Berto_Tony_201307_PhD .pdf - University of Guelph

122
Malcolm’s dead wife's closet, he caresses her clothes and talks to her about taking the knife
away from Derrick.
MALCOLM. I nearly shoved it in the kid last night. There was a moment
before I looked into his eyes when it would have been so easy, Heather.
Just slide it in. He’d have let me. It’s getting way out of hand. I may have
strayed before, but you kept me in line. The past weeks, I just keep
pushing. Pushing him to do something. Fight back, hit me, tell on me.
Something. Anything to stop me. Ruin me. If you were still here, this
would never have gone so far. (He inhales the smell of a dress.) Oh
Heather. Stop me (66).
The speech shows Malcolm’s dangerous state of mind. It suggests that Malcolm wants to
stop his criminal sexuality, before it escalates to homicide, which he plainly contemplates.
While this revelation extends the criminal (or dangerous) element associated with his
sexuality, it also offers another nuance. While Malcolm mentions that he was unable to stop
his own abuse, he also appears to want to stop the cycle and to cease victimizing others as
he was victimized. If one accepts the notion that Malcolm's criminal abuse comes out of a
form of disease, the text also appears to show that Malcolm wishes the disease could cease,
regardless of the costs to him. His apparent suicide at the play's end supports the idea that
he yearned for and ultimately was able, to control his impulses.
A contagion model, in terms of abuse, is well documented medically. In Glasser et
al, such narratives are shown to be well grounded in statistics. Their study links perpetrators
of sexual abuse and incest as having themselves been victims of sexual abuse (Glasser et al
485). MacLennan’s text shows abusive sex between a man in a position of influence and a