Prelims_P3_Section_B_Q_2a__Presentation_of_Physical_Weakness__Joash_.docx

Joash Lee 18SH03 Essay Question: “Compare the ways in which two of the texts you have studied present physical weakness and how it affects the mind and self” From Plato’s allegory of hardened prisoners trapped in a gruelling cave, to Descartes’ conceptualisation of an all-powerful and all-deceiving evil demon manipulating our every thought, and even to Zhuang Zi’s dream that he was a butterfly, early philosophy considered the physical body which tethers our minds to the external world as distinct and inferior to the mental self. This is due to physical weakness, which refers to the inefficacy and limitation of the physical body, perhaps due to ageing, sickness, or the mind’s supposed superiority to the temporal physical body. This essay shall compare and contrast the presentations of physical weakness in ​ Age of Iron and ​ Ariel ​ , exploring the similarities and differences in Coetzee’s and Plath’s treatment of the theme. Ironically, both ​ Age of Iron and ​ Ariel present physical weakness to be empowering for the self as it rejects the temporal physical body and seeks to be defined through other means, though the two texts differ in their response to the loss of agency the self undergoes. Both texts portray the experience of physical weakness as a downward spiral into social alienation, which is embraced by the persona in ​ Ariel but vehemently resisted by Mrs Curren in ​ Age of Iron ​ . Ultimately, both texts depict the self to strive for transcendence beyond their physical forms, however, Plath portrays an uncertain resolution in solace in the mind, while Coetzee depicts a more certain path in writing past one’s physical death to sustain the self. To begin with, both Plath and Coetzee present ​ physical weakness to be ironically empowering for the self ​ , as it ​ catalyses the pursuit of other self-definitions in rejecting their fading physical bodies as an essential facticity. In ​ Age of Iron ​ , when Mrs Curren wrestles with physical weakness in the form of her cancer, she is shown to be admirably empowered in confronting her condition head-on in seeking to define herself by the happiness she brings to the other,

“Loving you, loving life, (ready to) forgive the living and take my leave without bitterness”. Mrs Curren’s periphrastic resolution to accept the harsh reality of her cancer is euphonical