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Home , George Bernard Shaw, Problem play, Stanley and the Women, The Cocktail Party, The Countess Cathleen

TWENTIETH CENTURY

M.A. [English]

Paper-XII

Lalit Narayan Mithila University (Directorate of Distance Education) Directorate of Distance Education

Editorial Board

Prof. Sardar Arvind Singh, Director, Directorate of Distance Education, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga Prof. B. K. Singh, Ex Dean Humanities, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga Prof. A. K. Bachan, Faculty, University Department of English, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga Dr. Vijay Kumar, Deputy Director, Directorate of Distance Education, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga Dr. Shambhu Prasad, Coordinator, Directorate of Distance Education, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga

Authors and Co-ordinator

Dr. Shuchi Agarwal, Assistant Professor-III, AIESR, Amity University, Noida (Unit: 1) © Reserved, 2018 Gayatri Kalbag, Freelance Author Units: (2, 4.3, 5.3 ) © Reserved, 2018 Dr. Namrata Chaturvedi, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Zakir Hussain College, University of Delhi Units: (3.3, 5.2) © Reserved, 2018 Joita Dhar Rakshit, Assistant Professor, Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Delhi Unit: (4.2) © Joita Dhar Rakshit, 2018 Vikas Publishing House Units: (3.0-3.2, 3.4-3.9, 4.0-4.1, 4.4-4.8, 5.0-5.1, 5.4-5.8) © Reserved, 2018 Dr. Shambhu Prasad, Coordinator, Directorate of Distance Education, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga Dr. Shailja, Assistant Coordinator, Faculty of Education, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga

© Copyright Reserved

Publication or printing of any portion of this book is not permissible without obtaining consent from Directorate of Distance Education, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Kameshwaranagar, Darbhanga

Year of Publication : 2018 For all information relating to distance education, the Directorate of Distance Education, L. N. Mithila University, Kameshwarnagar, Darbhanga (Bihar)-846008 may be contacted. This edition has been published by Vikas Publishing House Private Limited for the Directorate of Distance Education, L. N. Mithila University, Darbhanga. lnmu.ac.in, [email protected]

(SLM)

SYLLABI-BOOK MAPPING TABLE Twentieth Century Drama

Unit I : Background Studies: Drama of Ideas; Revival of the Unit 1: Background Studies Poetic Drama; Problem ; of the Absurd; Working (Pages 3-28) Class Drama

Unit II : *W.B. Yeats: The Countess Cathleen Unit 2: Yeats and Eliot *T.S. Eliot: The Cocktail Party (Pages 29-59)

Unit III : *Bernard Shaw: St. Joan Unit 3: Shaw, Synge and Ibsen *J.M. Synge: The Playboy of the Western World (Pages 61-87) :

Unit IV : *S. Beckett: Unit 4: Beckett and O’Neill *Eugene O’Neill: Mourning Becomes Electra (Pages 89-121)

Unit V : Arthur Miller: All My Sons Unit 5: Miller and Soyinka : A of the Forests (Pages 123-149)

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1 UNIT 1 BACKGROUND STUDIES 3-28 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Unit Objectives 1.2 Forms of Drama 1.3 Drama of Ideas 1.4 Revival of the Poetic Drama 1.5 Problem Play 1.6 1.7 Working Class Drama 1.8 Summary 1.9 Key Terms 1.10 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 1.11 Questions and Exercises 1.12 Further Reading UNIT 2 YEATS AND ELIOT 29-59 2.0 Introduction 2.1 Unit Objectives 2.2 W. B. Yeats: The Countess Cathleen 2.2.1 Life and Literary Career of W. B. Yeats 2.2.2 Historical Background of The Countess Cathleen 2.2.3 Theme of The Countess Cathleen 2.2.4 Synopsis and Critical Appreciation of The Countess Cathleen 2.2.5 Issues and Analysis 2.3 T. S. Eliot: The Cocktail Party 2.3.1 Life and Literary Career of T. S. Eliot 2.3.2 Historical Background of The Cocktail Party 2.3.3 Synopsis and Theme of The Cocktail Party 2.3.4 Critical Appreciation of The Cocktail Party 2.4 Summary 2.5 Key Terms 2.6 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 2.7 Questions and Exercises 2.8 Further Reading UNIT 3 SHAW, SYNGE AND IBSEN 61-87 3.0 Introduction 3.1 Unit Objectives 3.2 George Bernard Shaw: Joan 3.2.1 About the Author 3.2.2 Plot Summary and Brief Analysis 3.2.3 Key Characters 3.3 J. M. Synge: The Playboy of the Western World 3.3.1 Life of J. M. Synge 3.3.2 Plot and Dramatic Technique 3.3.2 Characters and Themes 3.4 Henrik Ibsen: Ghosts 3.4.1 Characters in Ghosts 3.4.2 Summary and Explanation 3.4.3 Critical Issues in Ghosts 3.4.4 Feminist Reading of Ghosts 3.4.5 Power and Sexuality in Ghosts 3.5 Summary 3.6 Key Terms 3.7 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 3.8 Questions and Exercises 3.9 Further Reading UNIT 4 BECKETT AND O’NEILL 89-121 4.0 Introduction 4.1 Unit Objectives 4.2 : Waiting for Godot 4.2.1 Life and Literary Career of Beckett 4.2.2 Central Theme of Waiting for Godot 4.2.3 Use of Language in Waiting for Godot 4.2.4 Dramatic Technique in Waiting for Godot 4.3 Eugene O’Neill: Mourning Becomes Electra 4.3.1 Life and Literary Career of O’Neill 4.3.2 Historical Background of Mourning Becomes Electra 4.3.3 Synopsis and Theme of Mourning Becomes Electra 4.3.4 Critical Appreciation of Mourning Becomes Electra 4.3.5 Issues and Analysis in Mourning Becomes Electra 4.4 Summary 4.5 Key Terms 4.6 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 4.7 Questions and Exercises 4.8 Further Reading UNIT 5 MILLER AND SOYINKA 123-149 5.0 Introduction 5.1 Unit Objectives 5.2 Arthur Miller: All My Sons 5.2.1 Life and Literary Career of Miller 5.2.2 Plot and Dramatic Techniques in All My Sons 5.2.3 Characters in All My Sons 5.2.4 Themes in All My Sons 5.3 Wole Soyinka: A Dance of the Forests 5.3.1 Life and Literary Career of Soyinka 5.3.2 Historical Background of A Dance of the Forests 5.3.3 Synopsis and Theme of A Dance of the Forests 5.3.4 Critical Appreciation of A Dance of the Forests 5.3.5 Issues and Analysis in A Dance of the Forests 5.4 Summary 5.5 Key Terms 5.6 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 5.7 Questions and Exercises 5.8 Further Reading Introduction INTRODUCTION

As opposed to the somewhat well-defined contours of Elizabethan drama, the Modern period NOTES was different in its appeal. Considered to have begun in the early twentieth-century, Modern drama owes its genesis to several different forces that changed the ways in which man responded to the unities of time, space and action. Antonin Artaud in an article titled ‘No More Masterpieces’ describes how the classics ought to be kept aside to allow newer theatric preoccupations to flourish. In other words, Oedipus Rex could no longer be considered relevant as a Modern concern. Instead, it was time for the anti-hero—the imperfect angst ridden individual to emerge onstage as the protagonist. Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is considered to be the seminal existential text of the Modern period; emblematic of a kind of predicament which was peculiar to the Modernists. During the 20th century, especially after the First World War, Western drama became more unified and less the product of separate national literary traditions. Throughout the century realism, naturalism, and (and various combinations of these) continued to inform important plays. Among the many 20th-century playwrights who have written what can be broadly termed naturalist are (German) and (English), and Sean O’Casey (Irish), and Eugene O’Neill, Clifford Odets and Lillian Hellman (American). This book describes some of the important literary movements such as the drama of ideas, the revival of the poetic drama, problem play, theatre of the absurd, and working class drama. The theatre of the absurd was a short-lived yet significant theatrical movement, centred in Paris in the 1950s. It also discusses some of the famous dramatists and their plays such as W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge, Henrik Ibsen, Samuel Beckett, Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, and Wole Soyinka. This book Twentieth Century Drama has been designed keeping in mind the self- instruction mode (SIM) format and follows a simple pattern, wherein each unit of the book begins with the Introduction followed by the Unit Objectives for the topic. The content is then presented in a simple and easy-to-understand manner, and is interspersed with Check Your Progress questions to reinforce the student’s understanding of the topic. A list of Questions and Exercises is also provided at the end of each unit. The Summary and Key Terms further act as useful tools for students and are meant for effective recapitulation of the text.

