heretic
...r virginity before marriage as contrasted by the liberal culture of the West that drives woman like Mead to bisexualism. The desire within Mead to have equal status to men drive her to conduct her researches in remote places and to challenge the men. Likewise, the desire in Freeman to prove his theory right drives him to unveil the truth about the Samoa culture. However, it is also important to note David Williamson’s play, Heretic explores the controversy between American anthropologist, Margaret Mead and Australian anthropologist, Derek Freeman. The two are protagonists, respectively, of two sides in the nature-nurture debate over the relative weight of genetics and social conditioning in determining human behaviour. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defined heretic as ‘someone guilty of heresy’ that is, someone opposed to orthodox doctrines. This definition fits in with the agenda in the play. In the play, Margaret Mead is portrayed as the inspiration of the 1960s optimism about the ability to change human nature by adopting more rational social norms. She discovered this belief, mistakenly, in Samoa. Freeman in contrast, is the representative of the 1950s, having conservative values and believes that human is biologically determined. The main plot of the play centres around Derek Freeman’s He portrayed the Samoan women as virtuous, preserving their virginity before marriage. He gave evidence to his own personal love experience with a Samoan woman, Loto. Page 24 of Act 1 in Heretic gives an account of the extent of proximity Loto would go with Freeman despite the growing sexual tension between them. This episode, together wi...