Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf: A Tropical Australian Play in Three Acts: Analysis of Major Characters
"Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf: A Tropical Australian Play in Three Acts" explores themes of identity, colonialism, and familial relationships through its complex characters. Central to the narrative is Patricianello, a sixteen-year-old boy grappling with the ambiguity of his parentage and personal identity, symbolized by his dual existence as both a human and a calf. His mother, Lady Leocadia Clay, embodies conflicting roles of maternal affection and restrictive authority, complicating Patricianello's quest for self-discovery. The character dynamics are further enriched by Sir Robert Clay, presumed dead yet returning to claim Patricianello, and Professor Edward Mikulin-Pechbauer, whose ruthless scientific pursuits reflect a broader critique of colonial exploitation.
Supporting characters like Ludwig and Mirabella add layers to the exploration of manipulation and desire, with Mirabella’s seduction embodying the tensions of love and control. The King of the Aparura clan's transformation from a native chief to a business-suited figure highlights the cultural erosion faced under colonialism. The Hooded Figure represents the omnipresent threat of disease and mortality, intertwining the personal and the colonial in a critique of societal norms. Through these characters, the play delves into the struggles for autonomy against the backdrop of colonial power dynamics, making it a rich subject for analysis in understanding identity and cultural displacement.
Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf: A Tropical Australian Play in Three Acts: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Stanisaw Ignacy Witkiewicz
First published: Metafizyka dwugowego cielcia, 1962 (Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf, 1972)
Genre: Play
Locale: British New Guinea and Australia
Plot: Surrealism
Time: The 1920's
Patricianello (pah-TREE-chee-ah-NEHL-loh), the sixteen-year-old son of Lady Leocadia Clay. Although his name implies that he is a little lordling, Patricianello is also the calf of the play's title. He attempts the creation of self in the face of shifting, ambiguous relationships and the instability and uncertainty of colonialism in the tropics. In the first act, he is seen playing with cardboard cubes on the floor while dressed in red tights. He is told to dress properly. In each succeeding act, he is more and more constricted by convention. Patricianello's uncertainty about his parentage and identity is manipulated by his putative real and spiritual fathers as they attempt to ply him into their own image by gagging him and packing him off, thereby negating his quest for self and freedom.
Lady Leocadia Clay (leh-oh-KAH-dee-ah), Patricianello's mother, Sir Robert's wife, and Mikulin's mistress. She is forty-eight years old, with gray hair but shapely legs and a seductive manner. To Patricianello, she is a restrictive old mother, unlike the young beautiful mother of his dreams. Lady Leocadia has a propensity for sentimentality, exhibited when she and Mikulin recount their former love and when she views Sir Robert's body. It is revealed that in a night of abandon she also became Ludwig's mistress. Ultimately, her love life puts Patricianello's parentage into question. As a result, after her death Patricianello's putative fathers fight over Patricianello's future.
Sir Robert Clay, the governor of New Guinea, assumed to have died from the tropical disease Kala-Azar while on an expedition to hunt for bugs for his collection. Sir Robert's body is brought in at the end of the first act. The coup de théâtre in the third act finds him reappearing wearing tails and a fur coat. He too claims Patricianello as his son and assists the others in packing him off. The last scene finds him calling for his car to go to the club for a game of bridge.
Professor Edward Mikulin-Pechbauer, a famous bacteriologist and Lady Leocadia's lover. Mikulin's last name has connotations of bad luck, and in general he presents a caricature of the scientist in his mad pursuit for a new serum for the dreaded Kala-Azar disease. He is as ruthless in his love life as he is in his scientific experiments. He inoculates Lady Leocadia with the Kala-Azar disease to test the efficacy of his serum. Choked by the Hooded Figure in the second act, he returns in the third-act coup de théâtre as one of Patricianello's putative fathers, determined to mold Patricianello into his own image.
Ludwig, Prince von and zu Turm und Parvis, the handsome, blond, thirty-year-old nephew of Lady Leocadia. A whip-cracking, self-assured cynical young man, he is one of Patricianello's spiritual fathers. He wants to whip Patricianello into shape by tempting him with his own sister, Mirabella.
Mirabella Parvis, Ludwig's eighteen-year-old, very pretty, chestnut-haired sister. She is the temptress of the play who, in her second-act dance, seduces Jack Rivers, Mikulin, the Hooded Figure, and Patricianello. Like Patricianello, Mirabella is manipulated by others, and her beauty is used by Ludwig for his own ends. Her desire for love and a simple life are thwarted by the machinations of others, and when Patricianello is packed off, she is killed by the governor as she and the twin-image Patricianello look forward to the future.
King, the chief of the Aparura clan. He is a gigantic Papuan with frizzy black hair and black skin who appears in his native half-naked dress in the first act. The action of the play presents the increasing confinement and corruption of the King as he appears in a business suit and ultimately tails while tossing off gin and tonics, one after another.
Jack Rivers, the president of the Gold Stock Exchange of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. An entrepreneur, Rivers makes a deal with Ludwig to skim off the profits from a phony mine. As Mirabella's lover, he promises to share Mirabella with Patricianello as well as to teach him how to love her.
Hooded Figure, an embodiment of Kala-Azar. Appearing in the second-act deathbed scene of Lady Leocadia, he is a tall, sinister figure in a brown coat that hangs down to the ground, with a hood over his head. In the final coup de théâtre, he sheds his coat and hood to reveal a twin-image Patricianello, dressed in tails as a young man about town. The Hooded Figure in turn is also packed off by Sir Robert Clay, thereby thwarting the Hooded Figure's happiness with Mirabella.
Old Hag, a hunchbacked, incredibly old, grotesque figure in gray rags who may be connected to Mirabella, because Ludwig pays her for her “niece.” She reappears in the final act behind the wheel of the car carrying Mikulin, Lady Leocadia, and the King.
Six Papuans, the gigantic black subjects of the King.
Four Sailors, who are dressed in white and carry the body of Sir Robert Clay.
Six Porters, who appear wearing green aprons. Two of them pack off Patricianello while the others carry out the trunk with the Hooded Figure.