Self-Instructional Material 1

Background Studies UNIT 1 BACKGROUND STUDIES

Structure NOTES 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Unit Objectives 1.2 Forms of Drama 1.3 Drama of Ideas 1.4 Revival of the Poetic Drama 1.5 Problem Play 1.6 Theatre of the Absurd 1.7 Working Class Drama 1.8 Summary 1.9 Key Terms 1.10 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 1.11 Questions and Exercises 1.12 Further Reading

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Drama is the literary form designed for the theatre, where actors take the roles of characters, perform the indicated action and utter the written dialogue. Although the origins of drama are unclear, its earliest forms began in Greece where they were a part of religious rites and rituals, especially for the Greek god . Since then, drama has evolved continuously through the centuries. In the twentieth century, there were radical changes in the theatrical traditions of North America and Europe. Playwrights challenged long-held conventions of theoretical representations and developed new forms of dramas such as , , political theatre and other forms of experimental theatre. These challenges to theatrical tradition arose as a result of rapid changes that were taking place in society due to industrialization. In this unit, we will discuss the different forms of drama that arose in Europe and North America in the modern period such as the drama of ideas, poetic drama, working class drama, theatre of the absurd, and so on.

1.1 UNIT OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you will be able to:  Analyse the different forms of drama upto the twentieth century  Discuss the drama of ideas and the problem play  Describe the revival of the poetic drama in the twentieth century  Explain the historical reasons for the rise of working class drama  Examine the features of the theatre of the absurd

1.2 FORMS OF DRAMA

Drama presents fiction or fact in a form that could be acted before an audience. A play has a plot, characters, dialogue, an atmosphere and an outlook of life much as a novel has. Its full Self-Instructional Material 3 Background Studies qualities are only revealed in presentation on the stage. The drama alone ‘is a composite , in which the author, the actor and the stage manager all combine to produce the total effect’. Drama is a kind of writing designed to be spoken by one or more characters on a stage. In the script of a play, stage directions often describe the appearance of a character or set, and NOTES sometimes they say what a character does (slams the door, sits down and leaps up). But otherwise, the only description or narration to be found in a play is spoken by the characters themselves. Essentially, then, a play consists of speeches—dialogues, monologues or both. Since plays are written to be seen and heard, reading a play can never substitute for seeing it performed. Greek drama exemplifies the earliest form of drama of which we have substantial knowledge. In drama, spectacle is of great importance. It tells a story through the speech and actions of the characters. Actors perform on stage in . So the playwright also writes scenes in such a way that can be enacted. Some critics believe that a written script is not really a play until it has been acted before an audience. Novels also tell a story through characters and incidents but it is complete on the written script. But most drama achieves its greatest effect when it is performed. Before understanding the forms of drama prevalent in the twentieth century, let us take a look at some earlier forms of drama. Miracle Play In course of time, the plays developed a secular tendency. With the change of locality, ordinary layman began to take the parts of the characters, though the direction was still in the hands of the clergy. There was, however, a marked inclination towards more and more humorous scenes, which served as a relief to the religious motif of the plot. Miracle play is a kind of medieval religious play representing non-scriptural legends of or of the Virgin Mary. They are the earliest form of drama. The term is often confused with mystery play which is based on biblical stories. Miracle plays reached its height in 15th century. They used to be performed in the churchyard and the marketplace. First, they were performed in Latin and then vernacular language replaced Latin. They were based on the scriptures from the creation to and on the lives of the saints. The plays were arranged into cycles and guild was responsible for the production of a different episode. With simple costumes and props, guild members, who were paid actors, performed on stages equipped with wheels known as pageant plays. The trade guilds produced a connected series or cycle of plays dealing with the chief scriptural events from the creation of man to of Christ under the supervision of the church. These cycles were doubtlessly acted all over England in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, but only four of them have been preserved - those of Chester (comprising twenty-five plays), York (forty-five plays), Towneley or Wakefield (thirty-two plays), and Coventry (forty-two plays). These plays were performed on carts which used to move from place to place. People would gather at a pre-set meeting point and that wooden cart would appear before them. Actors used to perform on that cart and when the scene was over, the next cart would appear. This is how the miracle plays were enacted between the masses. The is the chief modern example of the miracle play. Mystery Play Mystery plays, also known as pageants or as Corpus Christi plays, are the most important form of popular medieval religious drama, which represented a scene from the Old or New Testament. From the 13th to 16th century, these plays were performed in several towns throughout Europe. The mystery plays achieved maximum popularity in the 14th and 15th centuries. There is a distinction between the miracle plays and mystery plays - miracles dealing with the lives of saints and mysteries dealing with themes taken from the Bible. They 4 Self-Instructional Material were shown at separate stations in the town on wheeled theatres drawn by horses. All the Background Studies plays comprising the cycle began simultaneously in different localities and then moved on to other places, where they were performed afresh. The whole series was thus shown at all the stations, though not everywhere in chronological order. A special feature of these early performances was the humorous element, provident sometimes by Noah’s wife figuring as a NOTES shrew, sometimes by Satan indulging in ridiculous gestures, and sometimes by Herod, portrayed as a ridiculous raging tyrant. Women never acted; men and boys took the women’s parts. All the plays of the cycle were commonly performed in a single day, beginning, at the first station, perhaps as early as five o’clock in the morning; but sometimes three days or even more were employed. The plays were always composed in verse. Spectacular effects were used; like thunder was imitated by beating of drums and a dragon’s mouth represented hell. As guilds were responsible for the performances, they used to take it very seriously. Each guild had a ‘pageant-house’ where it stored its ‘properties,’ and a pageant-master trained the actors. The longest cycle now known, was performed at York, contained, when fully developed, fifty plays, or perhaps even more. Morality Play About the middle of the 15th century, the drama broke fresh ground, substituting moral teaching for purely religious instruction. Morality plays are a kind of religious drama popular in England, Scotland, France, and elsewhere in Europe in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Morality plays personify virtues, vices, diseases and temptations struggle for the soul of man as he travels from birth to death. The morality play developed during the medieval period. The characters underwent a corresponding change: they were no longer biblical figures, but personified virtues and vices, who replaced Satan. Thus, these plays were educative as well as entertaining. By such plays, even illiterate masses could learn the basics of Christianity. The three greatest temptations that man faces in morality plays are The World, The Flesh and The Devil. The focus from saints and Christ shifted to man. All the stories of morality plays revolved around man’s innocence, how he fell to temptation, his regrets and repentance, and finally how he is saved from sin. The central action is the struggle of man against the seven deadly sins that are personified into real characters. The earliest surviving example in English is the long Castle of Perseverance and the best-known is Everyman. Humour was kept alive in the frolics of the Vice, who is the direct forerunner of the Shakespearean clown. The premise of Everyman is that God, believing that the people on earth are too focused on wealth and worldly possessions, sends Death to Everyman to remind him of God’s power and the importance of upholding values. At the same time, most morality plays focus more on evil, while Everyman focuses more on good, highlighting sin in contrast. Some of the characters in Everyman are God, Death, Everyman, Good-Deeds, Angel, Knowledge, Beauty, Discretion and Strength. A morality has been defined by Dr. Ward as ‘a play enforcing a moral truth or lesson by means of the speech and action of characters which are personified abstractions — figures representing vices and virtues, qualities of the human mind, or abstract conceptions in general’. On the whole, this definition comprehends the main features of the morality proper in its most characteristic form. During the Reformation period, in the early 16th century, the character of the moralities underwent a change; they became the vehicle for religious argument. Themes of the morality plays can be found in Elizabethan drama, especially Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and the character of Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello, who resembles the sinister tempter known as the Vice in morality plays.

