1998-English 102
Second Place
Language and Control in the Dehumanization Process
By Christina Grass
How one utilizes language to perpetuate certain images or perspectives can greatly influence the way people think. One can use language to manipulate the minds of others and bring them under some form of subjugation. In Vaclav Havel's The Memorandum certain characters use this tactic of manipulation through different means that involve language, and in the process, they gain the authority or recognition they are seeking. Ballas promotes the new creation of the synthetic language, Ptydepe, which reduces humans by mechanizing them for the purpose of a more scientific and efficient system of communication. The language is created so that people will show no emotions or flaws when speaking. This system is analogous to the bureaucracy, which also implements its linguistic power to establish and maintain order in every aspect of The Memorandum's society. Havel illustrates how language is intrinsically omnipotent by exemplifying the drastic effects it can have on people's rationality. The characters in the play who use language to their advantage gain power, and those who allow language to control them become victims of the cyclic struggle to systematize humanity.
Ballas is one person who uses language to manipulate and abate people, thereby exercising his power. Although subordinate to Gross by title in the beginning of the play, Ballas manages to finesse Gross into signing the supplementary order for the official introduction of Ptydepe, even though Gross is in opposition to the idea of an artificial language. He uses public opinion over the rubber stamp affair to manipulate Gross into submitting to his demands. Ballas strategically attempts to tell Gross what he believes Gross wants to hear and later admits he does this as a "matter of tactics" (1.1). An example of his stratagem is after he convinces Gross to sign the supplementary order: "We look forward to our further work in this organization under your expert and enlightened leadership" (1.4). He purposefully plays sycophant to Gross to make Gross feel as if he is still in control of the situation. He then convinces Gross that he would be more valuable as Deputy Director while he fills Gross' position as Managing Director. He abruptly informs Gross, "I'll go and get my things, while you, Mr. Gross, will kindly move out of my desk" (1.5), to which Gross responds with no resistance, "As you wish, Mr. Ballas" (1.5). Ballas has adroitly utilized the skill of duplicity to attain his power over people. He contrives his dialogue in a manner that influences the thoughts and actions of Gross. With this ingenuity of speech, Ballas is able to gain formal approval of introducing Ptydepe and conquers Gross' title as managing Director.
Helena is another character who uses language to her advantage in order to achieve state. She does not use deception, as Ballas does; rather, she addresses others in a manner that connotes their inferiority or lack of power over her. She often refers to others as "sweetie," "love," or by their first names. She addresses Ballas, the Managing Director, as "Jan." By recognizing people on a personal basis and in not acknowledging the formal identity of others, she presents herself with an air of authority. Furthermore, she also patronizes Maria, who is not even her secretary, by constantly sending her on errands to the grocer and rewarding her by praising her as "a good girl" (1.3). By referring to Maria as a "girl," Helena reduces her to the level of a child. Using this method of verbal degradation gives Helena a greater sense of power because she exhibits domination over another person.
Another technique that Helena and other characters use to reflect their power is utilizing their knowledge of Ptydepe, the artificial language, to alienate those who have not learned it. Gross attempts a futile quest to determine how he could have a memorandum translated from Ptydepe to natural language. In trying to explain the procedures of this new system of language, Savant and Stroll estrange Gross by using Ptydepe in their dialogue, which Gross does not understand. Savant states, "My colleagues sometimes ylud kaboz pady el too much, and at the same time they keep forgetting that etrokaj zenig oyte ge gyboz" (1.3). Gross is clueless as to what they are saying. Because they have knowledge Gross does not have, they can use it to his disadvantage.
Similarly, in Act One, Scene 5, Helena, Savant, and Stroll continually ignore Gross' inquiries as they speak in Ptydepe and only answer them after Gross has repeated his questions several times. Since Gross cannot understand Ptydepe, he cannot communicate with his co-workers. They use this power of knowledge to alienate Gross from themselves and reduce him to a lower level of significance.
While some characters have control over this abstract language, the concept of Ptydepe has the ultimate power over the people in the play. Ptydepe's purpose is to make language more precise and inhibit the qualities of it that make a person human, the "various emotional overtones, imprecisions, ambiguities" (2.9). Followers of this idea will face self-alienation and the inevitable doom of their humanity. Gross further explains, "Man loses the experience of his own totality; horrified, he stares as a stranger at himself, unable not to be what he is not, nor to be what he is" (2.12). When the system manipulates people to follow its regulations and rules of conduct, they become who the system molds them to be. They are then separated from their human identities as they assume their mechanical roles in the organization. Additionally, those who escape the dehumanization process and have the opportunity to salvage their humanity become scapegoats who are alienated from the other characters in the play, or in general terms, society. Gross is unable to "salvage the last remnants of Man's humanity" (2.12), for he, too, is captured by the provoking grips of the system. Language has the ability to alienate people from themselves and others, thereby attributing to it a vast command of power over people.
Whether it is the language or the person using it being the factor of control, people's obsession with an organized, systematic society will continue to exist so long as these tools for power remain to mechanize people. This compelling desire for order and efficiency gives rise to the need for regulations and authority, which in turn influences the strife for power that plagues the minds of humans, as exemplified by the characters in The Memorandum. Language is the key component in attaining this power, but those who use it for this purpose also allow it to overpower their minds as they create a deepening disturbance in human relations. Ballas becomes so absorbed with being powerful that he does not realize that his duplicity, driven by his obsession for authority, has taken control of him in his attempt to subdue others. Not only do people become alienated from others, but they also lapse into self-alienation, unable to identify with who they are as humans. The characters in the play have become so involved in a systematic way of living that they keep a knife and fork in their office drawers that they take with them everyday to lunch "in a solemn, funeral-like procession" (2.12). As long as people allow this oppression of humanity, the circle of power will never cease. In the play, although Ptydepe was eventually condemned as a failure, instead of ridding the organization of the system, Ballas implemented a new method of communication, Chorukor. Just as the play ends as it begins, the system that controls people's actions and thoughts will remain intact until a greater power can control the system.
WORKS CITED
Havel, Vaclav. The Memorandum in The Garden Party and Other Plays. Trans. Vera Blackwell. New York: Grove Press, 1993.
(My name is Christina Grass, and I am eighteen years old. I have attended Armstrong Atlantic State University since fall of 1997. At the end of spring quarter, I will have completed my freshman year. My major is undecided, but I aspire to go into the medical field. I enjoy to read, to write, and to chat with my friends, but my main priority is to spend quality time with my daughter, Jayleen, who is fifteen months old.)