Betrayal the Inevitability of Betrayal

Betrayal

The Inevitability of Betrayal and the Damage it Does

On the surface, it seems as though Homer's "Odyssey," Shakespeare's "Hamlet," "Medea," Hawthorne's the Scarlet Letter, and the "Inferno" of Dante are all tales of betrayal. Most notably, "The Odyssey" depicts Penelope's suitors as betraying their obligation to honor the home and wife of their host for many, many years. Odysseus' wanderings are touched off by the Cyclops' betrayal of his duties as host, and Odysseus' betrayal of his duties as guest, and many of the people he stays with such as Circe and Calypso, in one way or another betray Odysseus by attempting to ensnare him or keep him from home. "Hamlet" is a tale not just of a man who cannot make up his mind, but a brother who kills his own brother to marry his wife, an act of family betrayal. The title character of "Medea," after winning the Golden Fleece for her husband, is cast off by Jason for a younger woman. The Scarlet Letter's Hester Prynne is betrayed by her lover who will not come forth and claim his child, Hester betrays her obligation to her husband, and the Reverend Dimmesdale betrays his vow to honor the laws of God -- as do all of the sinners in Dante.

But the notion of betrayal implies not just a broken obligation, but that something unexpected has occurred, and this is not the case in most of these stories. A man who leaves his wife in ancient Greece almost inevitably left her unguarded and open to attack -- Odysseus should have known and expected this, just as he should have known that the Cyclops' father the sea god would avenge himself upon his child's attacker, even if the Cyclops had also betrayed his obligation to his host and even though Odysseus was forced to leave Ithaca to avenge Helen's betrayal. Hamlet calls Claudius a villain, even before his father's ghost tells him of his murder. In short, Hamlet is a man in search of a reason to blame his hated uncle for some wrongdoing, the realization that the current king is a criminal comes as no shock. Medea is shunned by Jason's court as a foreigner, even before he casts her off, and his careless treatment of her should have proved a warning. Likewise, although Hester is sympathetic, she knew her relationship with Dimmesdale was illicit, and that he was a weak man. Finally, in the "Inferno" when God created hell, he surely knew Man would sin, even though he also gave humanity free will.

The looming specter of betrayal in a dangerous and mendacious world is often obvious. Just like when God forbade Eve to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, when there is an obligation there is also the corresponding temptation to flout that obligation, a temptation seemingly ingrained within the human heart. All of the obligations outlined above are formal obligations, either contractual like a marriage, or so sacred, like the bonds of obedience one owes to God or to one's host, that they have the seriousness of a legal obligation. These obligations hold society together, but because human nature is fallible, and most of these obligations are ultimately unenforceable, the social bonds the obligations were meant to forge are broken.