"Hoodoo Love" and Obeah

A while back, Hoodoo Love was being preformed at Krannert in the Studio Theatre as part of the theatre department's showcase this year. The play deals with obeah or hoodoo in a similar situation to how Antoinette tries to get Christophine to use it on Rochester. The female protagonist in Hoodoo Love tries to get her traveling lover to stay with her and be true to her by going to her neighbor and famed practitioner of hoodoo magic. Similar to in Wide Sargasso Sea, the two lovers in the play begin to fall in love by natural means before the magic. In both stories, the women then deal out the appropriate potion and get their respective men intensely ill. The man in the play, however, doesn't realize that his partner tried to put a spell on him and doesn't figure it out until much later in the play. When he eventually does figure out what his girl is doing, he is extremely angry and it ruins their relationship. The reaction to people doing magic on a character to control their emotions is always frantic and intense.

So why does this idea of magic and love freak people out so much? It has to do with free will. Especially in hopeless situations, the only thing that one can be sure of having is the ability to choose. The idea that this inherent right of humans can be simply taken away by a potion or a ritual, is really terrifying. If you are inclined to take Rochester's side, you can use this instance in his defense. It is not a stretch to call Antoinette a villain because she is trying to alter the sacred institution of love with a sort of magic. I guess (not really), that you could say Rochester's retaliation is a fair punishment for someone like Antoinette. I am not inclined to this opinion because I favor Antoinette and don't think it's fair to think that Antoinette should somehow just know she didn't need to magic him while he is being so bad to her.

As a side note, this idea of love and magic and their interaction has been used as a theme in a variety of works. For example, Shakespeare's (or Bacon's depending on how you are inclined to believe) A Midsummer Night's Dream deals with the same issue but with a different, happier ending. Also, in Aladdin he isn't allowed to wish for love, just to tie in some Disney movie knowledge.