Big Question

As my shoulders shook with the shame and complete humiliation of being so short-sighted, I realized that this is what it feels like to be heart-broken. That night, laying awake in my bed, my sheets damp with tears, I decided to never allow myself to feel this way again; I would change, I would adapt, and I would control my own life.

The possibility that we can create our own reality has fascinated me for years. I’m not sure which movie it was, but I once heard that, “Every woman has exactly the love life she wants.” At first, it seems a ridiculous thing to say, but in almost every case I’ve seen, this statement is true. Sometimes, it seems that the human mind is able to “brainwash” itself to the point that humans perceive themselves or a situation to be something it’s not.

In To the Lighthouse, reality is an important theme. How the characters choose to deal with their frustrations enhances or impairs their entire lifestyle. This novel made me wonder if, in the end, we consciously decide our own reality. For example, Mrs. Ramsay chooses not to let the transience of life get her down, and she is the happiest character in the book—so, in a way, didn’t she choose to be happy?

Upon discovering reality, Oedipus chooses to embrace what he has found. On the other hand, his wife/mother/ew attempts to dismiss the evidence supporting a dreaded prophecy-come-true, and not believe the truth. And who wouldn’t? She may have succeeded in carrying on with her life as it was and ignoring the facts put in front of her, had Oedipus not been so persistent.

The play King Lear integrates the concepts of madness, love, and truth with reality. The character Lear creates his own reality of love and truth, only to find (in madness)that his reality has been distorted. Other characters such as Cordelia and Edmund behave in ways that set up their realities.

By embellishing his story, Christy in Playboy of the Western World creates his own reality. He is able to reinvent himself when he travels to a new town, and becomes the person he describes in his recollection of his "patricide." However, the truth catches up with Christy when his father comes to the town and finds him, and he is unable to maintain the new reality he has created. Can we truly create our own reality? Or is the truth to powerful to ignore?