"YOU ARE AFRAID OF
YOURSELF" - THE PRISONER'S SHADOW SIDE

Von Valarie Ziegler

Dieser text wurde für die PRISONER Convention 2010 als präsentation und diskussionsgrundlage verfasst.
Frau Ziegler ist professorin für religöse studien an der DePauw Universität Indiana, USA. Sie hat mehrfach seminare über THE PRISONER veranstaltet und in diesem rahmen mit studierenden auch die Prisoner Convention in Wales besucht.

When I first watched THE PRISONER, I was mesmerized. I identified with Number Six, and I racked my brain to figure out what the show meant. It seemed to be telling me something about my own life, something about the human condition, something important, if I could only unravel the clues. Many Six of One members report similar experiences. People have told me, for example, that when the show first premiered, they made audiotapes and even took pictures of the television screen, hoping to make sense of episodes later.

It wasn't easy. The first time we saw it, "Fall Out" blew all of our minds. McGoohan said viewers found "Fall Out" confusing because they expected to see a super villain like Goldfinger, and the episode didn't deliver one. I would add that we also expected to see a superhero, but "Fall Out" disappointed us there too. Number Six turned out to be a very complicated figure, not Superman.

So what are we to make of Number Six?

Let's start with the inscription our German contingent wrote in the Prisoner Shop guestbook at last year's convention: "The German friends of the Prisoner - Nummer 6 -- commemorate Patrick McGoohan with a big THANKS for his gift for thinking people everywhere worldwide. THANK YOU VERY MUCH, MR. EVERYMAN!"

NUMMER 6 M.A. THE PRISONER AUS AKADEMISCHER SICHT

Well, thinking people, let's think!

Obviously THE PRISONER is a complex work, but today I would like to focus on Number Six, especially on what I'm going to call his "shadow side." Our Everyman is a complicated guy - like each of us. He has a capacity for good as well as for evil. That's evident by the time we get to "Fall Out", but we've actually seen many hints of it before.

Think for a minute about this dialogue from "Free for All":
Manager: You are afraid of death.
Number 6: I am afraid of nothing.
Manager: You are afraid of yourself. You are aware of that. Good.

So, what are we to make of this? Why does or should Number Six fear himself?

THE HEROIC NUMBER SIX

Typically, in THE PRISONER, we see Number Six heroically defending his individuality, not being frightened by it. It's a virtue he thinks others should acquire. As he exhorts his fellow Villagers in "Free For All": "Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages. The rest of you have gone over to the side of our keepers.... I intend to discover who are the Prisoners and who are the Warders."

PROF. ZIEGLER MIT IAN L. RAKOFF, AUTOR DER EPISODE "LIVING IN HARMONY"

He seems quite sure of himself. The series emphasizes that confidence, since almost every episode begins with the iconic beach scene where Number Six proclaims, "I am not a number! I am a free man!"

We can think of many other occasions where Number 6 asserts his identity. One of the most spectacular is in "Once upon a Time":
Number Six: Units are not for me.
Number Two: You are a member! Of the Village!
Number Six: No!
Number Two: You are a unit!
Number Six: No!
Number Two: Of society!
Number Six: NO!

Number Six' resistance is so epic that the Village president in "Fall Out" concedes, "You have been such an example to us... You are pure... Your revolt is good and honest." And he instructs the tribunal: "He must no longer be referred to as Number Six, or a number of any kind. He has gloriously vindicated the right of the individual to be individual and this assembly rises to you, sir!"

Of course, we didn't need to look at any of those clips, as we simply could have recited together: "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own."

THE CONFLICTED NUMBER SIX

So far there doesn't seem any reason for Number Six to be afraid of himself - but The Prisoner reveals darker sides of our Everyman. In "A. B. and C." we learn that Number Six can protect his secrets from the Village in his drugged dreams, but his real dreams reveal a man in unremitting torment.

Number 14: Now we've got his thought waves, all we have to do is convert them into pictures. And here are his thoughts.
Number Two: Extraordinary. How very single-minded.
Number 14: He's not conventional.
Number Two: I sometimes think he's not human.
Number 14: It's an anguish pattern.

