ROMANTIC IDEALISM AND
THE TRAVAILS OF THE ARTIST IN ESIABA IROBI’S THE OTHER SIDE
OF THE MASK By
Norbert Oyibo Eze
For Lester, what is so exciting and
attention-arresting in the text is that, “one of the play’s
principal narratives, is without warning obtruding on the
other, forestalling resolution and forcing Bassanio (and
eventually Portia and Nerissa) to adopt quite different
character functions” (258). In most cases, according to
Farrell, what insistence on a clear-cut ideology does, is to
“crush and destroy “the real talents among writers” and
artists, and to permit “those who are not serious, those who
have nothing to say to come to the front” (7 of 8). The
author of The other side of the Mask appears to be saying
that this is the case in Nigeria where mediocre artists are
frequently glorified and given all manner of awards for
producing weak but ideologically-clear works, while the real
talents are merely given oblique attention or not mentioned
at all. The text suggests that Jamike is a great brain, one
cut out for laurels. Kamuche the naval officer tells us:
If only you had seen his report cards when he was in
elementary school and secondary schools (intensely). Made a
distinction in his first school leaving certificate Exams.
Six aggregates. A1 in all his subjects. Made a first class
honour in his Bachelor of Arts degree exams. In fact, he was
the best in his department, the best in his faculty, and the
best graduand in the entire university (18).
In spite of excellent academic records,
Jamike never rests on his oars. He works assiduously and
pushes for excellence to the point of developing health
problems. Recalling his physical travail, Jamike laments:
Each year the ulcers in my stomach blossom in rhythm with my
rippling muscles. Each season the ulcers crack like the
surface of the barren Earth and bleeding like a dead man’s
neck. Each year my talents bleed. But in harvest season?
Nothing! (65).
History shows that where geniuses are
neglected, the creative juice normally congeals and decays.
And when “it ferments, it evaporates into violence”. This is
exactly the picture Irobi paints of Jamike in this
disturbing tragedy. He creates an image of a deeply troubled
artist in order to remind us as Chukwuma Okoye would say
that:
The active life of the artist is generally a restless,
inspired, often agonised, but never ceasing toiling, in the
farmland of the human spirit sustained by confident hope of
effective communication though without timely
acknowledgement much less, commensurate material reward”
(9).
In the absence of societal appreciation
of his artistic endeavour, Jamike opts completely for a life
of interiority, his mind becoming the substratum of his
existence. He wrestles with ideas and no longer cares for
the mundane, especially such things that will interfere with
his pursuit of the ideal approachable through his artistic
productions. “To keep his mind afloat in the mire of
drowning souls” (10), Jamike rarely eats, sometimes going
without food and water for days, in order to enable his
spirit to “soar above the mundane … into the realms of the
sacred”(11). Zhipora is of the opinion that in this
condition of existence, Jamike’s “reflexes become sharper,
his intuition deeper, and consciousness more visceral”. His
abandonment of Elsie is hinged on the idea that the woman
being an expert in catering business, only knows about food
and domestic affairs, without any knowledge of art, much
less transcendental art, which is his artistic
preoccupation. When Njemanze asks him whether he will not
marry, Jamike simply retorts:
Unless to an artist. A refined mind.
A woman with heightened sensibility who will appreciate both
my person and my genius (76-77).
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