What hit me first and hardest about The Prisoner was the theme of trust. Everyone in the Village is aware of the fact that they can't trust anyone, but at the same time, everyone is aware that no one trusts them. This creates layers in the characters, the relationships, and the community.
It was DEVASTATING at the end of the second episode to learn that the Russian girl was working against Number 6. But then there's the fact that he may have never trusted her in the first place, and on top of that is the layer that she may have known that he never trusted her in the first place. Then there are the layers in the relationship they establish which also comes from the absence of trust in the community. He doesn't trust her, she doesn't trust him, but it doesn't really matter, and it doesn't mean that her flirting in the box wasn't genuine. Trust here has no scale to be measured on, and it can't be taken into account when considering relationships between characters.
This holds true in the larger spectrum of the community. Everyone knows that they don't want to live in the Village. Everyone knows that they are not alone in this. There is a seed of secret resentment in every member of the Village's brains, but no one will speak of it. I picture it as a giant orb floating over the whole village. Everyone knows it's there, but no one will look up. So is it there then? If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it...
What's been created is a quaint, idealistic society that has been designed to allow everyone to ignore what goes on right in front of them (the Rover attacks, for example) and what's going on in each other's heads. And is this unique to communist-esque societies? So often a table full of people will opt not to tell someone about the smear of butter next to their lip. A family will all carry their own burden of knowing that someone they all love is sick instead of sharing it by telling each other. A whole school will watch a child get bullied and never say a word. The whole world holds the burden of knowing how little we know, while each individual will only discuss it once in a blue moon when prompted, and will only think about it for a minute every once in a while. Is our world not a circle too?
You... are too damn smart. You've found so much great stuff in The Prisoner in just two episodes. And I love how you are relating it to real life. Denial of things is a huge part of what we do. There was an article I think in NY magazine, or perhaps it was on NPR, and it discussed that denial is necessary for human survival and happiness. I'll see if I can find a link for you - I think it right up your ally.
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