Gabriel Hawking Egotism, Manichaeism and Aestheticism. How Can Emotional
Addiction Transpose the Realm of Substance Addiction?

Part 1: The Intro
Addiction The ego and Manichaeism

Whenever one thinks about addiction it is always in the context of a substance or a lifestyle. The online dictionary describes addiction as the : “ compulsive need for and use of a habit­forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well­defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the
:

user to be harmful” However in some cases there have been texts that break this mold and show addiction to centre around not a single activity but a way of being. Some characters are defined by their addictions because the object of their addiction is none other than themselves and their lives. Both the characters of Krapp Krapp’s Last Tape in by Samuel Beckett and
Dorian
Grey A Picture of Dorian Grey in can be defined as being addicted to their lives and their ways of life.The ego was one of the topics described by Freud as a part of three the Id, the Ego and the Superego. According to Freud’s studies: "Id is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality... It is filled with energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organisation, produces no collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle"
"The ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world ... The ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id, which contains the passions ... in its relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength, while the ego uses borrowed forces"
"The Super­ego can be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt.”

In this essay the concept of the Id proves to be highly significant as both men focus solely on their needs and desires. They do not care about the ramifications of their action and therefore in a Freudian sense they seem to lack an ego and a Superego.
They are both creatures of pleasure with
Dorian who states
“I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.” and
Krapp re­living his experiences as a young man over and over again alone. He listens to the sensual aspects of his life and exists only for his own pleasure how he listens over and over again to his experience with another woman
“I lay down across her with my face in her breasts and my hand on her. We lay there without moving.
But under us all moved, and moved us, gently, up and down, and from side to side.
(Pause. Krapp's lips move. No sound.)
Past midnight. Never knew such silence. The earth might be uninhabited.”
.

It can also be said that coupled with the characters addiction to their ego is a form of manichaeism. According to the online dictionary describes Manichaeism as: Manichean comes from the word ani
M , which is the name of an apostle who lived in
Mesopotamia in the 240’s, who taught a universal religion based on what we now call dualism. If you believe in the Manichean idea of dualism, you tend to look at things as having two sides that are opposed. To Manicheans, life can be divided neatly between good or evil, light or dark, or love and hate. When you see
Manichean
, think “two.” This belief is often associated with people suffering from Narcissistic qualities as it is the need to separate the light from the dark. The division of the beautiful and the ugly and the need for sensual experience and description. According to Sue Willson in her paper “Krapp’s Last Tape” And the Mania in Manichaeism” : “Manichaeism devalues sensory experience, ethically rewriting it as sensual indulgence” According to the writer Stanley Romaine Hopper: “the way of the true gnosis is an ascetic way: it is to get free of the entanglement with matter through abstention from sensuous enjoyment. Here appears the doctrine of the three "seals" ­ the seals of the mouth, the hand, and the bosom. The first forbids the enjoyment of unclean foods (flesh and wine); the second forbids the use of any unclean elements; the third forbids all sexual community.” (Hopper, 153) In Sue Wilson's paper she explores these three seals within
Krapp’s Last Tape discussing how the section:

“I lay down across her with my face in her breasts and my hand on her. We lay there without moving. But under us all moved, and moved us, gently, up and down, and from side to side.
(Pause. Krapp's lips move. No sound.)
Past midnight. Never knew such silence. The earth might be uninhabited.” Uses all three seals as he talks about how
Krapp
uses mouth “my face” hand “my hand on her” and bosom “in her breast.” Dorian Grey orian
In
D
fills Hooper’s idea of the second forbids, the use of unclean elements, by visiting the Opium Dens in
London. In both cases however the use of Manichaeism is to fuel the characters ego with
Krapp lamenting on his time as a younger man and reliving his experiences with a woman, and
Dorian
going out to find pleasure and attention from the lowest people in society. Therefore the idea of Manichaeism is used in the texts but only in a way to add to the character's obsession with their lives and their way of life. The concept of Manichaeism also leads to the idea of Aestheticism. Both
Dorian
and
Krapp’s
addiction to themselves has lead to an obsessive level of aestheticism. With
Dorian Grey collecting objects of beauty, and Lord Henry saying that “
Beauty if a form of Genius […] People say sometimes that Beauty is only superficial. That may be so. But at least it is not so superficial as Thought is. To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible…” this is coupled with
Krapp’s
own desire to base opinion on looks and not actions with Fanny being described as a
"bony old ghost of a whore.”
This ideal for aesthetic quality usually comes from the fact that the characters perceive themselves in a superior position than that of the people around them. This shows a high and almost all powerful sense of the Ego.

