La 'Dispute' and the 'Komodie der Eitelkeit': Reflections between Marivauxand Canetti in the light of Hobbes and Rousseau

On the surface, Marivaux's comedy La Dispute purports to explore whether un faithfulness in love originated with men or with women by positing conditio ns that imitate the state of nature. However, supported by imagery related to reflections in water, in mirrors, and in paintings, the main theme of th e play, which very well may have been inspired by Rousseau's Narcisse, turn s out to deal with the growth of self-love and vanity. In a note to the sec ond Discours, Rousseau establishes a link between these two attitudes on th e one hand and the state of nature on the other. The latter concept refers back to Hobbes's Leviathan, and La Dispute can profitably be interpreted in terms of Rousseau's and Hobbes's texts. Hobbes's experiment of imagining m an in the state of nature was, however, intended not only to elucidate the past, but also to be a warning of what would happen if society were to brea k down in the future. The latter is precisely the theme of Canetti's Komodi e der Eitelkeit, and it so happens that the main imagery in this play also consists of mirrors and pictures. Whereas in La Dispute the protagonists in the state of nature narcissistically experience images of themselves for t he first time after which their vanity steadily increases, in the Komodie d er Eitelkeit we are presented with a developed society that is being forced to live altogether without such images and that gradually reverts back to infantile narcissism. Though starting at opposite ends of the spectrum, bot h plays thus deal with the intricate dialectic between self-love, vanity, a nd love of others.