Artistic Review: A Lie of the Mind by Sam Shepherd

Artistic Review: A Lie of the Mind by Sam Shepherd

Every artist is plagued by a question or two that he incorporates in all of his works of art, because he is searching for answers. Sam Shepherd is no exception to the rule.

The best, most lasting works of art are the ones that raise the deepest, most challenging questions about life, humanity, relationships, and existence. In light of this, A Lie of the Mind takes center stage because of its relevant and intense questions.

Shepherd, a playwright famous for his works Buried Child and True West, wrote A Lie of the Mind in the 1970’s, when Americans were becoming disillusioned with both America and the family, and the post-sexual revolution concept of “love.”

The play itself is about two families who are dysfunctional in almost complementary ways. They are connected by the marriage of Jake, a working-class guy, and Beth, an actress. Beth and Jake’s marriage disintegrates due to Jake severely abusing Beth and causing her brain damage; after this, the families are brought into more contact with each other than they ever could have anticipated.

Some of the characters fight for love and reconciliation within and/or across their families, but they are thwarted in their efforts.

Shepherd’s own view of family, marriage, and love, which are similarly defeatist in essence, come through in the interactions between his characters. The reader is left with a profound disappointment with the dynamics of the modern family. As one of the characters put it, “nobody cares” about each other or their family anymore.

As family dynamics become more and more strained, the members become more and more isolated in their own realities. While there are those who push for change, especially Sally and Frankie, nothing can be accomplished without mutual cooperation and rational thinking. Violence, a distorted view of justice, oblivion, self-centeredness, and irrational thinking all serve to further sever the families, and each person sees an escape from reality as the only rational recourse.

Though the characters find their new realities comfortable in the short-term, escapism leaves both families equally unhappy, empty, and even “dead.”

Sam Shepherd is not an optimist, but then, an artist is not supposed to be an optimist. He is called to be a prophet of the times. Shepherd’s themes in A Lie of the Mind are definitely prophetic, but they also reveal of the current state of familial love.

For Shepherd, the family no longer understands or transmits love. Emotional presence is lacking, and physical presence is often absent as well. Love cannot exist under such circumstances, as many have intimately discovered in their own families today.

It’s interesting to notice that all of the second generation characters—Sally, Frankie, Jake, Mike, and Beth—are the results of broken marriages. They do not understand love, but it’s nearly impossible to blame them because they never knew what love was in the first place. Their plight is profoundly sad and challenging.

Shepherd ties in the themes of America and freedom with the concepts of love and family. The American flag is a motif which he brings in throughout the play. First, the demented Jake wears it, then the enraged Mike uses as a bridle for abusing Jake, and in the end, Meg and Baylor fold it neatly and reverently, putting it away.

Shepherd seems to use the flag to symbolize the American spirit of freedom and opportunity. During the play, the flag is never flown or hung, as it is meant to be; rather, it is either folded up underneath a bed, worn as a garment, or used as a vehicle for abuse.

In America, freedom has long been thought of as the ability to do whatever we want. However, Shepherd does not seem to see freedom in this way. Like the flag in the play, freedom is generally misused. None of the characters really understood how to use the flag, nor did they care.

Similarly, freedom exists to be given away. Freedom enables humans to choose. Freedom, if used according to its ontological purpose, allows humanity to choose not the evil, but the good. Freedom is to be used, as Pope John Paul II asserts, for love.

The characters in A Lie of the Mind can live without using the flag appropriately, but they cannot truly live with fake, nonexistent, or broken love. Jake asserts that his violence is equal to undying love, but he goes away alone, sad, and mentally unhinged. Mike’s “love” for Beth is distorted till it becomes punishment, while Beth’s “love” is a lie of her damaged mind.

Shepherd understands humanity’s fundamental desire to love and to be loved. He ends the play with the image of a fire in the snow—a paradox. This comes as no surprise, because A Lie of the Mind is a paradox in its own right. The play embodies this question: Are we really living if our life does not communicate real love to us?

It’s a fundamental and yet jarring question. Even if we don’t understand love, we crave it. The “American dream” of freedom and exploration does not satisfy us, because America is made up of broken families that don’t know how to love.

Shepherd does not give us a solution to this paradox, to this problem. Yet, he is a great playwright because he honestly addresses questions, that, as Pope John Paul II says in his Letter to Artists, help “shed light” on humanity. Shepherd delves into “the mystery of man,” which is a mystery of love. In A Lie of the Mind, he holds up the mirror to human nature, showing humanity its state in terms of love, or the lack thereof. Now humanity must decide how to respond.