Self-Instructional Material 5 Background Studies Interludes Towards the close of the 15th century, another type of play arose, called the interlude. It was a play enacted in the midst of other festivities or business. The interlude was usually a short, NOTES humorous piece used as a comic diversion between the more serious parts of a sacred play. It was essentially witty and full of action. It was usually of an instructive and controversial nature, discussing either the topics of the day or matters of general interests. From the nature of its subjects, it admired of more humour in dialogue and scene than the earlier forms of drama. Nicholas Udall and John Bale, both of whom belong to the 16thcentury, wrote religious and political interludes. The most famous of all the writers of this species of play is John Heywood (1497-1580) under whose hand the form became satirical and entertaining. He, one of the most famous interlude writers, brought the genre to perfection in his The Play of the Wether (1533) and The Four PP (c. 1544), the sub-title of which states that it is ‘a very merry interlude of a Palmer, a Pardoner, a Pothecary and a Pedlar.’ A tragedy deals with a noble protagonist who is placed in a highly stressful situation that leads to a disastrous, usually fatal conclusion. Aristotle defined tragedy as ‘the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself.’ According to Aristotle, tragedy arouses pity and fear and the tragic effect will be stronger if the hero is ‘better than we are’. The ancient plays of Seneca are known as revenge . Revenge tragedy or the tragedy of blood was derived from Seneca’s favourite materials of revenge, murder, ghost, mutilation and carnage. Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy (1586) established this popular form, based on a murder and the quest for vengeance and including a ghost, insanity, suicide, a play-within- a-play, sensational elements and a gruesomely bloody ending. Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta and Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, and Webster’s The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi belong in this convention. Shakespeare’s tragic hero is not an ordinary mortal. He is not a superman, like the hero in a play of Marlowe’s but his rank or gifts raise him above the characters and what happens to him is of public importance. Shakespeare’s tragedies, Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet, focus on a powerful central character whose most outstanding personal quality— his tragic flaw, as it is often called—is the source of his catastrophe. He is the victim of his own strength. Hamlet has ‘the courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s eye, tongue, sword’, but he suffers from an indecision that is in the end disastrous. Othello is a ‘noble and valiant general’, whom the full senate of Venice call ‘all-in-all sufficient’, but he is a slave to jealousy. Macbeth ‘is a peerless kinsman’ but he is possessed of ‘black and deep desires’ that lead him to destruction. Lear is every inch a king; it is his violent temper and lack of judgment that proved his undoing. It is true that Macbeth was egged on to his crimes by his wife, and that Iago worked upon Othello but the fatal flaw in their characters was there in the first place. The revival of learning naturally led to the performance of Greek and Latin plays in schools and colleges. The next step forward was plays in English on the classical model. Of these, the earliest is the well-known comedy, Ralph Roister Doister written in 1550 by Nicholas Udall, Headmaster of Eton and later of Westminster, which carefully maintains the classical tradition. It was followed soon after by Gammer Gurton’s Needle, of doubtful authorship, performed at Christ’s college, Cambridge in 1552. The serious Much Ado About Nothing, All’s Well That Ends Well, and Measure for Measure are half-tragic and half-playful. They have many more local touches than the other comedies 6 Self-Instructional Material of Shakespeare. The scenes and characters are more closely related to life and the action Background Studies and dialogues are less coloured by romantic sentiment. Love leading to marriage is the theme of Shakespearean comedy. Often more than one pair is joined in wedlock. One pair is however is superior to the others and it is with them that the play is primarily concerned. The prevailing note is that of ‘jest and youthful jollity’, though sometimes the story takes a more NOTES serious turn. The lovers must suffer, for the course of true love never did run smooth but the end is invariably happy. The plot is subordinate to character. The tale may be interesting but our chief pleasure is derived from certain of its figures. The feminine roles are as important as the masculine. In fact, the heroine is often superior to the hero, as in , Twelfth Night and several other comedies. In comedies, plot is subordinate to character. The tale may be interesting, but our chief pleasure is derived from certain of its figures. Rosalind and Celia are more interesting than the slight story of As You Like It. Portia is more impressive than the forced situation in The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare’s comedies are a blend of observation and imagination, and fact and fiction. Scenes, characters and plot hover between the real and the unreal. The English countryside is transformed into the Forest of Arden, English courtiers into the Duke. The basis is real, the superstructure ideal. Music is the essential feature of the world of Shakespearean comedy. Tragi-Comedy As its name implies, tragi-comedy is half tragedy and half-comedy mingled harmoniously together. It is distinct from tragedy that contains comic relief and from comedy that has potentially a tragic background. It is a form by itself with a purpose of its own. Tragi-comedy was unknown to the Greeks, whose unity of action forbade a mixture of the tragic and the comic. Plautus, the Latin comic dramatist, attempted something of the sort in his Amphitruo, which he called a ‘tragico-comoedia’. Shakespeare was the first to break these unities. He started writing those tragedies that contained comic relief which served only to intensify the tragic effect by contrast. Tragi-comedy is a play that combines the attributes of both tragedy and comedy, either by providing a to a potentially tragic story or by some more complex blending of serious and light moods. In its broadest sense, the term may be applied to almost any kind of drama that does not conform strictly to tragic or comic conventions - from the medieval Mystery play to the epic theatre of Brecht. A comedy with a tragic background, similarly, is a more effective comedy than it otherwise would be. The wrong done to the chief characters at the opening of the play, as in As You Like It, or later in its course, as in Much Ado About Nothing, are the making of the story and we are all the more happy when they are corrected. Tragi-comedy stands on a different footing altogether. It is a complete tragedy up to a certain point, and a complete comedy thereafter. The complication sets forth a tragic theme, while the denouement turns it into comedy. Among such dramas are Shakespeare’s , Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. Senecan Tragedy Senecan tragedy is a form of tragedy developed by the Roman philosopher and poet Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Seneca’s plays were almost certainly closet dramas intended for recitation rather than stage performance. They could not be staged due to severe violence. Seneca was also a philosopher and tutor to the young Nero whose influence on Renaissance drama in Europe was great. Great tragedy, which was little known directly, became known through Seneca’s taking up its form and many of its stories and plots. His Self-Instructional Material 7 Background Studies tragedies were composed in five acts using chorus and following the unities of time, place and action. They tell us terrible stories of blood, family crime, adultery and incest, vengeance and retribution, but do not show violent action on the stage. Other strong motifs are revenge and ghostly visitation. Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville’s Gorboduc, the first English NOTES tragedy is based on Senecan tragedy. The conventional five-act structure of Renaissance drama owes its origin to the influence of Seneca. Seneca’s works were first translated into the English language in 1559, and by 1581, Senecan tragedies had circulated widely among the English literate. While Seneca wrote several kinds of tragedy, the Elizabethan playwrights were particularly attracted to his Thyestes, Medea and Agamemnon, all of which dramatize murder and betrayal and the subsequent quest to exact blood revenge on the villain or villains. Revenge Tragedy Lucius A. Seneca was a Roman tragic writer whose influence on Renaissance drama in Europe was great. His tragedies of which the Hercules Furens, Thyestes, Phaedra, Oedipus and Agamemnon are the best known, are divided into five acts, used a chorus, observe the unities of time, place and action, tell terrible stories of blood, family crime, adultery and incest, vengeance and retribution. Seneca provided the model for the first English tragedy, Gorboduc or Ferrex and Porrex, written jointly in 1561 by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, which was alone the first English play to employ blank verse. The revenge tragedies were written from the mid-1580s to the early 1640s, from the Elizabethan to the Caroline period. The plot of these tragedies is always based on revenge which results in destruction, violence, murder and bloodshed. Ghosts are inseparable part of such tragedies. Most literary scholars have credited Kyd with initiating the dramatic archetype with his The Spanish Tragedy (1585-90). Kyd’s tragedy is about the father seeking vengeance for his son. The whole stage is shown littered with blood. Hamlet is also the imitation of Kyd’s tragedy but in Hamlet, it is the son who has to take revenge of the murder of his father. There are so many hurdles in execution of the motive. Thus, there are parallels between both these tragedies:?? Both have ghosts and a play within a play  Kyd’s tragedy is about a father seeking vengeance for his son and Shakespeare’s is about a son avenging his father.  The dilemma of revenge, in one respect seen to be duty and in another an acknowledged sin, deeply pre-occupied the Elizabethans. In both plays, there are obstacles to the vengeance: in Kyd’s play, the obstacle is a straightforward powerful as to be beyond the law; in Shakespeare’s, it is so subtle that Hamlet’s hesitations have been among the most discussed subjects in criticism. John Marston, George Chapman, Cyril Tourneur, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, James Shirley and John Ford also wrote revenge tragedies. Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus is sometimes called ‘tragedies of blood’. Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, Cyril Tourneur’s The Revenger’s Tragedy, John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, and John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore are influential examples of revenge tragedy. Shakespeare shows signs of Senecan influence in Titus Andrinicus (the bloody revenge and the horrid banquet) and in the early history plays including Richard III, again in revenge themes, retribution and ghostly visiting but Shakespeare was prepared to show violent action on stage. Hamlet sensitively and profoundly transmutes a basically Senecan revenge plot, complete with ghost, and Macbeth is again an ennobling of typically Senecan ingredients - murder, ghost, vengeance and retribution.

