Friday, 24 February 2012

Questions Are Irrelvent!

   No, I didn't say that, that was someone else several years ago now. Questions on whether No.6 is John Drake, where the village is geographically, why No.6 resigned, which side runs the village, are, as the author once wrote, "idle and unnecessary."      
    Well I would say that such fundamental questions are at the very core of the matter. The identity of the Prisoner-No.6 is of fundamental value to the viewer, that whether or not he is John Drake, he was certainly part of his previous life, Patrick McGoohan that is, if not to the village and other individuals associated with the Prisoner's former life. As is the location of the village. Although it has been said that the village is a place of the mind, there is equal argument that the village is an actual place, constructed out of bricks and mortar. And it's geographical location becomes more important to the viewer as we discover where the village is not! As for why the Prisoner resigned, well that is the most fundamental question of them all, and every viewer, whether at the very outset of the Prisoner series in 1967-68, or those new to the series in 2007-08, viewers and fans alike want to know why the Prisoner resigned. And now they probably do know. Well I hope they do, as much as they should know which side runs the village from the episode The Chimes of Big Ben.
   Apparently the only questions worth dealing with, or putting answers to are those relating to an underlying message - what is the meaning behind the penny farthing? Who is No.1? Does No.6 escape? Well the Penny Farthing represents man's failure to slow down and collate all what he has so far achieved. No.1 is ourselves, each and everyone of us who have the desire to be No.1. And of course No.6 doesn't escape the village, not if it's all in his mind. There can be no escape. And besides which, the Prisoner series itself is a vicious circle, the end is it's beginning, from which there can be no escape.

I'll be seeing you

No comments:

Post a Comment