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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St. John's Road. Tyler's Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 SNR 77-31,976 SHOLLENBERGER, James Edward, 1943- "A BOX OF FIXED DIMENSIONS": DRAMATIC STRUCTURE AND THE PLAYS OF HENRY JAMES, The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1977 Theater University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan 4sio6 (£) Copyright by James Edward Shollenberger 1977 "A BOX OF FIXED DIMENSIONS''; DRAI-IATIC STRUCTURE AND THE PLAYS OF HENRY JAMES DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University ay James Edward Shollonborger, B.A., M.A, * -X- * * The Ohio State University 1977 Reading Committee: Approved By Donald R, Glancy David H. Ayers John A. Walker Adviser Department of Theatre ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe cin unrepayable debt of gratitude to Professor Donald R. Glancy for the assistance, encouragement, and enlightened guidance he has lent to the formulation of this study. He has propped me up when I was in danger of ciumb- ling and taken me doim when I was in danger of demonstrating my foolishness in print. Professor Glancy has done far more than advise and consent; he has questioned, challenged, probed and, above all else, spent countless hours at the unenviable task of curbing my verbal excesses and correct ing at least my most heinous stylistic felonies. Without his diligence and steadfast dedication, this project might never have reached fruition, I would like to thank Professors Jolm A, Walker and David II. Ayers for their many perceptive criticisms, and Professor Gerard A. Larson (California State University, Sacramento) for alerting me to the subject of Henry James’s plays in the first place. Finally, I would like to extend a most heartfelt word of gratitude to my wife, Trish Shollonborger, whose quiet support and confidence have boon of inestimable value. To accomodate my pre-occupation with this study, she has borne the treble burden of being wife, mother, and family provider without once complaining about the number of burdens my ii project was foisting upon her. Not content with, giving me all that I asked for, she has smiled knowingly and given me all that I needed. ixx VITA August 2, 1 94 3 B o m - Louisville, Kentucky 1964 B.A., Bellarmine College, Louisville, Kentucky 1973 I'I.A,, California State Univer sity, Sacramento, California 1973-1977 Teaching Associate, Department of Theatre, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field; Theatre Studies in Criticism and Literature, Professors Donald Glancy, John Morrow and Gerard Larson Studies in Kistoiy. Professor Alan Woods Studies in Production, Professors Roy Bowen, Donald Glancy and Gerard Larson IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................. ii VITA ................................................ iv IN'TKQDUCTION........................................ 1 Chapter 1. ilENKY JAMES ON D l ü V > A ....................... 28 II, TÜE EARLY P L A Y S .............................. "{k "PYiüU'iCS AND T h I S B E " ..................... 78 "STILL WATERS" ........................... 92 "A CHANCE ÜF iUCART" ..................... 101 III. TEL MLLODxJEiAS; DAISY MILLER, TLE AMLÎICAN. TLNANi'S . 113 DAISY MILLER .................. 131 TUE AMIA-ICAN............................. I55 te?:akts................................. 1 7 s IV. TllL COMEDIES; DISENGAGED, THE ALBUM, TU]., ILCPRÜMATiC............................... 197 DIS-MGAC i-p .......... 213 T'iL A L B U M ............................... 231 TUE R E P R O B A T E ........................... 251 Y. TUE SERIOUS PLAYS: GUY DCMVILLE, TUE SALOON, THE OTHER HOUSE ..................... 264 GUY DOI'iVILLE............................. 265 TUE S A L O O N ............................... 290 THE OTHER H O U S E ......................... 306 Page VI. THE "ISSUE" PLAYS: Ti!i: JIIC-II P.ID. THE O I T C X Y ........................................ 35h THE HIGH HI D ...................................356 Tin: OTJTClvY....................................378 VII. UOEGLUSIüN ........................................ 398 EIBLIÜÜlii'.PHY............................................ 413 VI INTRODUCTION In the whole of the Victorian period it would be difficult to discover an Anglo-American author of greater stature than Heniy James, The late 19th century was a fertile period in English literature, and it is no small compliment to James that any list of its brightest lights would have to include his name, Oscar Wilde's palette might have been more brilliant, or Robert Browning's more romantic, but James was, and is still, the acknowledged master of the pastel; he was, in a sense, the Renoir of late nineteenth-century English and American fiction. In the most extraordinary fullness of the term, James was a litterateur, a man for whom life's all in all was the exquisite use of language, Throughout his long career, he regarded the English language as a precious and irreplace able gift that was deserving of the same deft touch with which a glass statue might be removed from its pedestal, lie viewed the world of letters as a sovereign world, which, by encompassing the whole of man's capacity for expression, could both contain and transcend the familiar realm of human travail. Literature, he felt, was a medium through which "all life, all feeling, all observation, all vision,"^ ^Henry James, "The Art of Fiction," Partial Portraits. (London: MacMillan and Company, 1888), p, 399, 2 indeed, all that was worthwhile in the mind and soul of man could be seen and understood, James's chief reputation derives, deservedly, from his novels and tales, but the variety of other literary endeavors he undertook are equally worthy of attention, Ilis descriptions of life and times in London, Paris, and various other European locales, not to mention his expatri ate impressions of the United States, are at least semi precious literary gems. Ilis excellence as a creator of fiction overshadows but slightly his facility as its critic. Taken together, the scrupulously forthright "Prefaces" James appended to the hew York Edition of his Collected hovels and Talcs ai'e an important addition to his published theories of the novel, ilis essay, "The Art of Fiction," is a closely reasoned analysis of the novel as a distinct art form and a well-stated defense of "all life" as its proper province. Nor was ho in any way timorous about applying his theoretical conceptions to the work of other authors. Even a partial list of writers who came under his critical scrutiny includes artists as diverse, both in style and nationality, as Musset, Baudelaire, "Whitman, Hawthorne, Trollope, Tennyson, Turgenev, Story, Tolstoy, and Gautier, James was also a life-long devotee and student of the theatre, from which interest arose, over the years, a substantial body of critical opinion about theatre's 3 nature, conditions, and literature, Allan Vade has done every serious student of Henry James an invaluable service by collecting his major works of dramatic criticism in a volume entitled The Scenic Art « Moreover, James's devotion to the theatre went considerably beyond the reactive or theoretical role of critic ; from virtually the beginning of his literaiy career, he harbored a pressing desire to write for the stage. He had been publishing criticism and short stories for scarcely five years when his first play, "Pyramus and Thisbe,” appeared in the April, I8 6 9 , number of Galaxy, There is no indication that ho ever intended that one-act dialogue to be produced, nor that"Still Waters"(1 8 7 1 ) or "A Change of Heart"(I8 7 2), his next two one-act efforts, were so intended. There is, likewise, no certain indica tion of what prompted James at that stage of his advancing career to write tliree short plays. In any case, he spent the next ten years developing his skill and reputation as a novelist, and during those years he forsook the writ ing of drama. Although he refrained from the practice of dramatic writing for ten years, the idea of returning to it retained a lingering appeal. In an 1878 letter to his brother William he admitted, "It has long been my most earnest and definite intention to commence at play-writing 2 as soon as I can, .