The Act of Storytelling and Why it is Done
Every story has a beginning and a conclusion. What is so special about them in the case of Romeo and Juliet? The similarities begin the retrospective nature of the passages and the ability of these passage to bring the dead back to life. In the prologue, the chorus begins with play with the following,
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life,
Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;[1]
The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is being told ex post facto which is evident with the use of past tense verbs like ‘star-cross’d’, ‘misadventur’d’ and ‘death-mark’d’. Furthermore, although it is the beginning of the story, the passage is contains numerous references to death, such as ‘fatal’, ‘take their life’, and ‘end’. It is not only ironic to start the play in such a manner, but it also gives the story a certain supernatural quality in which the deaths can be reversed. The temporal disjunction created by this ‘two hours’ traffic’ allows Romeo and Juliet to relive their tragic love despite the fact that the actual events have already occurred.
In the last lines of the play, the Prince says, “Go hence to have more talk of these sad things. / Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished, / For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo (Shakespeare 235),” and thus the tale is concluded in a round about way. The Prince’s ‘more talk of these sad things’ brings the audience back to the prologue where it is indicated that the play is doing exactly what the Prince decreed. Furthermore, the ‘never was a story of more woe’ confirms the retrospective nature of the conclusion. Therefore, the end of the play does not necessarily provide closure, instead it creates a loop where the tragedy itself is relived again and the voices are thus never silent.
The supernatural theme is an integral part of I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem. It is the stories, through the use of voice, memory, and song that give life back to the dead. When Yao is first introduced, it is said that he, “âÂ?¦could not resign himself to planting, cutting, and grinding sugarcane. Twice he had tried to kill himself by swallowing poisonous roots.”[2] The words ‘planting, cutting, and grinding’, create an image of growth, or more specifically the cultivation of life. On the other hand, the word ‘roots’ suggests a return to the earth, in other words, death. In addition, by using plant imagery in the metaphor of life and death, the narrator shows how primitive these concepts are. How does Yao overcome his innate desire to kill his body so that it may follow the death of his soul? In trying to comfort Abena, he says, “Do you know the story of the bird who laughed at the leaves of the palm tree?” (Conde 5) He then tells her another story native to their land. Here, both stories refer to the plants, ‘trees’, stressing the power of life behind these cultural tales. The renewed voice of a people that had been ‘defeated, dispersed, and auctioned off’ speaks from the story they all share and that is what brings Yao back from suicidal to ‘a state of happiness’ (Conde 5).
Another form a story takes is memory. Mama Yaya taught Tituba that, “The dead only die if they die in our heart. They live on if we cherish them and honor their memory. . ” (Conde 10). By placing ‘die’ before ‘live’, it drives home the idea that the natural order of the world can be overcome and reversed through ‘memory’. Consequently, memory is what is necessary for the formation of a story. Tituba herself said, “My people will keep my memory in their hearts and have no need for the written word” (Conde 176). She will exist because her people will remember her and what is a story but bits and pieces of memory unified to recreate the life that once existed?
Christopher said, “In any case I shall be immortal. I’ve already heard the field niggers singing” (Conde 153). Indeed, through story or song, people can live on forever, finally achieving immortality with no fear of death. In the epilogue, Tituba says, “My real story starts where this one leaves off and it has no endâÂ?¦there is a song about Tituba!” (Conde 175). As in Romeo and Juliet, Tituba’s story, or song, is told after her death. Incidentally, her song makes her live forever because she will always have a voice in the mortal world as long as someone sings her song. The fact that Tituba is still able to influence the living shows how powerful her story is. From the realm of the dead, she says, “I am hardening men’s hearts to fight. I am nourishing them with dreams of liberty. Of victory. I have been behind every revolt. Every insurrection. Every act of disobedience” (Conde 175). The words ‘hardening’, ‘nourishing’ and ‘behind’ make her a mother figure who looks after her children and watches them grow. Not surprisingly, she too had hardened her heart once she found that she was pregnant with Christopher’s child. She too rebelled against her oppressors. This point illustrates how her spirit is actually the manifestation of her story. The book itself, the accounts of Tituba from the womb to the spirit world, is an autobiographical narration in which every supernatural element is a testimonial to the almost ironic power of her tale. It is ironic because in that state of death, she was able to accomplish what she could not have accomplished when she was alive. The memory of her becomes more versatile than her physical self, as her song is passed from person to person, generation to generation.
