(Courtesy of Harvard University's Marshall Goldman we learned that "because of the large birthmark on his forehead, it was whispered that Gorbachev had been cursed by the devil and branded with
the mark of Cain.') This kind of approach can be taken to ludicrous extremes.
Such an anodyne reading makes it possible for Tusken to see virtually all of Hesse's later protagonists as also bearing
the mark of Cain without making explicit the differences between them and Cain, as revalued through the doctrine of Der Antichrist.
Blood was needed from the political echelon, someone to bear the blame for what had happened." And when the Kahan Commission rendered its verdict that Sharon bore "indirect responsibility" for the massacre and suggested that Begin fire him, Sharon warned, "If you accept the conclusions of the Kahan Commission, you will be branding
the mark of Cain on the foreheads of the Jewish people and on the State of Israel with your own hands." Even Begin gets the back of his hand.
Weaving their tales together, often using the same phrases in unison, Terri experiences salvation while Geordi receives
the mark of Cain. In Terri and Geordi, Schenkkan has created characters who deserve a good life in the American theatre, who prepare the way for what Evenden calls a "different, unexpected holiness." Perhaps their grace and strength can carry this ambitious, ungainly, beautiful monster of a play to further productions.
Then there is a tale of a repentant sinner (Leviticus 18:9) with a subtle invocation of biblical texts like
the mark of Cain and a red heifer.
Ovid prescribed for ladies: "Nor should they strain their sides with continuous laughter, but laugh with a feminine trill."(35) Erasmus would censure immoderate laughter in his comment on the adage risus syncreusus or "shaking with laughter" as "highly unsuitable for a man of character because it is clearly the expression of a mind which has lost control."(36) Control of bodily instability was a Renaissance rule of manners, reflecting ancient equations of shaking with insanity or evil, reverting to spasms as
the mark of Cain.(37)
He made dances for "The Seven Lively Arts," "The Bell Telephone Hour," "The Kate Smith Show," "54th Street Revue," "The Steve Allen Show," and "The Ed Sullivan Show." For more than a decade he produced choreography for the Sunday morning staples "Lamp Unto My Feet" and "Look Up and Live." Such works as The Parliament of Heaven, Brief Dynasty, and
The Mark of Cain were typical.
For example,
the Mark of Cain merits two entries: One under "Cain" with a paraphrase of the Cain story in Genesis, and one under "Cain, Mark of" with the appropriate biblical quote.
He also told me that "nigras" bore
the mark of Cain and were destined to servitude by the will and act of God almighty.
Reid Meloy (Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University California, San Diego)
The Mark Of Cain: Psychoanalytic Insight And The Psychopath brings under one cover an impressive collection of the most historically important psychoanalytic papers on the psychopathic personality.
In similar fashion, Orr explores the meaning of
the mark of Cain, which, in its dark way, sustained him through the first years after the accident.