Settle in and buckle up because I’m about to go somewhere with this paper that I never thought I would. As a policy of mine, I try to avoid the subject of incest as much as possible. I know, shocking, right? Today though, that policy is being forgotten for a second (shudders). It may seem so subtle that it’s not important, or maybe it’s not even a thing and my brain is a little twisted. Either way though, I believe that Falco views his daughter in a… less than appropriate way. You’re probably thinking I’m crazy now. But the ways in which he controls Raven tends toward more than just fatherly protection. From the way, he speaks to her the way he surveillances her, it’s clear to me that certain scenes in this play point to this relationship verging towards incest.
Focusing first on some of the things he has said to her you can easily see how this relationship is already creepy. In the first scene we get with Raven and her parents they are talking about various topics, but at one point they mention her birthday the next day. Her father brings it up first by saying something along the lines of, “You’re finally coming of age.” The tone of his voice when he said this was insanely possessive. He made it sound as if her coming of age would start some huge sexual awakening in her—and furthermore that this was both a good and bad thing. Plus, when you tie it in with the fact that she hasn’t been allowed to leave the house, and at the age of 18 still isn’t, it leads to some pretty incestual indications.
We also see this same type of weird and uncalled for jealousy from Falco when we look at the way he reacts to Raven being with Straat for five minutes. He yells about how he’s going to kill the kid when he hasn’t actually die anything to provoke murder. Sure, fathers say things like that about their daughters, but few actually go through with it. Or take credit for going through with it? Still a little confused on that part. Either way though, there’s a clear line that Falco has crossed here. That line is the one between normal protective father and crazy, obsessive, in-love-with-his-daughter father. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that Raven tells Straat “my father told me all about sex!” and then proceeds to list all the horrible things he told her about it. I mean, an in-depth conversation about sex with an adult is not exactly something I’d be comfortable with let alone one with my dad.
Moving on from all the weirdly uncomfortable things Falco has told his daughter, we have all the weirdly uncomfortable things he does to his daughter. The least strange of them being more of a metaphor. During points of the musical, we would get dual points of views happening in some scenes. One of the first times this happens we see Raven in her room while her parents have a conversation “downstairs.” This act of filming her and have the camera person very visible at times lends itself to represent the fact that her father constantly has an eye on her. She is being surveillance at all times while at home. This overstepping of privacy on Falco’s part reveals just how strong his desire is to control Raven. And, more importantly, when we take this into consideration with the jealousy he has towards Straat, it reveals how desperately he wants to be the only one in control of her.
Lastly, we have the whole weird issue of her father suppressing her dreams. This is clearly him striving for more control over Raven. There are many, many layers to be unpacked in the whole drugging your kid thing, but for our purposes here, we are going to focus mainly on how it gives Falco a sense of power. Most normal people don’t have any wish to have power over their children forever. Unfortunately for Raven that her father doesn’t fall into the category. By taking something freeing away from her, he is invading her personal space not only during the day but at night as well. She literally can’t escape to anywhere where Falco isn’t in control. This totalitarian fathering is his way of both showing his desire for his own daughter and protecting her from the outside world so that she stays pure and innocent forever.
By suppressing his daughter in a countless number of ways, Falco lets his true desires slip free. No normal person would want that much control over their daughter. It’s just not sane. While protection is a key aspect of parenthood, there comes a time when every bird needs to leave the nest right? And the parents want that. They want to see what great things their kid can do. So why doesn’t Falco seem to want to share his daughter with the world?
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