8 Self-Instructional Material Historic Play Background Studies Historical pays are also called chronicle plays. It is a strictly national form of drama, though it began by following a classical model. The University Wits were the first of the Elizabethans to popularize it; Peele with his Edward I, Marlowe with his Edward II and Greene with his NOTES James IV. Shakespeare also followed the taste of the audiences and wrote six full-length portraits of English kings. They fall into two groups: King John, Richard II and Henry VI study kingly weakness; Henry IV, Henry V and Richard III study kingly strength. Here then, we may recognize the one dominant subject of the histories, viz., how a man may fail and how a man may succeed in attaining a practical mastery of the world. The term usually refers to chronicle plays, especially those of Shakespeare, but it also covers some later works such as Schiller’s Maria Stuart (1800) and ’s (1961). Julius Caesar was first performed in 1599. It is one of Shakespeare’s history plays, which is also categorized as Roman play. Julius Caesar tells the story of the plot to murder the Roman ruler. All of the conspirators seem to be striving for the same goal. Frequently, the conspirators claim that they killed Caesar because they wanted to remove dictatorship from Rome, and moreover, this act was a cleansing rather than killing. It is believed that Shakespeare wrote ‘Antony and ’ in 1606 after Macbeth and it is obviously one of his greatest plays. He wrote his play mostly based upon some historical facts, which helps forming the genre of the play. On the other hand, we can say that this suggests also a problem about identifying the genre of the play because besidesbeing a historical play, ‘’ is at the same time a tragedy. Thus we can appreciate Shakespeare one more time for he is the best author who can mix two or more genres in one play and never let them lose their characteristics. The play has the features of both genres and can be easily examined under either of the titles. The Roman plays are finer in proportion and dramatic construction than the English historical plays. Each of the Roman plays is compete in itself, whereas the English plays from Richard II to Henry VIII are practically a continuous series. Farce Farce is an exaggerated form of comedy, in which no attempt is made at fidelity to real life. Its aim is merely to provoke hearty laughter, and to do this, it employs all the resources of absurd characters, situations and dialogue. It is a lively caricature, not a representation of things as they are, and any element of satire that it may contain, is nowadays purely incidental. Farce is usually considered to be a boisterous comedy involving ludicrous action and dialogue, which is intended to excite laughter through exaggeration and extravagance rather than by a realistic imitation of life. It belongs to the realm of nonsense, in which the characters are free from everyday cares and restraints. The leading spirits resort to elaborate deceptions and impersonations; they are always free from angry wives, husbands, creditors and the like or in some fantastic difficulty with the law. The name comes from a Latin word ‘to stuff’ and the first farces were simply extravagantly comic interludes inserted or stuffed into the main play either to relieve it or to eke out its length. There are strong farcical elements in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and Merry Wives of Windsor. ’s ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’ is a good example of farce in which the characters are stereotypical English upper-class through which Wilde made fun of the elite. Farce can be found in ‘The Miller’s Tale’ from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. As a separate form of entertainment, it came into vogue towards the close of the 17th century, when the Duke of Buckingham delighted London with The Rehearsal. It declined to some extent with the rise of the sentimental comedy in the 18th century, but recovered itself with the anti-sentimental movement of Goldsmith and Sheridan. Its popularity grew until an Self-Instructional Material 9 Background Studies evening at the theatre was not considered complete without at least one short farce, in which the most distinguished actors sometimes took part. The full-length piece developed later and the few of the great Victorian successes, such as The Private Secretary by Charles Hautry and Charley’s Aunt by are still revived from time to time. NOTES On the modern stage, a good farce is certain to bring its author a fortune. Though it may not be a high form of dramatic art, farce demands unusual inventiveness and craftsmanship and it can still tempt a great playwright like George Bernard Shaw who’s , You Never Can Tell, and Androcles and the Lion can scarcely be distinguished from those characteristic of pure farce. Malvolio, in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, is a farcical character. Comedy of Humours The strange comic exaggeration of the follies and foibles of society in Jonson’s plays always underscored a return to unembarrassed normalcy in the ethical and functional aspects of social behaviour. Ben Jonson is especially known for this innovation of the term ‘comedy of humours.’ A humour (as in Renaissance psychology) was an oddity in behaviour or a general tendency which dominated a particular character. The effect is of exaggeration, a caricature. It is a comedy of behavioural analysis which has the quality of a moral discovery touching the human situation in its totality. Jonson used the word ‘humours’ metaphysically. This word means a man’s obsession or his complex. It means some particular whim or affectation. Humour means some ludicrous exaggeration of manner, speech or dress. It refers to a single odd trait. Thus, the word humour refers to a particular habit or affectation by which the character is immediately distinguished from the rest. Jonson’s play Every Man in His Humour is a comedy of humours. The play deals with a variety of humours. In Volpone, Jonson concentrates on one humour only. He concentrates on the humour of greed for money. Similarly, in The Alchemist, Jonson studies the master-passion of greed. Jonson wanted to expose social shortcomings through these humours. His comedies were ‘fair correctives’. They aimed at correcting the ‘ragged follies of the times’. The aim of Jonson’s comedies was to make people realize their own shortcomings, follies and absurdities, and thus to cure themselves of these undesirable humours. The One-Act Play The one-act play stands in the same relation to the drama as the short story to the novel. It is not a full-length play in miniature just as a short story is not an abbreviated novel in outline. It is a form by itself with laws and the author may shine in this genre though he may fail with a longer play. It is wrong to suppose that one-act play is easier to write than the full-length play; the artistic difficulties are equally great in both cases or perhaps greater in the former. It may be noted how nearly the one-act play approaches the classical conception of the dramatic art. It has a single main episode and is either a pure comedy or a pure tragedy; the time of the action is equivalent to that of representation and it is confined to a single place. The unities are not, of course, adhered to out of respect for the ancient standards, because a short play almost automatically fits into this framework. Simplicity of design and immediate impact are the qualities on which it depends for its success. J.M. Synge’s Riders to the Sea and ’s Chandalika are famous one-act plays. Masque Saintsbury defines a masque as ‘a dramatic entertainment in which plot, character and even to a great extent dialogue, are subordinated on the one hand to spectacular illustration and on the other to musical accompaniment’. It was a medley of music, elaborate scenic effects, 10 Self-Instructional Material and dancing woven around a fairy tale, myth or allegory. It was of Italian originand was Background Studies introduced into England in the early years of the 16th century. The earliest account of an English masque occurs in Hall’s Chronicle for the year 1512: ‘On the day of epiphany at night, the king, Henry III with eleven others, was disguised after the manner of Italy, called a Mask, a thing not seen before in England; they were NOTES apparelled in garments, long and broad, wrought all with gold, with visors and caps of gold and after the banquet done these maskers came with six gentlemen disguised in silk, bearing staff-torches, and desired the ladies to dance; some were content and some that knew the fashion of it refused, because it was not a thing commonly seen. And after they danced and shared together as the fashion of the mask is, they took their leave and departed and so did the queen and all the ladies.’ The masque developed into something like a splendid modern ballet with the additional attractions of beautiful speeches and songs. It attained a high degree of perfection in the reign of James I. It was a favourite form of composition with Ben Jonson. The Masque of Queens, Celebrated From the House of Fame is one of the earlier works in the series of masques that Ben Jonson composed for the House of Stuart in the early 1th century. Its main features are: 1. The characters are deities of classical mythology, nymphs and personified abstractions like Love, Delight, Harmony, etc. 2. The number of characters is restricted to six. 3. The scenes are laid in ideal regions, such as Arcadia, The Fortunate Isles, etc. 4. Dances of various kinds are introduced at appropriate places. 5. The scenery and costumes are very elaborate. 6. The masque is about as long as a single act of one of Shakespeare’s plays. Metadrama Metadrama is a drama in a drama. It draws attention to its own fictional status as a theatrical pretence. As in Hamlet, there was a drama in a drama. Direct addresses to the audience in prologues, epilogues and inductions are metadramatic in that they refer to the play itself and acknowledge the theatrical situation; a similar effect may be achieved in asides. Shakespeare often used metadramatic techniques more in the interest of developing character than creating an event. To heighten the effect of events and for the growth and development of characters, Shakespeare employed the constant use of metadramatic techniques in his plays. It grips the attention of the audience when they see a drama in a drama. It also helps the readers in understanding of the fundamental structures of narrative while providing an accurate model for understanding the contemporary experience of the world as a series of constructed systems. Julius Caesar may be read as a kind of metadrama by figuring Caesar, Brutus, Cassius and others as actors, self-consciously fashioning Roman . Romantic Comedy The purely romantic comedies are a continuation of the pre-Shakespearean tradition. Characters and plot are a mingling of realism and fantasy. Shakespeare’s fancy, which was half-emotional and half-intellectual, sheds its own light on character and scene, making the ordinary things of life romantic, and making the most imaginative and improbable characters and events realistic. The settings and incidents in The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It and Twelfth Night are all imaginary and yet not quite divorced from life. The characters we meet in Shakespeare’s Italy, Athens or Illyria Self-Instructional Material 11 Background Studies would all be quite at home in his England. Such comedies usually have happy ending, involving between the unmarried characters. In Shakespeare’s day, the conventional comedy enacted the struggle of young lovers to surmount some difficulty and the play ended happily in marriage or the prospect of marriage. NOTES Restoration Comedy Restoration comedy is a kind of English comedy, usually in the form of the that flourished during the restoration period in England when actresses were first employed on the London stage. Restoration comedy satirizes ways and manners of upper class society. Restoration comedy is actually the comedy of manners. It satirizes the snobbishness, pretence, hollowness of the young gallants and fops of restoration age. Marriage was just a commodity in that age. It lost all its gravity and seriousness; rather it became a very non-serious function of society. In by , through proviso scene, this prudence is depicted when Millament and Mirabel talks of conditions before marriage as if they were signing a contract. The manners of the people are ridiculed in restoration comedy. It is totally different from romantic comedies where the things are idealized. Thus, restoration comedy depicts a very true and realistic picture of contemporary society. Significant examples are George Etherge’s The Man of Mode, William Wycherley’s The Country Wife and William Congreve’s The Way of the World. Heroic Drama Heroic drama is also called heroic tragedy or heroic romance. This genre flourished in the years of the Restoration. A heroic drama, like a heroic poem or an epic, is generally built around a larger-than-life heroic warrior who is a master both of swordsmanship and stagy rhetoric. The hero is almost invariably a king, prince or an army general. The plot of the play involves the fate of an empire. Gallantry, adventure, love and honour are the usual themes of heroic plays. The principal conflict faced by the hero is between love and honour. The writers of heroic plays aimed at the effects of intensity and sublimity, and were keen to arouse admiration in the audience more than the specific tragic emotions of pity and fear. The diction and verse used by them were in accordance with their aim. They mostly used rhymed pentameter couplets (heroic couplets) which were quite artificial but could be impressively declamatory. Although heroic drama was reputable as a popular and well-defined theatrical style by earlier authors, John Dryden is considered the pioneer of this genre for his Conquest of Granada (1670-71). William Davenant was a dramatist during the reign of Charles I and later the manager of the theatrical troupe called the Duke’s Company. He wrote what is considered the first heroic drama, The Siege of Rhodes. During the major part of his career, Dryden worked with Davenant. His play The Siege of Rhodes is recognized by him as an important model for his own heroic plays. Aureng-Zebe (1675) was Dryden’s final heroic drama, which signifies the changes in taste that indicated the degeneration of heroic drama during the late 1670s. The play also indicates his formal farewell to the verse dialogue that was a remarkable feature of his heroic plays. With Thomas Otway, an English dramatist of the Restoration period, heroic drama lost some of its specifically heroic character and accommodated the elements of pathos and even sentimentalism which are essentially alien to this spirit. In Otway, we see the last flicker of Elizabethan glory. His best plays are The Orphan (1680) and Venice Preserved (1682), both in blank verse. Otway excels in the delineation of tender scenes involving lovers and children. Otway paved the way for sentimental comedy of the 18th century.

