The Relationship Between Eros And Eros

Rock ‘n’ Roll, in a case of form following content, often engages with the ideas of Greek drama and mythology, specifically exploring the character or Eros. Eros is specifically discovered through three avenues: romance, the political fight between capitalism and communism, and music as escape. This formulation, of course, has parallels with sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Especially in the context of Eros, the line between sex and romance is blurred. Politics and drugs are both systems of existence that addict those involved; despite any realities of the political situation, the formulation of these societies is often predicated on their political systems and, as such, cannot adequately envision a life outside these systems to make substantial changes within them. Rock and roll, as a reclamation of bodily agency (tattoos, piercings, ‘subversive clothing’, the rejection of posers) acts as an agent of rebellion within the oppressive communist and capitalist systems. The tools of sex, drugs, and rock and roll reveal the existence and importance of Eros, and place Eros and the focus point of romantic existence.

In classic Greek mythology, Eros is not a concept, but a tangible deity. This personification allows Eros to became an independently powerful figure rather than an internal psychological act seen when an in-control person decides to fall in love. Similarly, Stoppard decides to call forth the idea of Eros through the Piper, a dualistic figure from an interpretive standpoint.

The Piper in the garden is the first image we see in the play, and he is singing a slightly modified version of a poem by James Joyce. He is singing next to Esme, in many ways the image of the flower child movement, with her billowing dress and long blon...

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...e, desire, jealousy and fear – Christ, does it do fear! – so who’s the me who’s still in one piece?...I don’t want your “mind” which you can make out of beer cans. Don’t bring it to my funeral. I want your grieving soul or nothing. I do not want your amazing biological machine – I want what you love me with.” (50-51)

Whether out of an attempt to satiate Eleanor or as a true revelation, Max eventually states that love is in fact not the purely physical, but instead that it is an obsession with the spirit of a lover: “[My mind is] what I love you with. That’s it. There’s nothing else” (51). Max discovers here what Stoppard seems to be positioning as the most accurate definition of Eros. While Eros can be deceptive, manipulative, hard to understand, and disappearing, but essentially it is the understanding that two people are inextricably linked to each other.