Danticat’s Krik? Krak! contains many short stories in which forgotten voices are resurrected by the method of a story. First day on the boat, the male protagonist of “Children of the Sea”, comments, “When we sing, Beloved Haiti, there is no place like you. I had to leave before I could understand you, some of the women start crying. At times, I just want to stop in the middle of the song and cry myself.”[3] By personifying Haiti, and using the first-person perspective, ‘I’, the song implies that the relationship of the country and its people goes down to a personal level. The voice of Haiti revives the memories and speaks with an intimacy that is different for each individual. ‘We’ indicates that everyone participated in the singing, and yet, only ‘some’ of the women started crying. The difference in the responses provides further proof of the contrasts in the connection of these Haitians to Haiti. The protagonist himself decides to stop singing completely. Thus, silence is introduced into the story.
Although he used to work for the radio the sensual imagery that accompanies the male protagonist is one of silence. He writes, “I tried to talk to you, but every time I open my mouth, water bubbles came out. No sounds” (Danticat 12). Since water and the sea are symbols of the afterlife for Haitians, it can be deduced that the dream of ‘water bubbles’, indicates the end is near. His death becomes one that cannot be resurrected because no one knows his story and no one can hear his voice. It produces ‘no sounds’. He also comments in rapid repetition, “The baby has not cried”, “She still hasn’t cried”, “Swiss isn’t crying”, “âÂ?¦but she’s not crying” (Danticat 20). The baby did not even have a chance to exist, to live and to have a story because it had no voice to speak. This is another example of how silence is so heavily emphasized throughout the story. Although the presence of his journal breaks the pattern, the fact that he had to throw it into the sea make the silence even more deafening.
What takes away the silence? The story “Children of the Sea” revives the protagonists and gives him the means to communicate with the reader. His autobiographical first person account is not at the bottom of the sea with the children. Instead, it is on the pages of Krik? Krak! where he can speak of the endless sea, much like his love for her. There is a time when the female repeats his words as she says, “âÂ?¦a sea that is endless like my love for you” (Danticat 29). The keywords in here are ‘sea’, ‘endless’ and ‘love’. Without the “Children of the Sea”, the world is indifferent to what happened to the protagonists because they do not have a voice, a story that tells of their tragedy. Without a voice, there is only the silence of death. However, as Danticat gives the protagonists voices through her novel, the temporal quality of her story is able to distort the time and the senses so that their ‘love’ does become ‘endless’ and infinite like the ‘sea’.
Finally, in “Women Like Us”, there is again a reference to crying as in “Children of the Sea”. This time it is used in a simile. “Kirk? Krak! Pencil, paper. It sounds like someone crying” (Danticat 220). The punctuation pauses in the sentence is used to emphasize the distinct nature of this ‘crying’. Further explanation reveals that the voices come from, “âÂ?¦the old spirits that live in your blood” (Danticat 223). Not only are the spirits in the blood, they ‘live’ there. Although they are physically dead, they are brought back to life through the telling of their stories. An example of this is indicated here, “They were singing, searching for the meaning in the dust. And sometimes, they were talking to faces across the ages, faces like yours and mine” (Danticat 223). The same ‘meaning’ that they are searching for is none other than their identity, their story, and their life. These effects are accumulated into stories that are passed down to the younger generations so the spirits may live again.
Although Romeo and Juliet, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, and Krik? Krak! all use slightly different methods of portraying the significance of storytelling, the result is the same. The supernatural power of a story lies in its ability to provide immortality. Romeo and Juliet are forever immortalized because the retrospective nature of the play causes the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet to never end. Tituba’s story is filled with accounts and metaphors that tell of her own immortal status. “Children of the Sea” and “Women Like Us” are the most straightforward accounts of how a story can turn silence into a resounding scream of sadness. A story is the only enemy of death for it is the only one that can defeat death and resurrect those who are already dead.
[1] Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet, Edited by Brian Gibbons (New York: Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1980) p. 81
[2] Conde, Maryse. I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, Translated by Richard Philcox (New York: Ballantine Books, 1992) p. 4.
[3] Danticat, Edwidge. Krik? Krak! (New York: Vintage Books, 1996) p. 9