12 Self-Instructional Material Comedy of Manners Background Studies As stated above, the comedy of manners flourished during the Restoration period in England when actresses were first employed on the London stage. There is a huge use of wit and satire in this kind of comedy. People’s snobbishness is exposed as in The Way of the World, NOTES Lady Wishcroft’s old age’s pretentions, her intrigue of misusing Millament for her property are exposed and satirized by William Congreve. Even lovers in this age are ridiculed for their false love as in the case of Mirabell. They can be tactful lovers but not the ideal lovers of Renaissance. In fact, this type of comedy satirizes the upper class snobbery, fashionable manners of Young gallants and ladies with the use of wit, humour and irony. The comedy of manners flourished as the dominant form of restoration comedy in the works of Sir George Etherege, William Wycherley and William Congreve; it was revived in a more subdued form in the 1770s by Goldsmith and Sheridan, and later by Oscar Wilde. Many critics have objected the low moral tone of the restoration comedy. Wycherley’s The Country Wife shows the moral weakness of a particular social group meant for laughing at it rather than approving it. Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School for Scandal does the same thing but there is nothing like complaining for the immoral behaviour of the characters Lady Sneerwell and Sir Benjamin Backbite. It revives the wit and gaiety, while deleting the indecency, of the comedy of Restoration period. The dialogue of such comedy consists of witty conversations and repartee as if fencing . The depiction of jealous husband, conniving rivals and foppish dandies all catches attention. Unlike the Elizabethan romantic comedy, the comedy of manners is characterised by realism, social analysis and satire. Its use of prose served to heighten the realistic effect. According to a critic: ‘In the school of Etherege and Wycherley, idealism entirely disappeared: their aim was to copy minutely the manners of domestic life. Vice and folly were not to be moralised about or ridiculed, they were to be photographed. Realism is everything, morality is nothing’. These dramatists held a mirror to the finer society of their age. ‘This fine society,’ says Allardyce Nicoll, ‘thus mirrored in the comedy of manners, as it was the society of Charles II’s Court, was dilettante, careless, intent only on pleasure and amorous intrigue, so that the comedy which depicted it has an air of abandon and of immorality which is markedly different from the manlier temper of the Elizabethan stage.’ The scene of most comedies of manners is London, more specifically its coffee- and chocolate-houses, clubs, and gambling houses which were haunts of the corrupt and fashionable ladies and gentlemen of the age. Apart from these ladies (mostly flirts) and gentlemen (mostly rakes), love intrigues, clandestine love affairs, gossip, character-assassination, drinking, gambling, womanizing, and scandal- mongering are some of the pursuits of these characters and as such they provide the staple of the plots. These comedies are thus true pictures of the noble society of the age. But they are much more. One feature of restoration comedy which has been often condemned and almost as often defended is its immorality. Jeremy Collier was the first to raise his powerful voice against the immorality of Restoration stage. Wycherley’s reputation is based upon four plays: Love in a Wood, The Gentleman Dancing-Master, The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer. The first three of them are after the mould of Etherege. They deal with fops and gallants and seem to revel in their contemptible intrigues. The Country Wife is the most indecent of all. However, in The Plain Dealer, Wycherley emerges in the role of a satirist rather than a reveller. Congreve lacks the strength of Etherege and Wycherley. Congreve’s most important comedies are The Old Bachelor, The Double Dealer, Love for Love and The Way of the World. In his comedies, he creates a world of his own. It is a superficial and trivial world, no Self-Instructional Material 13 Background Studies doubt, but it is interesting, and Congreve knows its ins and outs. Vanbrugh is known chiefly for his comedies The Relapse, The Provoked Wife and The Confederacy. The second named is his masterpiece; the third named is the most immoral. All of them are concerned with unhappy marriages. Vanbrugh lacks the wit and elegance of Congreve, but his plots are NOTES better constructed. Closet Drama Closet drama is a kind of drama or a poem which cannot be enacted on the stage; rather it is to be studied in a private setting. Senecan tragedy is thought to have been written for private recitation, and there are several important examples of closet drama in English, including Milton’s Samson Agonistes (1671), Byron’s Manfred (1817) and Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound (1820). Monodrama Monodrama is a kind of play or it is a dramatic scene in which only one character speaks or a sequence of dramatic monologues are spoken by the same single character. This kind of drama may also dramatically represent about what is going on in an individual’s mind, and also a musical drama for a solo performer. The latter is used in a rare fashion, except of Tennyson’s Maud, which had a subtitle ‘A Monodrama’ given by the author himself in 1875. In Maud, there is a sense of tragedy, which Tennyson called a ‘little Hamlet’, which is portrayed in the beginning with his father’s death. The significant aspects of the poem are an accidental murder, Maud’s death, and a focus on the protagonist’s psyche. Besides, the poem also has a comic element in the overarching structure of the main character’s development. This is in the conventional comedic definition of transforming an inhibiting condition or conflict to a liberated one in the resolution. In the first sense, some German playwrights of the late 18th century wrote monodramas that had musical accompaniment, notably J.C. Brandes’s Ariadne auf Naxox (1774). Modern writers of monodramas include Samuel Beckett in Krapp’s Last Tape (1958) and Alan Bennett, who has written several monodramas for television. A modern example is A Night in November (1994) by Irish playwright Marie Jones. Domestic Tragedy The Ancient Greek philosopher argued that tragedy deals with the great individuals who due to hamartia, error of judgment invite their suffering leading to their tragedy. Domestic tragedy does not deal with kings and people of high status; rather it deals with the middle class people and action concerning family affairs rather than public matters of state. Domestic tragedy breaks with Aristotle’s precepts as a domestic tragedy is a play in which the tragic protagonists are ordinary middle-class or lower-class individuals. Domestic tragedy refers to a dramatic story containing an emphasis on its ‘characters’ intimate relationships and their responses to [the] unfolding events in their lives’. Domestic tragedy represents life, taste, likes, dislikes and family affairs of middle class man; his worries and tensions; and his mood and thoughts without any supernatural element which was quite famous in Elizabethan tragedies. It deals with poverty, sickness, crime, and family strife and the problems of the ordinary people. During the era of Restoration drama, domestic tragedy disappeared when Neoclassicism governed the stage. However, it came into view again in the 18th century with the work of George Lillo and Sir Richard Steele. Audience are generally attracted to domestic drama because most of the audience can relate to the events within such drama. This style of drama attracts the audience in four ways: empathy, humour, suspense

