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Kurt Hummel & the Grace of Heaven? (more 4x04 meta)
You know how I said it would take me a long time to process this episode? Yeah, still going.
Here are some thoughts of self-acceptance and the possibility of forgiveness with a dash of "Teenage Dream" and fairies.
I spoke a while back about Kurt being an archetype in transition: he's going from Animus to Self as his psychological growth into an individual progresses. From a Jungian perspective, where we used to associate Kurt with figures like Hermes, Thoth, and Odin, he's now heading into the realm of Amun-Ra, Jesus, and Buddha. I'm not saying Kurt IS these characters, only that his growth into himself ~symbolically resonates~ with them as archetypes of self-actualization (if we don't mind mixing some Maslow with Jung).
So Kurt has ascended to Heaven and he is becoming himSelf. The religious references in 4x04 dragged my thoughts a little further, to consider Blaine's failure with Kurt as a loss of faith, not simply a betrayal of trust. Or, it seems to me that it is in large part Blaine losing faith in Kurt's love that leads him to betray Kurt's trust.
Given Kurt's apparent growth, and that he has not broken up with Blaine (to the best of my knowledge) I think his forgiveness of Blaine is likely. Kurt is "never saying goodbye" to Blaine; his love is surely badly bruised, but--we can hope--still unconditional. He tells us he will be okay. Thus Blaine still has Kurt's grace. And while Kurt has some work to do himself, I don't think the foundation is broken, even if they do have to rebuild their relationship "...from the bottom to the top / Don't look back."
But the last piece required for Kurt to forgive Blaine must come from Blaine; Blaine must revive his faith in Kurt: forgiveness comes from grace through faith. (I am not a Christian scholar, so please do (politely) whack me with something heavy if I've grossly misconstrued this.) In other words, once Blaine can become comfortable with the notion that Kurt loves him despite the troubles between them, the mistakes and bad decisions† Blaine makes/has made, the work-in-progress Blaine is (which starts with Blaine being able to accept these things about himself, which is going to require a lot of work for him, including [I hope] counselling); forgiveness can be his. In a sense it may already be, he just has to accept it. Surrender to it. Make the leap.
A couple more related points about Blaine's self-acceptance and Kurt's forgiveness--
I have some recurring thoughts about Blaine having not sung the opening lines to "Teenage Dream" as a mark of the self-acceptance he has not yet attained but requires before he can accept Kurt's love as unconditional; and once Blaine can do that (Kurt's not seen Blaine without any make-up [persona] on--not more than glimpses anyway, at least not until the shock of Blaine's performance at Callbacks. Remember how hard the hair gel ban was for Blaine? As of 4x03, he lets us know he is still traumatized by this.), he should be able to break from the co-dependence and leave the Personas behind.
Also, returning briefly to the reading of Dalton as fairyland, other folks have also discussed how we can read Kurt as Janet. She must hold tight to Tam Lin while he transforms again and again into things that are frightening, but if she holds on, Tam Lin may escape the fairies. I believe Kurt will hold on.
Finally, yes, I whole heartedly believe you can be a mentally ill work-in-progress and be in a healthy relationship.
As always, I invite (constructive) critique, correction, expansion, and refinement.
† It's totally worth listening to "Perfect" again.
Here are some thoughts of self-acceptance and the possibility of forgiveness with a dash of "Teenage Dream" and fairies.
I spoke a while back about Kurt being an archetype in transition: he's going from Animus to Self as his psychological growth into an individual progresses. From a Jungian perspective, where we used to associate Kurt with figures like Hermes, Thoth, and Odin, he's now heading into the realm of Amun-Ra, Jesus, and Buddha. I'm not saying Kurt IS these characters, only that his growth into himself ~symbolically resonates~ with them as archetypes of self-actualization (if we don't mind mixing some Maslow with Jung).
So Kurt has ascended to Heaven and he is becoming himSelf. The religious references in 4x04 dragged my thoughts a little further, to consider Blaine's failure with Kurt as a loss of faith, not simply a betrayal of trust. Or, it seems to me that it is in large part Blaine losing faith in Kurt's love that leads him to betray Kurt's trust.
Given Kurt's apparent growth, and that he has not broken up with Blaine (to the best of my knowledge) I think his forgiveness of Blaine is likely. Kurt is "never saying goodbye" to Blaine; his love is surely badly bruised, but--we can hope--still unconditional. He tells us he will be okay. Thus Blaine still has Kurt's grace. And while Kurt has some work to do himself, I don't think the foundation is broken, even if they do have to rebuild their relationship "...from the bottom to the top / Don't look back."
But the last piece required for Kurt to forgive Blaine must come from Blaine; Blaine must revive his faith in Kurt: forgiveness comes from grace through faith. (I am not a Christian scholar, so please do (politely) whack me with something heavy if I've grossly misconstrued this.) In other words, once Blaine can become comfortable with the notion that Kurt loves him despite the troubles between them, the mistakes and bad decisions† Blaine makes/has made, the work-in-progress Blaine is (which starts with Blaine being able to accept these things about himself, which is going to require a lot of work for him, including [I hope] counselling); forgiveness can be his. In a sense it may already be, he just has to accept it. Surrender to it. Make the leap.
A couple more related points about Blaine's self-acceptance and Kurt's forgiveness--
I have some recurring thoughts about Blaine having not sung the opening lines to "Teenage Dream" as a mark of the self-acceptance he has not yet attained but requires before he can accept Kurt's love as unconditional; and once Blaine can do that (Kurt's not seen Blaine without any make-up [persona] on--not more than glimpses anyway, at least not until the shock of Blaine's performance at Callbacks. Remember how hard the hair gel ban was for Blaine? As of 4x03, he lets us know he is still traumatized by this.), he should be able to break from the co-dependence and leave the Personas behind.
Also, returning briefly to the reading of Dalton as fairyland, other folks have also discussed how we can read Kurt as Janet. She must hold tight to Tam Lin while he transforms again and again into things that are frightening, but if she holds on, Tam Lin may escape the fairies. I believe Kurt will hold on.
Finally, yes, I whole heartedly believe you can be a mentally ill work-in-progress and be in a healthy relationship.
As always, I invite (constructive) critique, correction, expansion, and refinement.
† It's totally worth listening to "Perfect" again.