By Jacob Peete
05/06/2007
A Brief Consideration of the
Works and Struggles of Ludwig Van Beethoven
The topic of Beethoven becoming
deaf is one that illustrates the importance of not only ASL as a
language, but also ASL culture. Be it that Beethoven was a musician,
relying on his ears for his talent, his interpersonal struggles all
resulted from an embarrassment of his loss of hearing. There were
not any support groups nor was it openly accepted to admit his
deafness in his day, so he became more and more isolated. This was,
in turn, was misinterpreted by his contemporaries. "Malevolent,
stubborn and misanthropical, how ye wrong me! Ye know not the secret
cause"(Beethoven, 1802), as he put in his own words in his
Heligenstadt Testament.
Beethoven was a virtuoso pianist
before he later became one of the most influential western musical
composers of all time. Not so well known is that Beethoven's "career
as a virtuoso pianist was brought to an end when he began to
experience his first symptoms of deafness." (Lane, 2006) Beethoven
even described himself as being at times "... the unhappiest of
God's creatures..." (Prevot, 2001) because of his struggle with loss
of hearing. Another of Beethoven's confessions in his 1801 letter to
Karl Amenda he tells Karl "I beg of you to keep the matter of my
deafness a profound secret to be confined to nobody, no matter
whom..." (Prevot, 2001) He thought, and possibly rightly so, that he
would be ostracized by his friends and contemporaries if they ever
found out about his loss of hearing. The quote in particular shows
how vital the preservation of ASL culture is to those that are deaf.
Being deaf is not something to be ashamed of and should never again
be something to hide like it was back in Beethoven's time.
Since this was not the popular
belief among his associates in his time it just about drove
Beethoven to commit suicide at some points. He wrote in the
Heligenstadt Testament, "...I was forced to isolate myself. I was
misunderstood and rudely repulsed because I was yet unable to say to
people 'Speak louder, shout, for i am deaf.'" (Beethoven, 1802) He
even said in the same letter "With joy I hasten to meet death."
(Beethoven, 1802) It appears that he really had no one that
understood what he was going through or how to relate to him.
The reason I found this topic so interesting is because of how much
we can all learn from this one person's struggle. Obviously deaf
people have felt similar feelings throughout most of history simply
because of a lack of understanding from the rest of the world. If
ASL and deaf culture had been back in Beethoven's time, he would
have been able to live his life without the constant burden of
trying to hide his hearing loss. He felt cornered and alone as shown
from his various writings, yet was one of the most talented people
ever to live. He seemed to live without any sense of community,
without any true support from other's that knew what he was going
through. When he was completely deaf, for the last 10 years of his
life, he was not even be able to communicate the simplest things
without struggle. His story is a good reminder of why the teaching
of sign language as well as the teaching of deaf culture to deaf and
hearing people alike is so valuable to our society.
References:
1. Lane, William (2006). Beethoven: The Immortal. Retrieved May 1,
2007. .
2. Beethoven, Ludwig van. (1802). The Heiligenstadt Testament
(translation). Retrieved May 2, 2007.
3. Dominique, Prevot. (2001). Beethoven's Deafness. Retrieved May 2,
2007.