Indiscretions | Moral Codes Formed by Cocteau’s Characters
In the following essay, Crowson focuses on the moral codes formed by Cocteau’s characters’ own “desire or inclination” to see themselves free from societal laws, a trait common in children, and in Indiscretions all the characters are “children, regardless of age.”
Perhaps no play of Cocteau has been as controversial as Les Parents terribles. The problem is one of definition, and the resulting confusion strengthens Cocteau’s claims of the deforming tendencies of conventional morality. Man’s narrow systems make him blind to everything except what he wants to see he said, and he predicted many outraged reactions to his work. In fact, he intended to shock the public. He described his play in the following terms:
To me, The Terrible Parents is purity itself. There is a closed atmosphere where evil does not enter,...
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