The advocacies of Gorky's Devil
Part II:
Dilshan BOANGE
Continued from last week
The socialist inclinations that one comes across in The Lords of Life
shows how Gorky expanded his liberal views to encompass a grains of
criticism of how established white male euro centric discourses
marginalized many groups on basis of class, race as well as gender.
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Maxim Gorky |
On the lines of gender politics the Devil takes a stance that makes
him a voice that expresses concern over the place of the woman in
society.
"Some, who require a woman only as a wife and slave, maintain that
she is not a human being at all...[o]thers would like to exploit her
working energy without refusing to use her as a woman, and these claim
that she in no less suited for work than a man and can work on an equal
basis with him, that is, for him." (p.114)
The authorial voice then goes on to ask the Devil a question based on
what is probably an old Russian proverb.
"There is a saying that where the Devil doesn't have time to go
himself, he sends a woman. Is that true" " (p.114) the reply given by
the prince of darkness is - "It does happen...If there's no man around
who is cleverer and mean enough..." (p.114) this may seem quite
uncomplimentary of womankind treated from a traditional point of value
judgments however given the positing of the character of the Devil in
this piece of Gorky and the objective of critiquing the norm in favour
of a better way of looking at things, it may be argued that it is in
fact a compliment that women are paid in the above words where a woman
is overlooked for the task only in the absence of a man 'cleverer and
mean enough'.
Through the authorship of Gorky, it could be suggested that Satan is
made a voice for women's lib.
Taking on another bastion of European political thinking, which is
'white supremacy' the Devil presents himself a true objector to
oppression of peoples, and the notion of racial superiority and
inferiority.
Calling upon the skeletal remains of a man whose writings contributed
to the furtherance of white supremacists beliefs.
"I wrote ten big books which impressed on the people's minds the
great idea of the superiority of the white race over the coloured...[o]nly
the white race" the sage went on, "could have created so advanced a
civilization and worked out such strict moral principles, thanks to the
colour of its skin and the chemical composition of its blood, as I
proved..." " (pp.110-111).
These opinionated ramblings are observed and commented on the Devil
thus with sarcasm and ridicule.
" "He proved it!" the Devil echoed with a nod of assent. "There is no
barbarian more settled in his belief that cruelty is his right than a
European..." " (p.111) it is interesting to note that the very notions
that the white supremacists of Europe are allowed a voice (which is
found in the talking skeleton), to interpret them from a new moralistic
perspective how the very basis that forms the European mindset's idea of
being 'civilized' negates notions of their superiority on grounds that
the tool or weapon of cruelty used in the consolidation of their
civilization's superiority, relegates them to barbarity.
The irony that is presented through the words of the devil makes
Gorky's Satan one that can be attributed with great wit. |
