If
you are a Pride and Prejudice fan,
Phil Conners in Groundhog Day is
"déjà vu all over again" —
a modern, strictly comic version of Mr. Darcy. And in
general terms, the plot is much the same, too: Grossly
egocentric man finds great woman attractive, suffers absolute
rejection, can't get along without her, and can't win
her affections until he transforms himself into a decent
human being who is sensitive to the needs of others.
As
in Pride and Prejudice, it turns
out that no woman with any taste and sense will be attracted
to such a man. But there is a new twist: The comic fantasy
that the universe is built in such way that egocentric
behavior beyond a certain point is absolutely unacceptable.
And
Phil Conners goes beyond that point.
He exceeds the patience of the universe and invokes "the
ultimate sanction:" The machinery of the universe
refuses to move on and refuses to let him move on. It
traps him in time and place, making him repeat the same
day of his life over and over and over again until he
transforms himself to meet (what ought to be) the minimal
requirements of human conduct. He can't even get out of
the bind that the universe has put him in by committing
suicide. No matter what he does short of a complete remake
of his personality, it's Groundhog Day all over again
for him in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, when he wakes up
in the morning.
It
is a comic idea with a great deal of charm.
The
early Phil Conners and the early Mr. Darcy are psychological
twins, as are their transformed versions. Their original
organizing adventures, however, are not quite the same,
although they are closely related.
The
early Mr. Darcy organizes his life around the social status
adventure. That adventure is just a specific form of the
ego trip adventure. It is based on a common, standard
system for rationalizing and expressing an egocentric
focus in life.
But
in Groundhog Day, part of the comedy is
the fact that Phil Conners is such a clod in the beginning
that he doesn't need the crutch of any specific set of
rationalizations. He organizes his life as a pure, unadulterated
ego trip without regret, without apology, without any
sense that he might even be imposing on other people,
much less trying the patience of the universe itself.
He just automatically goes through life using everyone
he meets or works with as raw food to feed his sense of
self-importance and superiority.
All
of which brings us to an interesting point:
| There
are many seductive forms of rationalization that the
ego trip adventure can take.
|
One
can, for example, be easily seduced by the pursuit of
social superiority, if one happens to have the social
position and social access to make the mask plausible,
as was the case with Mr. Darcy. Or one can be seduced
by the ruthless pursuit of money, as has been the case
with many corporate criminals of recent times; or by the
ruthless pursuit of political power, as was the case with
Hitler, George Wallace, and Orval Faubus (to mention just
the examples that come most readily to mind for someone
my age); or by the ruthless pursuit of religious beliefs
or of any ideology, as is the case with all terrorists,
domestic and foreign.
All
of these adventures and many others are designed for no
higher purpose than ego feeding.
But some people, like Phil Conners, don't need a specific
form. They simply go through life feeding their egos on
every target of opportunity, usually but not exclusively
by belittling and insulting other people or by simple
character assassination. After your first personal exposure,
you can't miss the type. The implicit message in their
behavior is that "I am superior because
everyone else is inferior. The universe exists for my
personal benefit, and it is outrageous for other people
to claim equal right to the kind of attention that I deserve."
That
is the message they construct their lives to reinforce
in their own minds, the message that they feed on and
intend for other people to swallow, too. This is the way
that they develop a sense of self-worth.
In
real life, such people are not comic characters.
They
are extremely destructive, and sooner or later, you are
virtually certain to meet one or more of them. Phil Conners
is the embodiment of such a person.
The
treatment in Groundhog Day is comic, but
the message is profound.