The Comedy of the “Para-site”: Duck Soup, Volpone, and Hamlet

Abstract

The Comedy of the “Para-site”Duck Soup, Volpone, and Hamlet Isaac Hui In the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup (1933), there is a famous mirror scene in which the spies Pinky (Harpo) and Chicolini (Chico) try to steal the war plan from Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho). When Pinky attempts to escape from Firefly, he accidently shatters the mirror. Without anywhere to go, Pinky pretends that he is Firefly’s mirror image, imitating everything that the latter does. Not only can Pinky miraculously anticipate what Firefly does, but the relationship between the subject and the mirror object gets ambiguous as the scene goes on. When Firefly walks into the mirror, Pinky walks out from it. Intrigued by the image completely, Firefly acts as if he wants to sustain this illusion: when Pinky drops his straw on the floor, Firefly picks it up and hands it back to him. The scene ends when Chicolini barges in, creating the third image, breaking this illusion. Comparing this scene with another similar one in Volpone (1606), a comedy written by early modern dramatist Ben Jonson (1572–1637), this article attempts to explain the mechanism of comedy in these two scenes by proposing that their comedy can be explained through Jacques Lacan’s concept “the mirror stage.” The psychoanalytic theory illustrates how human beings gain their identity through the recognition of the mirror image. The essence of it, in sum, is how we, as human beings, are ideologically constructed subjects, a point which this article will elaborate later. While we are seldom aware of the workings of the “mirror stage” in our daily existence, comedy highlights its functioning. Exposing this concept explains why comedy is often built on the concept of narcissism. A comic character is often the subject who is driven by the logic of the mirror. This article argues that the comedy of Mosca the parasite in Volpone is related to his role as a parasite. While this role has its traditional and historical meaning, it can be understood through a breaking down of the word—“para-site.” The OED explains that “para-”, as a prefix, forms “miscellaneous terms in the sense ‘analogous or parallel to, but separate from or going beyond, what is denoted by the root word.’” Therefore, the word “para-site,” as a theoretical concept, can, perhaps, mean the existence of a space which is parallel or even beyond the original one. Moreover, the pun “site” and “sight” raises the question whether this parallel space is related to a person’s perception. In other words, because of his narcissism (the [End Page 170] parasite acts as if he is looking at his mirror image in the scene), Mosca is a creature who thinks that he is living and existing in another zone. He mistakenly believes that he is not who he appears to be. Although he is the servant, he thinks that he is the master. And, at the same time, he becomes who he claims he is not. To quote another famous line from the Marx Brothers: “He may look like an idiot, and talk like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.” While the set-up of this joke makes us believe that there is a difference between “he” and the “idiot,” the punch line says that there is none. In order to justify this theory, this article rereads Mosca’s scene in great detail with the theory of Lacan. Through the discussion, this paper argues that the parasite’s speech is full of internal inconsistencies and contradictions. Even though the parasite claims that he is different from Volpone’s three “bastards” (Nano the dwarf, Androgyne the hermaphrodite, and Castrone the eunuch), his speech suggests that he is no different from the trio. He believes in his own words and their power because he is situated in his “para-site.” In the final two parts of this article, the discussion will refer back to the mirror scene in Duck Soup, exemplifying the logic of comedy through the mechanism of the “para-site.” Moreover, this paper addresses the different functioning of the “mirror stage” in comedy and tragedy through comparing Duck Soup, and...