Prompted by Janet Albrechtsen’s column in The Australian chastising Kristina Keneally and the other two Mean Girls, we might fantasise that perhaps the Mean Girls once lived in William Shakespeare’s mind…. in the personas of the three witches. The similarity is striking…
Labor’s trio of taunters – Wong, Gallagher and Keneally , writes Albrechtsen, “launched brutal attacks on (Linda) Reynolds and (Fiona) Brown, effectively destroying their careers and health on what we now know was a completely false basis. The level and persistence of their attacks went way beyond legitimately asking Reynolds to address a serious complaint made against her. Their continued attacks demonstrated, frankly, a viciousness that sits ill with Labor’s so frequently promised kinder and gentler politics.”
(For more on the Higgins/Lehrmann saga see the Bruce Lehrmann files in the menu on the right.)
Let us spirit ourselves to Macbeth country …
As one writer puts it: “Throughout the play, the witches—referred to as the “weird sisters” by many of the characters—lurk like dark thoughts and unconscious temptations to evil. In part, the mischief they cause stems from their supernatural powers, but mainly it is the result of their understanding of the weaknesses of their specific interlocutors—they play upon Macbeth’s ambition like puppeteers. Replace Macbeth with the Labor government …
“toil and trouble, / Fire burn and cauldron bubble”
The witches’ (aka Mean Girls) bizarre potions, and rhymed speech make them seem slightly ridiculous, like caricatures of the supernatural. Shakespeare has them speak in rhyming couplets throughout (their most famous line is probably “Double, double, toil and trouble, / Fire burn and cauldron bubble”), which separates them from the other characters, who mostly speak in blank verse. The witches’ words seem almost comical, like malevolent nursery rhymes. Despite the absurdity of their “eye of newt and toe of frog” recipes, however, they are clearly the most dangerous characters in the play, being both powerful and utterly wicked.
The witches bear a striking and obviously intentional resemblance to the Fates, female characters in both Norse and Greek mythology who weave the fabric of human lives and then cut the threads to end them. Some of their prophecies seem self-fulfilling. For example, it is doubtful that Macbeth would have murdered his king (to take the crown/power) without the push given by the witches’ predictions.”
Let me rephrase that: it is doubtful that Labor would have won power without the push given by the Mean Girls’ defamatory attacks…but it’s the personal cruelty that is so despicable. The Mean Girls can never be forgiven. Never in my lifetime, anyway.