....................... And So Must No.6.
And you might be surprised just how often the Prisoner responds to, and accepts his number. In fact the Prisoner hadn't been in the Village ten minutes when he's asked on the telephone if his number is Number Six, to which he responds that it is. Although the Prisoner might just be reacting to the number on his telephone 6. And of course it is not the new Number Two who gives the Prisoner his nominated number, but the Supervisor-No.28 in the Control Room.
During The Chimes of Big Ben the Prisoner freely admits to No.8 that he is No.6. Yet by the time of Free For All, when the telephone operator asks if he is Number 6, the Prisoner, in defiance, tells the operator that that is the number of this place, meaning his cottage.
In The Schizoid Man when the Prisoner has had even his identity as Number Six taken away from him, he then proceeds to prove that he is Number Six, and freely wears his numbered badge, but only because it suits him to do so! Then having woken up in what appears to be a deserted Village in Many Happy Returns, the Prisoner collects provisions, a copy of The Tally Ho newspaper, a loudspeaker, camera and film from the General Store, and writes out an IOU for 964 work unints and signs himself No.6? But the thing is, the Prisoner didn't have to write anything for what he had taken from the General Store! Yet in Dance of the Dead, when asked by the postman to sign his number for the postal delivery, the Prisoner refuses to do so!
The Prisoner lives in '6 Private.' At the gymnasium he puts his clothes and personal belongings in the locker marked 6. Okay, the Prisoner is at times, is contradictory, and perhaps there are few times when Number 6 actually accepts, and responds to his number. But somehow it seemed a lot at the time! BCNU
No comments:
Post a Comment