\

Red

The red square is the province of thrones and true loves, treasures and seduction, conquering dragons and conquered shrews. The vast majority of romance stories take place on the red square, as do traditional treasure-hunting tales, pirate stories, and stories of battle for an ancient throne. Many very old narratives, such as the Illiad and the Odyssey, are red-square stories, as is the tale of David and Bathsheba, and most of the tales of the Brothers Grimm.

The colour red, as it is used here, is associated with the World, Wonder, the Body, Conquest, and Reward. Like all of the colours, this is an attempt to get at some idea or ideal that is fundamental and archetypal – and generally that doesn't have a single good word in English. The concept designated by red concerns the created realm, and the authority that exists within that realm. So, for example, if we wanted to speak of a “red” occupation, we might speak of politics, or of weaving: these are both areas of human life that are essentially bound to the service of the basic physical and political needs of a society; they both involve the imposition of a kind of order onto the stuff of existence, and they are, in some sense, an image of God's authorship of the Universe, spefically in terms of Him laying down an order or a law from which all things spring, and according to which everything thrives.

A red square plot is often concerned with order in the material world, which the breaking of that order, and with its restoration. This can be about the political order – as is the case, for example, in the legends of Robin Hood, in which the return of the rightful King brings to and end the corruption of authority, and returns the “outlaws” to an ordered place in society: since the laws are no longer unjust, it ceased to be lawful to break them for the sake of a higher justice. It can also be about the order of the heart: the Illiad is started because the rightful order of Meneleus' marriage is broken by the usurpation of Helen.

It can also be about marriage. There is a sense in which a marriage is a high symbol of order, of the integration of the created world, and of the prosperity and fertility that spring from the union of husband and wife. This is an idea that is somewhere lost in the modern world, because all of our images of marriage and the family are based on a disfunctionality model: we rarely conceive of marriage in terms of fertility and creativeness, but archetypally, these are the concerns that underly the union of the sexes. Indeed, if we look at the narrative of creation presented in Genesis – and at nearly every creation narrative presented across cultures – we find that there is, in the beginning, a separation of things: darkness from light, sea from firmament, day from night, sky from earth, and finally, male from female. All of these separations are necessary to creation: before them there is nothing, and the world is “without form and void,” but it also creates a dilemma: “It is not good that man should be alone.” Thus there needs to be a union, a “two-becoming one” in order to resolve the series of separations and legislations the give definition to the created world. This is also why, on an archetypal level, so many early myths refer to the sky as a husband and the earth as a wife. It is also why marriages are so often essential to stories about the destruction and renewal of the world: it is fitting that Persephone's marriage to Pluto leads to barreness and the loss of joy in the living world, and it is equally fitting that the entire Kingdom returns to life when the Prince kisses the Sleeping Beauty.

All of the stories about a rightful King seeking to reclaim his throne are Red Square stories, as are the vast majority of Romances. Of course, not all stories on the square take place with the “Right hand” characters – with those who are on the four corner positions. Stories of Princes and Princesses tend to be High Romance, and stories of Princes and Usurpers fill all of the “game of thrones” type plots. Stories about Princes and Sirens are relatively rare, but they cover the great tragic romances, as well as more obscure fairy tales, like the story of Princess Fioramanda, who lures the Princes that she is supposed to marry into her garden with her singing, only to entrap them as beads on her magic necklace.

So what of the other four characters? The Rogue, the Trickster, the Shrew and the Nymph? What sort of stories do they have, and why are they also considered to be “red” characters? Essentially, these characters take centre stage when you want to have a red square story that takes place, in a sense, on a lower level: one in which either the stakes are less grandiose, where the action is more realistic, grittier, more comic, etc. Take Indiana Jones, for example: a classic Rogue. While there is a sense in which the entire world hangs in the balance because, in some usually ill-defined way, the Nazis are guaranteed to win World War II if they're able to get hold of whatever treasure Indiana is seeking, this is not something that the viewer particularly believes, nor does it seem to be primary reason for the action of the story: indeed, we are repeatedly shown, in the mini-adventures at the beginning of each movie, that Indiana is primarily concerned with treasure, and he is willing to pursue it regardless of whether there are Nazis involved or not. This is even more pronounced in a tale like Treasure Island where there isn't even a pretence that the entire world is going to be plunged into darkness if Long John Silver gets the gold.

Likewise in the stories of a shrewish girl who refuses to eat, refuses to listen to her father, and gets into an endless series of ego-battles with the hero – but which inevitably ends with both the girl and her roguish young man laying aside their pride and prejudice in order to live happily ever after – there is usually nothing more at stake than the happiness of two young people and their families. The girl doesn't have half the Kingdom for a dowry, flowers don't spring up beneath her feet at every step, and if she happens to fall asleep the rest of the world will happily get on with its business undeterred. Or, in a story like “The Big Sleep,” the world is sure to go on as usual even if Humphrey Bogart doesn't end up with Lauren Becall or find out who has been demanding black-mail from the old man.

These stories are still on the Red Square: they deal with the same essential content, but scaled down. The marriage is no longer a cosmic reality that will bring harmony back to the world, but it is still a marriage, and it will still bring harmony to the lives of those who are enjoying it. The treasure is not a Kingdom, and the Rogue who takes possession of it doesn't have the power to renew the face of the earth, but there is always some sense in which he is either the rightful owner, or will return the treasure to its rightful place.

[Back to Main]  [Back to Aereopagus]  [Back to University]  [Back to NP101]