Paul Cava. Bobby and Jackie (letter). 1999. Iris print and collage, 20 x 20 inches.
While The Elf King is not an erotic tragedy as I’ve explored that idea over the past several years, its theme does partake somewhat of the metaphysical qualities of sexuality and human reproduction. Though I do not find his arguments entirely persuasive, Arthur Schopenhauer’s “The Metaphysics of Sexual Love,” found in volume 2 of The World as Will and Representation, informs the spirit of eros that opens the play; two relevant excerpts below.
That which makes itself known to the individual consciousness as sexual impulse in general, and without direction to a definite individual of the other sex, is in itself, and apart from the phenomenon, simply the will-to-live. But what appears in consciousness as sexual impulse, directed to a definite individual, is in itself the will-to-live as a precisely determined individual. Now in this case the sexual impulse, though in itself a subjective need, knows how to assume very skilfully the mask of an objective admiration, and thus to deceive consciousness; for nature requires this stratagem in order to attain her ends. But in every case of being in love, however objective and touched with the sublime that admiration may appear to be, what alone is aimed at is the generation of an individual of a definite disposition. … The true end of the whole love-story, though the parties concerned are unaware of it, is that this particular child may be begotten …
The growing attachment of two lovers is in itself in reality the will-to-live of the new individual, an individual they can and want to produce. … The quite special and individual passion of two lovers is just as inexplicable as is the quite special individuality of any person, which is exclusively peculiar to him; indeed at bottom the two are one and the same; the latter is explicite what the former was implicite. The moment when the parents begin to love each other … is actually to be regarded as the very first formation of a new individual, and the true punctum saliens of its life; and as I have said, in the meeting and fixation of their longing glances there arises the first germ of the new being …
“The Metaphysics of Sexual Love”
In The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 2
Trans. E.F.J. Payne, p. 535-536
Emphasis added