14 Self-Instructional Material and resolution of the issues. Domestic dramas use a technique which is very much akin to Background Studies the style of modern soap operas. This category also includes a few English verse plays from Shakespeare’s time belong to this category. Some of the major plays of this category are the anonymous Tragedy of Mr. Arden of Feversham (1592), Thomas Heywood’s A Woman Killed with Kindness(1603), NOTES and A Yorkshire Tragedy (1608, uncertain authorship). George Lillo revived domestic tragedy in prose with his The London Merchant (1732) and his new version of Arden of Feversham (1759). This type of tragedy is also generally called the ‘bourgeois tragedy’. These new domestic dramas also included realistic comedies of fairly sophisticated characterizations with middle-class morality. Domestic tragedy was not only directed to just one class in society but also the common masses. Therefore, such a drama allowed everybody to relate themselves to such tragedy. Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller’s are written very much in a similar way. The ideas of domestic tragedy and the common hero are portrayed by both the authors in their works. Domestic tragedy is clearly seen in The Glass Menagerie, which deals with a very low middle-class family who do not really have much to lose. It might be said that the common hero in this play could be Tom, Laura or maybe even the gentleman caller. Same idea can be seen in Death of a Salesman, where the family is also of a lower middle-class rank and the hero here is Biff. In both plays, the characters, who belong to the middle-class, suffer economic difficulties as they try to achieve the American dream which puts these plays as examples of domestic tragedy. Both these plays also have a hardworking character that is helping their family to make every effort in order to reach the American dream.

‘Check Your Progress’ 1. What are mystery plays? 2. What are interludes?

1.3 DRAMA OF IDEAS

The theatre or drama of ideas was a 19th century dramatic literary movement pioneered by playwrights such as Henrik Ibsen, John Galsworthy and George Bernard Shaw. These playwrights pioneered a form of discussion play in which there is a clash of opposing ideologies that helps bring out the critical problems of social and personal morality. Their plays were different from Shakespearean comedies in the sense that in the drama of ideas, there was very little action but discussion. In such plays, characters were merely vehicles of ideas. The conflict in the play was reached by representing the opposing ideas in different characters. The purpose of such dramas was to educate society through the means of mass entertainment. The playwrights through their plays wanted to provoke the audience to think about subjects such as morality, human relations, history, or politics. One famous example of the drama of ideas is Bernard Shaw’s play Arms and the Man. The play contains little action but a lot of discussion. Characters have lengthy discussions trying to bring out contradictory ideas. The play’s plot is built up with dynamic and unconventional ideas regarding love and war. Shaw uses the play to criticize the contemporary romantic notions of war and love in society. Let us now look at George Bernard Shaw’s dramatic evolution to understand the theatre of ideas in detail.