Part 2:
Analysis of the texts and the addiction to the ego that the characters show. As seen above both characters ,and both texts to that extent, share the same traits and the same views about self and the ego. The character’s both show clear signs of addiction to their ego. In both texts the protagonists addiction comes from a dependency to either be admired or heard. This idea is shown more clearly in
Dorian Grey than in
Krapp’s Last Tape. Unlike
Krapp, orian
D
is a living piece of art.
He takes the place of his portrait and thus remains an idealised depiction of youth being described as: “ certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth's passionate purity.

One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world. No wonder Basil
Hallward worshipped him.” This idea of being “worshiped” not only helps build the ego of the protagonist but creates the sense of
Dorian’s
place in the world as a piece of art that must be admired.
Dorian’s
character is one who has been designed to be “worshiped” not in the same sense as one worships a God but in the sense that one worships a masterpiece such as the roof of the sistine chapel or the Mona Lisa. Like all art
Dorian was meant to be looked at and by making him a personification of art it means that he feels that he must be adored and he must be admired and even
“worshiped” this meaning that if this adoration is taken away his soul purpose in life is not fulfilled. By taking the place of his painting he has ,in some ways, contributed to his need to be looked at as an art form. His addiction forms the basis of his existence.
Dorian
needs to be loved. By being obsessed and addicted to making sure his looks are admired and that he remains the central point of the lives of those around him he is fulfilling his role as an object of aesthetic beauty. This being said it could therefore be stated that
Dorian has not only become addicted to his own ego but is also dependent on his ego being recognised and it proves to be the thing keeping him alive. This is taken more literally in
Dorian Grey where
Dorian eventually confronts his dark and malicious personality in the form of the evil portrait. He destroys the picture thus, in some sense, destroying his own love of his ego that has become a separate entity. This image of
Dorian confronting his ego and his addiction and destroying it shows the ultimate battle between the addict and the object of addiction. The end result is the death of
Dorian with the final paragraph of the book saying: “When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.” Dorian’s soul purpose was to be an object of beauty and his ego was what defined him. By confronting the object of his addiction
Dorian
’s life had become meaningless.
This meant in the world of the novel
Dorian
no longer performed his purpose of being an object of admiration and therefore had to die.

Unlike
Dorian, rapp

K
is a representation of a man lamenting over his past life. A character with nothing to live for he spends his days in his dark room listening to and

