Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1960 The ubjecS tive Perspective; Aspects of Point of View in Modern Drama. August William Staub Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Staub, August William, "The ubjS ective Perspective; Aspects of Point of View in Modern Drama." (1960). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 638. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/638 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 60-5928 STAUB, August William. THE SUBJECTIVE PERSPECTIVE; ASPECTS OF POINT OF VIEW IN MODERN DRAMA. Louisiana State University, Ph.D., 1960 Speech — Theater University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THE SUBJECTIVE PERSPECTIVE; ASPECTS OF POINT OF VIEW IN MODERN DRAMA A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Speech b y . tV«'" August W: Staub B.S., Louisiana State University, 1952 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1956 August, 1960 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer wishes to express his gratitude to Dr. C. L. Shaver for his kind guidance and encourage­ ment in the preparation of this manuscript. He also wishes to thank Dr. Waldo Braden and the other members of his committee for their reading and editing of the work, as well as for their interest and suggestions. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................... ii ABSTRACT ...................................................... iv PREFACE ....................................................... vii CHAPTER I FROM EURIPIDES TO ULYSSES: THE STRUCTURAL PROBLEM OF UNSPOKEN THOUGHT ................................. 1 II THE TWO DIRECTIONS OF MODERN DRAMA; THE EXTERNAL AND THE PAN-PSYCHIC D R A M A ............................. 48 III THE DREAM AND THE MONODRAMA; STRINDBERG AND EVREINOV STATE THE P R O B L E M ........................... 88 Strindberg: The Dream P l a y ........................... 88 Evreinov: The Theatre of the S o u l .................. 116 IV THE EROSION AND DISSOLUTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL VIEWPOINT; KAISER AND PIRANDELLO SEE THE EGO AS A PHENOMENON ON THE WAY TO DESTRUCTION .... 133 Kaiser: From Morn to M i d n i g h t ...................... 133 Pirandello: Six Characters in Search of an A u t h o r ............................................. 161 V THE REINTRODUCTION OF OLDER TECHNIQUES; O'NEILL AND GIRAUDOUX USE OLD MEANS TO A NEW E N D ............ 192 O'Neill: Strange Interlude ......................... 192 Giraudoux: The Madwoman of C h a i l l o t ................ 218 VI THE SOLILOQUY DRAMATIZED; MILLER AND THE EXTERNALISTIC PRETENSE; ANOUILH AND THE CLASSICAL COMPROMISE ............................... 237 Miller: Death of a S a l e s m a n ........................ 237 Anouilh: The Walt2 of the Toreadors ................ 255 • VII THE SUBJECTIVE PERSPECTIVE: A S U M M A R Y ................ 272 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................... 281 VITA ........................................................... 288 iii ABSTRACT When late 19th-century Romanticist thinking culminated in modern individualism, there resulted a philosophic shift from univer­ sal objectivity to individual subjectivity, from absolute morality to relative morality. Artists wishing to express the new philosophy had to search out fresh methods of presenting their material. Writers of fiction realized that the traditional omniscient approach to the problem of rendering unspoken thought was no longer acceptable, since omniscience rested its argument on the concept of universality, whereas Relativism demanded a concern with the problem of point of view. Moreover, the new science of psychoanalysis soon conceived of man as governed chiefly by his most primitive, irrational impulses. Consequently, the question of point of view became the problem of rendering not only the individual's consciousness but also his meta- conscious states as well. Thus, the concern with point of view also became a concern with the convention of stream of consciousness, that is, with a convention capable of expressing a totally subjective perspective. After the novelist Henry James clearly articulated the problem, iv a number of impressive experiments with point of view in general, and stream of consciousness in particular, came from such novelists as Proust, Joyce, and Faulkner. So striking were these experiments that some students of the novel have assumed that the problem is indigenous only to fiction. Actually, the issue of point of view is basic and vital to the whole concept of Relativism, and in appropriately altered form it stands as the essential question of rnqst modern arts. It is the purpose of this study to demonstrate that point of view, or the subjective perspective, is the primary and distinctive feature of modern dramaturgy. To support this contention, the development of modern drama is presented as paralleling that of the modern novel. Like Zola and Flaubert in fiction, Ibsen first attempted to present his Relativism through third-person dramatization, but when this approach failed to satisfy him, Ibsen tried to pierce third-person objectivity with symbolism. That he was not totally successful in his attempt did not keep his younger contemporary Strindberg from completely discarding third-person in favor of first- person dramatization. After Strindberg had stated the problem, many important dramatists followed him in exploring and exploiting the subjective perspective. This study investigates eight significant point-of-view experi­ ments in drama. Strindberg's The Dream Play and Evreinov's The Kaiser's From Morn to Midnight and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author are offered as plays concerned with point of view because their themes centered about the concept of the disappearing ego. O'Neill'8 Strange Interlude and Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot are studied as solutions drawing upon older dramatic tech­ niques. Finally, Death of a Salesman by Miller and The Waltz of the Toreadors by Anouilh are presented as representative of recent trends toward compromise. Viewed in terms of method, modern drama need not be considered as a mass of conflicting and confusing "ism's," for it consists, briefly, of two broad, interrelated directions, both of which share a common romantic background. The first direction, popularly called Realism, is based on a third-person objective dramatization; the second direction, a later stage and consummation of the first, is that of first-person subjective dramatization. For identification, the two directions may be labeled Externalism and Pan-psychism. Pan­ psychism, the more subjective and irrational direction, had tended toward deep pessimism. This pessimism apparently touched bottom with Pirandello, for recent point-of-view dramas have tended to compromise with approaches involving saner and more lucid subject-object relationships. vi PREFACE This study is one in dramaturgic method. In a very broad sense, it is also a study in comparative literary forms, for the particular dramatic problem which is investigated is that struc­ tural issue long known to students of the modern novel as point of view. Regarded in another light, the study may also be considered as a historical-philosophical presentation of certain trends in modern dramatic literature, for although the main emphasis is on close critical analysis of eight plays by eight representative m o d e m playwrights, the'general historical background and the past and present philosophic implications of the matter under study are not ignored as if the plays and playwrights existed in a cultural vacuum. On the other hand, this work is not intended as an exhaustive treatment of history, philosophy, or comparative literature. It is, first and last, chiefly concerned with the place and function and evolution of the convention of point of view in contemporary drama. The question of point of view as an important structural problem first began seriously to be considered by the authors of the late 19th-century, who, acting under the pressure of a philo­ sophic shift from universality to individuality, from absolutism to relativism, began to be less interested in the total action of a story and more interested in the post from which the action was vii observed. Thus, many of the major novelists of the time began to exchange their omniscient approach for that of a third-person objectivity. As the twin concepts of relativism and individualism gained more and more acceptance, writers dropped third-person objectivity for first-person subjectivity. Subsequent experi­ mentation with first-person presentation ultimately produced the technique known as stream of consciousness, a device which attempted to present the most basic and unintellectual areas of human thought. The critics of the novel have produced a number of long studies of the nature and evolution of the concept of point of view in the modern novel. In terms of the drama no such studies exist. Indeed,