Sisyphus, Number Six, and Personal Freedom

By Lynda Burns

The Greek myth of Sisyphus tells of a king who is sent to Tartarus after death and receives a terrible punishment. During his lifetime, he was a trickster, highway robber, and seducer of other men's wives. However, it is what happens after his death for which he is most well known. He is given a punishment that is both creative and severe. It is judged that he must remain in Tartarus until he is able to push a boulder to the top of a steep hill, and roll it down the other side. But each time he nears the top, the boulder rolls back down the hill, and he must begin again, repeating this cycle for eternity. One of the more interesting things about this myth is that it is never specified for which crime he is being punished. Although many of the deeds he did in life were terrible, it normally takes something quite extreme to merit a punishment of this type in Tartarus, such as Ixion attempting to seduce Hera while a guest of Zeus, or Tantalus attempting to feed his son to the gods. According to various versions of the myth, Sisyphus may have been punished for murdering travelers, for revealing to her father that Zeus had carried off a young maiden, or, most commonly, for tricking Persephone into letting him return to the land of the living in order to see to his burial, and then refusing to return to Hades.

Patrick McGoohan's masterpiece The Prisoner, a seventeen-episode British television program about a secret agent confined to "The Village", reworks the myth of Sisyphus into a modern warning about the conflict between personal freedom and national security. The mantra of the series "I am not a number, I am a free man" refers to the dangers of reducing human beings to numbers in a system, rather than treating them as individuals. The hero of the series is confined to the Village by his superiors upon his resignation from the secret service. Because he refuses to state his reasons for resigning, there is some fear that he has either already sold, or is about to sell, state secrets to the enemy. He therefore is sent to the Village, where he is referred to only as Number Six, and never by name. He is not permitted to meet those in charge, only their henchmen, and none of his questions are ever answered. Many attempts are made by those running the Village to obtain information from him regarding his resignation and past activities, including torture, drugs, and brainwashing, but he is never entirely certain if he is being held by his own government, or if it is an elaborate trap by the enemy. The closest thing to an answer he gives to the question "why did you resign?" is "for peace of mind."

Both Sisyphus and Number Six are subjected to terrible, seemingly eternal punishments for unspecified reasons. While Sisyphus robbed and killed and seduced for personal gain, the precise nature of what he did to merit his punishment is unclear. Number Six did many of the same things for Queen and country, and it is implied that either his superiors are afraid he also did these things, or would do them, for personal gain, or that his enemies wish him to do these things on their behalf. Many of the techniques used on him are quite twisted and horrific, worthy of Tartarus. An example of this can be seen in the episode "The Schizoid Man." Number Six is drugged, and subjected to extreme behavior modification therapy, including electric shocks to force him to become left-handed instead of right-handed, for approximately one month. He then wakes up with no knowledge that this time has passed, and is told he is Number Twelve, who has been hired to impersonate Number Six and make him crack. The real Number Six is horribly confused, almost believes he is someone else, and begins to lose his mind. However, a few seemingly insignificant clues lead him to the truth, and he begins to remember what was done to him. The episode ends with the imposter being killed, and Number Six remaining in the Village as himself. These types of mind games are common, and certainly seem to be a 1960's parallel to the punishments inflicted on those condemned to Tartarus.

It is in Number Six's repeated escape attempts that a similarity to Sisyphus is perhaps most apparent. He comes up with many elaborate plans to escape. In some cases he believes he has truly escaped, gets back to what he thinks is London, then walks through a door and discovers he is still in the Village. Examples of this can be found in the episodes "The Chimes of Big Ben" and "Many Happy Returns." No matter what actions he takes, he always ends up back where he began. In other cases, his attempts are thwarted by Rover, which is a giant white balloon rolling along the ground, always accompanied by dire sound effects. When Rover catches an individual, his face is shown being smothered by the balloon, usually rendering him unconscious, although Number Twelve was actually killed by Rover. On a fairly literal level, Rover might be seen as Sisyphus's boulder, always rolling along, forcing Number Six back to where he began.

In many ways, the Village is the underworld, a place where spies go after their careers have died. Most of the residents seem very happy, although there are indications that they are given large quantities of psychotropic drugs so they believe they are in the Elysian Fields. Tartarus is always there, lurking in the background, whether in the fear Rover generates in the residents each time it is seen, or more obviously, in the mind games played on the less co-operative "residents". The residents have exchanged their lives, generally freely given in service to their countries, for an afterlife where all their needs are cared for, as long as they have no desire for personal freedom.
While the series is enigmatic at best, it certainly focuses on the conflict between an individual's rights and the needs of the state. A refusal to respect the state is considered a crime, just as to the ancient Greeks, refusing to respect the gods could lead to horrible consequences. The series makes one consider what gives the government, or the gods, the right to give such punishments to people, especially for unspecified actions. It was made in Britain in the late 1960's, when the Cold War and Viet Nam were making the questions being asked by the series strongly pertinent, as they still are today. While in the final episode, it is stated that Number Six has "gloriously vindicated the right of the individual to be individual" ("Fall Out"), the final scene of the series is identical to the opening scene, implying that nothing has changed and it is about to begin all over again, just as each time Sisyphus almost reaches the peak of the hill, and thinks his punishment might be over, it rolls back to the beginning, and he must begin again.

Works Cited
"Fall Out." The Prisoner. Dir. Patrick McGoohan. ITC, Ltd, 1967.

Posted by john at May 25, 2005 10:08 PM