Self-Instructional Material 15 Background Studies George Bernard Shaw’s Evolution as a Playwright From the dramatic point of view, the first half of the nineteenth century was almost completely barren. Many of the major poets had tried drama, but none of them had achieved any success. NOTES The greater part of their work never saw the stage. The professional theatre of the period was in a low state. Among the respectable middle classes it was despised as a place of vice. Audiences did nothing to raise the standard, which remained deplorably low. The popular forms of drama of the day were , farces and sentimental comedies, which had no literary qualities whatever, were poor in dialogue, and negligible in characterization, and relied for their success upon sensation, rapid action, and spectacle. There were also poetic plays, which were mere closet-plays unfit for stage representation. Toward the middle of the century, there can be traced a significant development from romantic and historical themes to more realistic themes and this movement towards realism received considerable impetus from the work of T.W. Robertson, a writer of comedies, who introduced in his plays the idea of a serious theme underlying the humour, and characters and dialogue of a more natural kind. He is inseparably connected with the modern revival of . Robertson, however, did little more than point the way, and he never entirely freed himself from the melodrama and sentimentalism prevalent at the time. His chief plays were Society, Caste and School. It was not until the last decades of the l9th century, when the influence of playwright Henrik Ibsen was making itself strongly felt, and Shaw produced his first plays, that the necessary impetus was there to use the serious drama for a consideration of social, domestic, or personal problems. No doubt, Ibsen’s influence was rather late in coming to England, but with the passing of time his treatment of themes and his technical methods came to be fully accepted, and a new spirit and a new enthusiasm overtook the English drama in the early years of the twentieth century. Ibsen had taught men that drama, if it was to live a true life of its own must deal with human emotions, with things near and dear to ordinary men and women. With the treatment of actual life, the drama became more and more a drama of ideas, which are sometimes veiled in the main action, and are sometimes didactically set forth. In the history of the English drama, Shaw occupies a position second only to that of Shakespeare. He dominated the English theatre for over sixty years and his influence, name and fame were all pervasive. As discussed, he built up his own theatre, ‘the theatre of ideas’. Throughout the whole of the intervening period, he was in dramatic production, and apart from his work as a creative artist, he made contribution of outstanding importance as a critic. From Ibsen, Shaw had learned how to manage the stage for plays with a contemporary setting, and scenes which admit discussion as well as action. From his predecessors in England there was little that he could learn, except to discover that with Oscar Wilde he shared brilliance in dialogue. Unlike Wilde, he was determined to use his verbal gaiety not merely for entertainment, but to explore every known problem—social, moral, political and religious. He had an ear for all the rhythms of speech, and he studied with great diligence the ways in which dialogue could be made as natural in movement as it was witty in content. In characterization, Shaw seemed at first to use merely conventional methods. He studied the conventional conception of a character as it appeared on the stage and in the minds of the public, and then inverted it for the purpose of awakening the people out of their lethargy in thought. The satiric effect of his characterization was undoubted, even if it was obtained at some loss of human depth and variety. A warmer and fuller conception of character was achieved in , a play in which he is more deeply than before under Ibsen’s influence. It was through the success of Candida in New York, in 1903 that Shaw began to 16 Self-Instructional Material capture the public attention. In the next phase of his development, Shaw departed from the Background Studies contemporary scene to portray historical figures, though still maintaining the same formula of inversion as he had first employed in Mrs. Warren. During the war years I9l4-18, it would seem that Shaw did not write a new play. He came back to the stage in l919 with , a satiric comedy in which he used NOTES his study of Chekhov’s to give his impression of the futility of peoples and policies in post-war Europe. Shaw’s plays, as a whole, give the impression of his creative powers working in a spontaneous unity. His dramatic output forms a coherent whole. In his long dramatic career, more than twice the length of Shakespeare’s, Shaw displayed the many-sidedness of his genius in a great variety of ways. Increasingly, he acquired greater command over technique and stagecraft. There is evolution of his powers, no doubt, but it is hard to discern any clear ‘periods` in his development. No account of modern drama can be complete without a consideration of the contribution of Bernard Shaw. Shaw is a peculiar mixture of Ibsen and Wycherley. His aim is as serious, his analysis is as deep as that of any of the more serious dramatists, yet he cloaks that seriousness of purpose with a gaiety and a wit which has rarely been equalled in any time. We may call Shaw’s plays comedies of purpose. Even beyond this, the debt of the modem drama to him is great. He has shown new methods of fusing fantasy and reality; he has been constantly experimenting in fresh dramatic devices. Above all he has made the drama, more than ever before, literature. Without taking away even a bit from the theatrical quality of his work, he has added to stage-direction and to preface such additional matter that even in our easy- chair study his works take shape before us. No writer of our time has shown such a vivid and appreciative sense of the theatre as Shaw, and it is because of the theatrical qualities in his work that his plays will survive.

‘Check Your Progress’ 3. List some of the playwrights who were part of the theatre of ideas? 4. What was the position of theatre in England in the first half of the nineteenth century?

1.4 REVIVAL OF THE POETIC DRAMA

The most important period of the English poetic drama was the period during the reign of Queen Elizabeth in the 16th century. Due to the influence of the Renaissance, playwrights like Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe in particular helped its growth and development. Plays such as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear are especially known for their poetic excellence. The heights that Shakespeare took his poetic dramas were unmatched by any of his poetic successors. A notable exception was John Webster who in his famous play The Duchess of Malfi, gave touches of poetic drama. Nevertheless, poetic drama effectively ended with the death of Shakespeare. In the 19th century, the Romantics and the Victorian poets such as Keats, Tennyson and Shelley attempted to revive the poetic drama. However, as Mathew Arnold puts it, these poets lacked the ‘architectonics’ of drama. Hence they failed to produce genuine poetic drama which was at once poetic and dramatic. In the beginning of the 20th century, there was a revival of poetic drama through the efforts of poets such as , J.M. Synge, W.B Yeats and T.S Eliot. Before Yeats and Eliot perfected their poetic drama, there had been some attempts made to revive the genre. The British poets Lascelles Abercrombie and Gordon Bottomley Self-Instructional Material 17 Background Studies especially helped in the development of English poetic drama before T. S. Eliot. Abercrombie, in his essay on The Function of Poetry in Drama, claimed the superiority of poetic drama over the prose drama. According to him, poetic drama dealt with the core and Kernal of life – ‘life intensified’ whereas prose drama was confined to the ‘eternal shell of reality’. NOTES Abercrombie’s theory on poetic drama was seen in plays such as Deborah, The End of the World, The Deserter and so on. However, in spite of his active interest in the theatre and his intense desire to revive poetic drama which could pierce into the dark depth of the human heart and paint its drives and impulses in vibrant terms, Abercrombie essentially failed in his efforts because he was ‘more of a poet than a dramatist.’ On the other hand, Bottomley tried a different approach. He cultivated the lyrical element in his poetry resulting in dramas such as Mid-Summer Eve. He went against the naturalistic theatre that focussed on everyday lives and sought ‘to cultivate the unrealistic poetic drama, remote from the actual humdrum human existence and capable of expressing the voice and grace of the soul.’ As a consequence Bottomley’s plays are more lyrical than dramatic and attract a smaller attentive audience rather than a mass audience. W.B Yeats played an important role in the revival of modern poetic drama, as a theorist as well as a playwright. Along with his benefactress the playwright , Yeats established the in as one of the most experimental European theatres of its time. It attempted to further the cause of Irish independence from Britain by promoting a national cultural identity based on a revival of Celtic mythology. At the same time, the theatre made several important experiments in lyrical or verse drama. Yeats was a verse dramatist and the first since the 17th century to understand the need to shape his art to the medium of the stage. His verse dramas are sometimes criticized for being unstageable, yet almost all of his plays from The Countess Cathleen (1892) to were performed. In the important essay, The Tragic Theatre, Yeats argues that the prose play was an image of the common, mundane existence, as distinguished from the larger life of poetry where human nature escapes the limits of time and space. Besides producing his own distinguished verse plays, Yeats discovered the talent of John Millington Synge, who is one of the most interesting of modern dramatists. Synge preferred a more earthy, poetic, prose style to the grander mystical verse drama favoured by Yeats. Synge contributed six plays to the Abbey Theatre, and one of them, The Playboy of the Western World (1907) is a masterpiece. He wrote in prose, but it was prose of the vivid, figurative speech of the Irish peasantry, and he used it with poetic effect. His own origins were Irish middle class, and he was a cosmopolitan intellectual, but he had the unusual gift of being able to use his broad culture to expand the significance of his peasant themes, without losing the authenticity of his peasant characters and their speech. In consequence, no dramatic dialogue since the great Shakespearean age is so imaginatively rich. Synge was unique in being able to use peasant dialect with such rich effect, and perhaps he wrote at the latest point in history at which it could be done. In Riders to the Sea, Synge depicts the passion and heroism that he finds among the Aran fishermen. Their lives convey man’s universal struggle against adversity and destiny. These experiences could only be appropriately expressed through a medium of poetic prose. Maurya, Bartley, Nora and Cathleen are defined by emotion and not intellect. They respond to life with passion, imagination and intuition, not with reason. In their daily relationship with the sea, they come to understand its mystery and horror. In this context, Synge has stated ‘in countries where the imagination of the people and the language they use are rich and living, it’s possible for a writer to be rich and copious in his words’. This is highly appropriate for Synge’s play in which the beauty of the poetic idiom can be identified with the emotional

