If Ruhl captures well some of the beauty of melancholy, Dante, with his image of the marsh, maybe captures something of the darker side of melancholy.
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