Tunisia's Reality from Ben Brik’s Lens

The Brothers Hamlet by Taoufik Ben Brik

By Amira Masrour

 Edited by Michael Dickens

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The book cover 

Taoufik Ben Brik is a Tunisian writer, poet and journalist. Born in 1960 in Jerissa, a town in northwestern Tunisia, he is well known for his anti-authority attitude and being an outspoken critic of censorship in his country.

The title of his book is deceiving; when someone reads the title for the first time, one may think that it is about Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet.” Yet, it is the author’s first trick. If it is not about the play Hamlet, then it is about what?

If you look at the title, again, you will ask yourself: does Hamlet have brothers? This is another trick used by Ben Brik to push the reader to think and think again about what has been taken for granted.

The title brings to mind the Shakespearean figure Hamlet or Dostoevsky’s book The Brothers Karamasov.

Here, there are nine main characters. Some of them are Shakespearean and the others are figures chosen from the author’s historical and cultural background, such as Christopher Marlowe, who is introduced as a poet in this book.

The Shakespearean characters are not only taken from the play “Hamlet”; Ben Brik also uses other figures from other Shakespearean plays like Macbeth.  The relationships between the characters have been reshuffled by the author.

Hamlet’s father becomes King Lear, his uncle is Macbeth, and his mother is Desdemona.

The author not only plays with characters' relationships, he also plays with the language they use. They are no longer speaking the English language; they are speaking Arabic. What is ironic is that they are using the Quran to support their arguments. In page 50, we find Hamlet using surat Al Israa ayat 23 to back up his idea about the importance of respecting one’s parents.

Thus, the author played and messed everything which makes his written work a postmodern one. The original unity concerning the characters, their relationships, and the language they use has been totally fragmented and collapsed.

A traditional play, if ever we can say it is a play, has an introduction of characters and exposition. Then, the problem of the play in relationship to the setting and characters is clearly stated right from the first three acts. However, in The Brothers Hamlet, the reader fails from the beginning to the end to find the place where the characters are speaking.

Furthermore, the linear development of characters is totally absent in this artistic work. So, there is no climax or denouement as is the case in any classical Aristotelian structure. Instead, we’re in front of a circular structure where there is no order and clear framework.

Apart from the main characters, many other voices are introduced in the text. Some classical Arabic figures like Al Motanabi and Mahmoud Darwish are present. Many figures belonging to different times and places are talking to each other, which makes the reader inquire about the meaning.

This polyphonic piece of writing breaks the pre-modernist tradition whereby the author’s voice is omnipresent. Here, there is not one character dominating the dialogue. Everyone is talking, but no one answering. This aspect can remind us of the Tunisian framework in which many politicians are interpreting the situation but do not come out with meaning and solution.

If we dare call The Brother’s Hamlet a play, then we can notice that the writer has replaced the acts and scenes with situations. He has broken the dramatic tradition and divided the book into 13 situations. The book starts with the situation of Dawn and finishes with the situation of Dusk.

Ben Brik uses many rhetorical devices and techniques. Intertextuality is the most shining device in this book. Many texts are mixed together within an interwoven fabric of artistic work. He blended all of the Shakespearean plays, the Bible, poems, songs and even Norse mythology together. The author mixed many Shakespearean plays together to build a new artistic structure. All of Macbeth, Hamlet and even King Lear have contributed to give the birth of The Brothers Hamlet. Another text heavily present in this book is the Quran.

On page 107, the author begins the situation with a quranic verse number 72 from surat Al-Ahzab.

“Indeed, we offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant.”

The author introduces this verse to tackle a philosophical and even existentialist topic. Here, the verse deals with the philosophical question: “is Man will free or bound?”

According to such verse Man is will free. He has chosen without any bound to bear alone the responsibility. Yet, he failed and disappointed the trust given by god out of injustice and ignorance.

At the end of this situation, Hamlet has just found out that he is bound. He states: “When have I been asked? …my essence was decided…. They ate the apple and disobeyed the order, and then they shed tears. Have I been asked? Have I been given choice?”

The latter rhetorical device connects with Ben Brik’s temper. In fact, he refuses to kneel to any totem or authority and follow the rules and this is obvious in his style of writing. That is why he destructs all writing conventions. He says: “totems are always deceiving.” (172). According to him, the mind is the only way to resist the authority of the power of speech. In other words, the power used by people who represent the authority. “The reason is a slap to the ghoul of speech.” (171).

Ben Brik’s attitude is not clearly mentioned in the book, but it can sometimes be inferred from some situations such as that of the crowd. This situation reminds us of the Quran in which there is a similar incident. People are invited to wait for their destiny during the doom’s day. In a similar context, Ben Brik’s Macbeth told his subjects to hide under the earth because of a coming disaster. After that, they realized that they were hiding for nothing and that the king lied to them. In other words, he was having fun enjoying his life when they were under the earth deprived of life’s pleasures.

This situation can be read as a reference to Ben Brik’s attitude towards religions. Religions are based on depriving the self from pleasure. For instance, priests in Christianity are deprived from marriage. Many Muslims, deprive themselves from drinking wine or from uncovering their hair as it is the case of many women. In doing this, they believe that they can enjoy heaven’s life. Here, Ben Brik puts this belief into question. Are Muslims, Christians or any religious person living in an illusion or a reality?

The book starts with the situation of dawn and finishes with the situation of dusk. Dawn stands for the beginning of a new day which means the birth of hope, a new beginning, optimism…whereas dusk represents the time between day and night which is in-between situation. In other words, this can stand for the abortion of the dream which is a state without dictatorship.

Thus, we can say that there is a tragic ending where the book does not close up with brightness and this can lead us to Ben Brik’s uncertainty about Tunisia’s destiny which is on the edge of the road. Ben Brik used to be optimistic toward the Tunisian revolution believing that a new life is waiting Tunisian people and that a new system is to be born. Yet, he has become skeptical about the fulfillment of the revolution.

TUNISIA'S REALITY FROM BEN BRIK'S LENS by Amira Masrour, ©2017. All rights reserved