recording his life.
Krapp’s
self obsession is one that is described perfectly by the writer of the paper called “Krapp the Weary”, she writes: “Krapp’s Last Tape is the true story of a man who lives in future when people record their memories on tapes. Now the time has come and we have even gone further in technology and advancement, and who dares challenging Beckett’s prophecy of the post­modern man who is incapable of living his own life, no matter how hard he tries.
Lawley (1994) quoting Ruby Cohn asserts: “unlike other Beckett stage characters,
Krapp is rooted in a familiar world whose every detail is realistically plausible” (89).
Eva Navratilova (2007) ascribes the limitation and isolation of man from the world to
“Descartes’ dualism” and “the foundation of the sisyphean feeling of the absurdity as it is described by Camus.” On the whole, the situation of man over two thousand years of civilization is almost as bad as or even worse than before.” Krapp lives his life through his past. He is a man who need’s to remember the world the way he saw it. It is his views that count and not the feelings of others. The most fascinating thing about
Krapp's Last Tape is that fact that
Krapp
himself is seemingly unaware of his addiction to self and the ego.
Krapp
claims to be addicted to bananas and alcohol however these addictions add to his more manichaean life tying into his egocentricity.
Krapp’s
addictions to other objects can therefore be seen as a cover up. For a man who lives a life of retrospect and constant re evaluation he is denying the issue of his ego. Krapp’s own addiction spans from the need to live. The reader meets two
Krapp's
both with an addiction to their ego however the reason behind the addiction is different. The
Krapp
the audience sees is a man who is tired of life a man who wants to die. The only way he lives is through his past actions. His world is based on his needs, he is in some ways a living version of Freud’s id. He cares only for his desires and his pleasure because he is the only person he knows.
Krapp
is a clear example of how loneliness turns people to become addicted to self. Krapp himself laments in the uselessness of time “whats a year now? The sour cud and the iron stool.” The line shows how the concept of time is something he no longer thinks about. It is nothing to him but a prolonging of the inevitable. Krapp
’s self obsession as a youth is different. Here the audience hears the voice of a young man who has lost all. He is questioning his own existence, his purpose in the world.
Krapp’s
recording of his life and his subsequent use of language shows that unlike
Dorian rapp’s

K
own addiction is forced upon him by the environment he lives in.
Krapp suffers from loneliness. He states this in the opening section of his recorded monologue “the new light above my table is a great improvement. With all this darkness around me I feel less alone. (
Pause.
) In a way. (
Pause.
) I love to get up and move about in it, then back here to . . . ( hesitates ) . . . me. ( pause. ) Krapp.”

He seems to be a man who wants someone to talk to. He needs to tell the world about his life about how he feels.
Krapp
needs to be remembered and he needs to be heard. Unlike
Dorian Krapp is seemingly driven to his addiction due to his lack or failing level of social life. The two versions of
Krapp's
that the audience sees and hears both have lost or lack anybody meaningful in their lives. With the
Krapp the audience hears talking about the death of his mother, the ending of three consecutive relationships and the feeling of absolute isolation at the end saying
“Past midnight. Never knew such silence. The earth might be uninhabited.
Pause.
Here I end this reel. Box­­( pause )­­three, spool­­( pause )­­five. (
Pause.
Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back.” Krapp's world is one of loneliness and darkness. This is also why his egotism is coupled with an form of manichaeism. He needs the light to separate the darkness of his room, he experiences a joyful moment and then loses the woman he loves.
Krapp's life is full of both literal and metaphorical forms of light and dark. Perhaps that is why he had his addiction to self, he knows that the only person who cannot leave him is himself. Through his substantial level of loss he has been forced to care about the one certainty in his own life and that is himself and his needs. Many have argued that the reason why
Krapp
records his life is to prevent himself from forgetting the past. He must always be aware of what had happened and it also gives him another voice to listen to. In contrast
Dorian’s own egotism is increased by his social life. As
Dorian
has more social experiences he becomes more addicted to his looks and himself. Dorian becomes addicted to the pleasure he can gain through his looks. He uses his youth and his looks to become what he is due to the society he lives in , one that values the aesthetic quality of an object over the substance of it. In this sense therefore even though the reasons behind their egotism differs their addiction spans from their environment. This can be said for many addictions as statistically people are more likely to be addicted to a substance if they have a family member who also suffers from that addiction, however, unlike substance addiction the addiction to one's ego and their personality does not have to genetic. The addiction is created through the social environment of the person with
Krapp
becoming a social outcast who can only love himself in an attempt to reduce the level of disappointment caused from being with another person, and
Dorian
a susceptible young man thrown into the world of the aristocracy at a young age and loved and “worshiped” for his looks. Also unlike substance addiction both men cannot quit. They have no escape and no way out. There is no process to go through and for both characters their addiction to self is , in many cases, far stronger than an addiction to a drug.
Krapp
stands as a perfect example for this as the writer James Knowlson states:

