| "Naked Eyes" : Analysis of the "Naked Eyes" Arc of ABC-TV's Port Charles
(c) Alison Armstrong |
| An analysis of the "Naked Eyes" episodes of the show Port Charles, formerly of ABC-TV. This site will focus on the scenes featuring the vampire character Caleb Morley/Stephen Clay (portrayed by actor Michael Easton). The character of Caleb Morley/Stephen Clay and any other characters relating to Port Charles are the property of ABC and their creators. This is a fan-run site and is not an official site, nor is it affiliated in any way with ABC, Port Charles, or the actors portraying any of the Port Charles characters. No copyright infringement is intended. The writings on this site are copyrighted by the author, Alison Armstrong, and may not be reproduced without the author's express permission. |
| "Naked Eyes" #7 (cont.) “Don’t ever let your libido get in the way of your judgment. You understand?” he warns her. “You’re cute, but you’re not irreplaceable.” As he looks into her frightened face, her tough rock-chick swagger replaced by a lost-little-girl vulnerability, he smiles, becoming gentler. “Now run along and make sure everything goes exactly as planned,” he commands, playfully smacking her behind as she hurries away to do his bidding. |
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| Snappies of "Naked Eyes" scenes taken by A. Armstrong |
| Stephen’s advice to Reese about her libido is ironic, foreshadowing Stephen’s own lack of judgment and control over his lustful urges. Indeed, no sooner has Reese left than Stephen is on the phone calling his sexually voracious girlfriend, Elizabeth. Afterwards, perhaps savoring his impending triumph, he smiles, lounging on the bench as if it, like everything else, is his, to own, control, and use at will. “It’s almost time,” he proclaims. “Almost time, Port Charles. Here I come.” He says these words with a mixture of menace and tenderness, like a man returning home to a lover he suspects may have been unfaithful during his absence. Port Charles, home of his beloved yet treacherous Livvie, site of his most intense desires, his most malevolent schemes, and his most humiliating defeat, is where he must confront his hate-filled foes. Instead of trying to begin anew, with a new identity in a new locale, Caleb chooses a town of enemies who despise and seek again to destroy him.
As in his exhibitionistic display at the end of “Tempted,” he needs them to be his audience. They are his spectators, and he is the mirror into which they fear to gaze. He is a manifestation of the “other” they shun and try to negate; he is the snake, the twisting path that tempts and terrifies in the journey towards revelation. |
| "Naked Eyes" Analysis #8 The power of music and other forms of art to arouse feelings of exhilaration, ecstasy, horror, grief, violence, and other volatile passions, has goaded spokespeople for “morality” to censor or otherwise regulate the expression of these so-called dangerous impulses. A creation of our deepest yearnings and fears, the vampire, like these “dangerous” works of art, represents a threat to morality and social order. As a charismatic, profoundly alluring symbol of suppressed emotions, the vampire embodies the artist-rebel, the provocateur summoning forth our latent desires. The transformation of Caleb Morley into his rock star persona Stephen Clay is, therefore, perfectly in keeping with the vampire archetype as it has evolved throughout time. Although, as previously mentioned, Port Charles has been criticized for supposedly imitating Anne Rice’s Vampire Lestat rock musician scenario, it is actually merely emphasizing a long-established tradition associating vampires with seductive outsiders, such as artists. In fact, Bram Stoker’s Dracula character, no doubt the most influential of all vampire depictions, has often been related, in part, to Stoker’s obsession with the actor Henry Irving, whom he managed. Dracula, like Irving, possesses the charismatic intensity of a successful actor. Stephen Clay, like Dracula, Lestat, and other vampires, is a mesmerizing presence with the ability to command an audience of lust-filled followers. Vampire and prey, performer and audience, partake in a revitalizing exchange of life force. Even before his first public performance, Stephen Clay has incited and inspired people with his words and music. His “crooked avenue” of temptation has lured followers, beckoned devotees. They have been given a taste, a tantalizing promise, but they have not as yet seen him or felt the power of his physical presence. Elizabeth, in contrast, has felt his presence “in the flesh,” sampling his sensual enticements before experiencing any of his other gifts. Already addicted to him, she convinces herself and even attempts to persuade the distrustful Rafe that Stephen is “one of the good guys.” When Rafe tries to afflict Elizabeth with his misgivings about Stephen, all he succeeds in doing is to insult her and thereby annoy Alison by rudely insinuating that a rock star who could have any woman he wanted must have an ulterior motive for choosing to be with Elizabeth. As crowds assemble, drawn by the flyers announcing Stephen Clay’s concert in the park, Elizabeth realizes for the first time just how famous her new boyfriend is. “I can’t believe I’m dating a rock star!” she giggles, jumping with delight like a teen going to see the newest heartthrob. Although Alison acts rather embarrassed by her mother’s immature behavior, she can perhaps understand some of the reasons for Elizabeth’s girlish enthusiasm. After all, as Elizabeth recounts, Stephen Clay’s songs and the raucous exuberance anticipating the star’s entrance are far different than the kind of music Elizabeth was forced to endure as a young wife attending stuffy, snobbish social events with her older husband, the type of music “that puts you to sleep,” sedating and benumbing. Having survived “20 sad years” with Malcolm, Elizabeth explains that she needs the attention and excitement Stephen provides. “I mean, after all those years of country clubs and yachting, and boring gossip, this is just so amazing!” she gushes, repeating the same word that she used to describe her first sexual encounter with Stephen. “Amazing” is the type of life she foresees with Stephen, a future filled with the pleasures and intensity of perpetual youth, everything she sacrificed when she married Malcolm. She sees Stephen as a wish-come-true, a man who is “warm . . .charming. . . so sensitive . . . funny,” as well as a passionate lover. |