Dramatic Scapegoats

Mrs Mangle

In his work Poetics, Aristotle highlighted that the aim of dramatic storytelling was catharsis. This term refers to an emotional purification or cleansing: the audience would attain this state through identifying with the unfolding of dramatic events. This links to the notion of cathartic sacrifice, which can be realised via a scapegoat: that is a person who is blamed and punished to attenuate the suffering and crimes of others. Artistic performance enables the audience to purge themselves of frustration and self-doubt by directing their righteous anger at a dramatic scapegoat. Great dramatic scapegoats include Mrs Mangle from TV’s Neighbours.

International football enables the audience to watch their home country assert its qualities within a sporting arena; the personal identity of fans can become subsumed under this national focus during critical junctures in the footballing calendar. Success at the World Cup can foster a sense of collective well-being and, as a consequence, briefly assist individual members of a population to transcend their petty quotidian concerns. When success is thwarted it is necessary, in the first instance, to seek a scapegoat to assuage the negative impact upon national and personal pride. To address the locus of the world’s shortcomings and sufferings, the catharsis of persecution is preferable to introspection.

Catharsis may explain the national response to some of England’s recent disappointments in major tournaments. At World Cup 2006, England were knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Portugal after they had been reduced to ten men. Wayne Rooney was dismissed for stamping on defender Ricardo Carvalho’s groin. However, Rooney was also goaded by Cristiano Ronaldo following this incident; Rooney retaliated by shoving Ronaldo, and it appeared that this could have contributed to the sending off. Rather than turning on Rooney, the English nation sought catharsis by focusing their ire on Ronaldo. The channelling of disgust at the hubristic, underhand Portuguese star enabled emotional release whilst protecting sentiments of national superiority. The nemesis Ronaldo was therefore the scapegoat, rather than the tragic English hero Rooney.

However, cathartic sacrifice can have a homegrown referent. At World Cup 1998 David Beckham was sent off against Argentina, in a game in which England were eventually despatched on penalties. Beckham’s dismissal was probably harsher than Rooney’s: Beckham kicked out at Diego Simeone but it was a tame incident which was exacerbated by the elaborate response of the Argentine. It may have been assumed that the English population would have sought emotional cleansing by channelling their frustration at the cheating foreigner. But instead, a sustained campaign of vitriol was initiated against Beckham: he was portrayed as a feckless pretty-boy with an inadequate sense of national responsibility. Beckham’s momentary lack of self-control exposed his human fallibilities; this helped to distract the members of the collective vigilante squad from their own disappointments and inadequacies.

The reasons why Ronaldo and Beckham were selected as scapegoats to facilitate catharsis (rather than Rooney or Simeone) are likely to be multifarious and complex. But one possible factor is that, when choosing a scapegoat, it provides an additional function if the persecuted individual is better looking than us.