“The final confrontation between the younger and the older Krapp evokes then, more than mere sadness at the inevitable decline that occurs in man. For Krapp shows us a man who is torn by conflicting forces and whose life has been ruined by this conflict.” “This conflict” that James speaks about has forced
Krapp
to become the addict that he is. The “conflicting forces” that are mentioned could be the battle between young and old or they could be the constant battle between the society that
Krapp
lives in and the world he wants to be apart of. Some say that
Krapp
is the depiction of a man who have been beaten and worn out by society and the status quo as Cluchey and
Haerdter say : His decision is against the light and for the darkness which for him is filled with his own fire, "the fire in me" a decision against a social life and for the solitude in his ­ finally unsuccessful ­ struggle for his "opus magnum". This "opus magnum" is an
"explanation of the dark side of humanity". At the age of 39, Krapp has the vision that
"in the darkness, the dark side of the mind, truth is to be found". If up to this point he cannot be formulated, that this darkness is impossible to describe, a material which cannot be communicated", he realizes now "his chance as a writer in the research of this darkness". Dorian’s own addiction is also hard to get out of. Unlike
Krapp orian’s
D
own addiction is encouraged by the people around him. As mentioned before he is thrown into a world of corruption and lust by the people around him and he is turned into the man that kills Basil and then himself at the end of the novel.
Dorian’s
own addiction had no real chance of shifting because it would only chance if society did. Wilde’s character could only escape his addiction by dying. This makes
Dorian Grey more of a social commentary than
Krapp’s Last Tape.
In the novel addiction to self does overpower the addiction to substances and in many ways it replaces it.
Dorian does take and is confronted with addictive substances however he does not become addicted to them or takes them.

Section 3: The Conclusion
Addiction to self and the power of that

Both the texts highlight a form of egotistical addiction to one’s self and the power of such and addiction. They show that the addiction must also be linked with a form of both aestheticism and manichaeism. In
Krapp’s case he needs to remember his loss in the past and must hold on to the one certainty he has in his life. He has more

forms of manichaeism as he is constantly balancing light and dark. All his actions have an equal and opposite reaction. He also worships aesthetics. He describes people by looks and bases his judgements on those looks. He remembers the woman he loved by her looks “The face she had! The eyes! Like . . . ( hesitates ) . . . chrysolite!” and not by her personality.
Krapp
claims to be addicted to bananas and beer however both of these are undermined by his love of self. Dorian’s self addiction is what defines him as a character. “He used to wonder at the shallow psychology of those who conceive the ego in man as a thing simple, permanent, reliable, and of one essence. To him, man was a being with myriad lives and myriad sensations, a complex multiform creature that bore within itself strange legacies of thought and passion, and whose very flesh was tainted with the monstrous maladies of the dead. He loved to stroll through the gaunt cold picture­gallery of his country house and look at the various portraits of those whose blood flowed in his veins.”
Dorian views himself as something better than a man.
This superiority complex is created due to his gift of immortality.
Dorian
is different but in a way that takes away the weakness of mankind, death. In a world that worships looks over substance
Dorian’s unnatural beauty and youthfulness means that he is able admired and worshiped by all. Unlike
Krapp orian

D
is both an addict and the object of addiction.
Dorian becomes the object of addiction for both
Sybil
and
James Vayne and is also the object of
Basil’s
addiction. It is no surprise that he is confident in his own ego and the fact that he is addicted to his own ego. The texts show the power of addiction as well. They both highlight how people can be defined by their addictions. Both the characters in the texts live through their addiction. They are unable to cope with their states of addiction and this means that it becomes their lives. This addiction is therefore more holding. It is like a vice as it trapps the addict in a way that substance addiction cannot.