Further reflection will reveal other troubling features about Number Six. Though he begins his election campaign in "Free For All" defiantly promising to distinguish the warders from the prisoners, by the end of the episode, as he snaps out of his brainwashed state, he speaks as though he's been a boss his whole life: "I am in command! Obey me and be free!" It is no wonder that Number Two promised Number Six that if he wins, he will be in charge, and "Number 1 will no longer be a mystery to you, if you know what I mean."
"Checkmate" hammers home that point, emphasizing Number Six' affinity to his masters. The escape team's success depends upon distinguishing the prisoners from their warders. This task is easy once they realize that their jailers are naturally arrogant. Unfortunately, so is Number Six, and his "reliable men" abandon him just when freedom seems within reach. Number 2 sees the funny side of this.

Number Two: You've only yourself to blame.
Number Six: How d’you make that out?
Number Two: I gather you managed to avoid selecting guardians by detecting their subconscious arrogance. As it happened, there was one thing you overlooked.
Number Six: What was that?
Number Two: Rook applied to you your own tests. When he took command of this little venture, your air of authority convinced him you were one of us. (He smiles)
Number Six: And he convinced the others. What's happened to them?
Number Two: Oh, they'll turn up tomorrow on the chessboard - as pawns!

For all his courage, Number Six is a prisoner of his own personality. Others recognize him, not as a man free to choose his own identity, but as someone who has more in common with Village authorities than with his fellow inmates. If we think about how comfortable Number Six is in using Village methods to destroy Number Two in "Hammer Into Anvil," it's easy to see why the Manager in "Free For All" observed, "You are afraid of yourself."

THE SHADOW SELF:
NUMBER SIX COMES FULL CIRCLE

The scene in "Fall Out "where Number Six finally confronts Number One reveals Number Six' desperation to define his own identity. We hear the "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped" speech two times as Number Six proclaims his autonomy. Then he unmasks Number One, revealing a babbling ape. Behind the ape mask, we see Number Six' leering face. There's nothing suave or masterful here; Number Six has met his shadow side, and they are both screeching.

Ultimately, Number Six chases his alter ego into the rocket cone preparatory to blasting him into space. Bizarre a development as that is, it should not surprise us. Number Six always tries to destroy his shadow self. Remember "Schizoid Man"?

Killing off one's shadow self never works - it always returns, because it's part of who we really are. So, by the end of "Fall Out," Number Six has come full circle. The undertaker is back on the prowl, and Everyman is back in circulation. Both hero and villain, both prisoner and warder, Number Six is a complex character in a complicated narrative whose powerful story compels us to ask ever again: "What's it all about?" It's good that we are thinking people, because there are no simplistic answers.

Which is precisely why we come to the Village to enter into a "televisionary masterpiece" and learn its wisdom. When we understand THE PRISONER, we will understand what it means to be human: the good, the bad, and the ugly. We are right to be afraid; we are also right to be hopeful.

QUESTIONS

(yes... they are a burden)

1. Number Six is scared of himself. What should we be scared of?

2. Can any of us be free (or innocent), since, like Number Six we have a "shadow side"?

3. One commentator has argued the whole point of THE PRISONER is that each of us is a prisoner unto ourselves, responsible for our own Village, our own pain and our own reformation. Convincing?

4. If there are no super villains and no superheroes in the real world, what's the point?

5. It's clear that the Village is bad. Looking at the "shadow side" of Number Six suggests that individuals, even the most heroic ones, are flawed too. How then should we live? If Number One is both within us and outside us, what hope is there?

6. McGoohan argued that Number One was "the most evil thing on earth," and he identified it with "the evil part of oneself that one is constantly fighting until the moment of our demise." This shows that answers really are a burden to others. Is this how you interpret Number One?

7. Early members of Six of One have told me that they called it an Appreciation Society, not a fan club, because they were interested in exploring the implications of THE PRISONER. Where do we go from "Fall Out"?

8. I have seen an early description of Six of One in which the society claimed that, with its activities, The Prisoner had reached not an end, but a beginning. Where do we go from "Fall Out"?

9. What episode of DANGER MAN does our discussion of Number Six' "shadow side" bring to mind? What parallels do you see?

10. If you saw the AMC PRISONER, you know that [SPOILER ALERT] it ends differently than "Fall Out." Is the AMC 6 a stronger character than Number Six, or is he just delusional about his motives?