18 Self-Instructional Material intensity of the characters. The play reflects an almost pagan attitude to life in which the Background Studies universe is believed to be controlled by dark and malicious powers. The paganism, the superstitions and the supernaturalism presented in the play would have become unconvincing and implausible in a prose context. The poetic prose evolves an appropriate atmosphere of premonition and ill omen for the proper representation of these ideas. The Abbey continued NOTES to flourish under the watchful eye of Yeats long after Synge’s untimely death in 1909 and from 1924, shortly after Irish independence, it was granted financial aid by the government, thus, making it one of the first subsidized English-speaking theatres. The poet T.S. Eliot was the one who truly brought back the poetic drama to the masses. He was one of the foremost poets to experiment with his artistic productions. He had already brought into his poetry the spoken idiom of his time; several of his best early poems are dramatic monologues, with more dramatic tension in them than the 19th century dramatic monologues by Tennyson and Browning. He was a profound critic of the Elizabethan and Jacobean drama from 1590 to 1640, and he understood better than any of his contemporaries the difficulties and potentialities of poetic speech in theatre. The attraction of verse drama was partly its use in the Elizabethan period by such authors as Shakespeare. It was thought that this period represented the last age in which high intellectual ideals had been combined with popularity in literature, with its appeal to a wide audience. However, Eliot added to this noble ideal two further ideal of his own – a strong religious faith, coupled with the desire to convert his audiences to Christianity, and a willingness to base his plays closely on classical predecessors. As verse plays, religious plays and plays based on classical examples, Eliot’s work has considerable interest. Eliot preferred the versification of plays such as Everyman over Shakespearean verse drama. He had no intention of writing in the high style of heroic drama. T.S. Eliot’s fragmentary and innovatory verse drama, Sweeny Agonistes was produced in 1935. Admittedly, this was drama for minority audiences, but such activity did provide a welcome alternative to the complacency of the theatrical establishment, and at a time when it was certainly needed. Eliot’s contribution in reintroducing verse drama onto the stage is of major significance, although he never quite forced the revolutionary break from forced drama he had hoped for. In (1939), and later The Cocktail Party (1950), he used the conventional drawing-room stage scenario as a starting point to show how ‘our own sordid, dreary world would be suddenly illuminated and transfigured’ with the power of verse. It was not the traditional English blank verse that he employed, but his own contemporary idiom, sometimes difficult to distinguish from prose. In The Family Reunion, Eliot chose a secular story with a modern setting and characters, dealing with the theme of sin and expiation. Its verse was flexible and transparent. Yet, poetic passages rich in lyricism and imagery abound in the play. His most assured success was the historical play about the martyrdom of Thomas ’s (1935). Poetry is an important feature in the play, and especially in the choral songs it attains splendour and stateliness suitable for the lofty theme of martyrdom. Eliot asserted that ‘no play should be written in verse for which prose is dramatically adequate’. Clearly, the poetic drama needed to symbolize the emotional realities, contrary to the socioeconomic issues that constituted the naturalistic plays. In Murder in the Cathedral, he chose to retell the inner conflict of Becket to win over temptations and be a martyr by losing ‘his will in the will of God’. The Family Reunion, on the other hand, deals with the guilt complex of the protagonist, while The Cocktail Party examines personal inadequacies of married life in the modern context. These plays demonstrate religion as the ultimate meaning of human existence, leading people ‘to think in Christian categories.’ As

Self-Instructional Material 19 Background Studies David Jones puts it, Eliot was thus ‘contributing to the creation of the kind of wholeness of outlook without which the poetic drama cannot be accepted as the normal mode of drama.’ In Poetry and Drama, he points out that poetry and drama are inseparable from each other. Poetry mirrors the heart of the person which the reader cannot conceal. Poetic drama, NOTES according to T.S. Eliot, has far reaching effects as it affects the emotions of person directly. His greatness lay in the fact that he was able to bring out poetic drama that was both realistic and poetic at the same time. According to Eliot, ‘what distinguishes poetic drama from prosaic drama is a kind of doubleness in action, as if it took place on two planes at once.’ He stressed on the organic nature of poetic drama, where poetry is not only an integral part of the drama, but subordinate to its purposes. The plays that followed The Family Reunion, such as and , there was undoubtedly a growing awareness of the common everyday life, however, Eliot fails in his treatment due to his obsession with a spiritual message and his attempt to make his verse as transparent as prose. The final playwright of any significance who was involved in writing poetic dramas was Christopher Fry. His objective was to explore the mystery of human life through the means of comedy. The main force behind his genius was poetry. Fry’s verse was fluent and flowing, and was free from poetic tricks such as inversion and ellipsis. His exuberant though poetically commonplace verse dramas from A Phoenix Too Frequent (1946) to Curtmantle (1961) attracted delighted audiences during his time.

‘Check Your Progress’ 5. What was the most important period of the English poetic drama? 6. How did Yeats help revive poetic drama?

1.5 PROBLEM PLAY

A problem play is a play in which some burning problem or problems of the day are critically examined, but no solution to these problems is suggested. Thus, the problem play is a big question mark and readers are expected to answer the question. Problem play is generally written to bring a problem in the limelight, sometimes to change public opinion or conventional thinking. The play deals with contentious social issues through debates between the characters on stage, who typically represent conflicting points of view within a realistic social context. It is also called a thesis play. It was developed in the19th century by many artistic writers such as Henrik Ibsen, G.B. Shaw, etc. It had its roots in the Renaissance in the plays of Shakespeare. It always has a tragic or unhappy ending. These plays expose social ills and stimulate thought and discussion. The driving force behind the play is the exploration of some social problem, like alcoholism or prostitution; the characters are used as examples of the general problem. For example, in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Nora leaves her husband slamming the door behind-this shows an unconventional step by a woman who is not ready to be dependent anymore on her husband forgetting her identity in the process. In studies of Shakespeare, however, the term has been used since the 1890s to designate a group of his plays written in the first years of the 17th century: the ‘dark comedies’ Measure for Measure and All’s Well That Ends Well. The themes of abuse of power and gender inequality which are frequently identified in Measure for Measure are a good example. An aspect of the Duke’s character that has not found favour with people is his random, irresponsible exercise of authority where he uses 20 Self-Instructional Material his subjects for experiments. Also, he claims Isabella as his wife without even her assent. Background Studies Though originally classed as a ‘Shakespeare comedy’, the resolution of Measure for Measure lacks the celebratory tone of the final scenes of, say, Much Ado About Nothing. Watching this play, it is difficult to believe that Shakespeare could side with a ruler who most certainly was of a capricious, even tyrannical nature. NOTES The term was coined by critic F. S. Boas in Shakespeare and his Predecessors (1896). For Boas, Shakespeare’s ‘problem plays’ used the central characters to set out to explore specific moral dilemmas and social problems. The problem plays can at times be puzzling to the reader. There is a swing between dark, psychological drama and more straightforward comic material; All’s Well and Measure for Measure contain happy endings that seem awkwardly artificial and perfunctory, while Troilus ends with neither a tragic death, nor a happy ending. Boas used the term for plays in which the resolution of the themes and debates seems derisory. Moreover, the execution of justice and completion in the final act does not occur in the same manner as expected by the audience. Let us now discuss problem plays in the 19th and the 20th century. 19th century Problem Play The problem plays of the 19th century were characterised by their intention to confront the audience with the difficulties experienced by the characters in the play. Many of the problem plays in this century were by French playwrights such as Alexandre Dumas. His play The Lady of the Camellias discusses the topic of prostitution. Other French playwrights discussed a whole range of social issues, sometimes through a moralistic prism, sometimes through nostalgia. According to the author Thomas H. Dickinson these 19th century problem plays faced obstacles due to the emotional traditions of the day. He stated, ‘No play written in the problem form was significant beyond the value of the idea that was its underlying motive for existence. No problem play had achieved absolute beauty or a living contribution to truth.’ The most important type of 19th century problem play were by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen’s plays while exploring a whole range of social issues, typically focussed on the ethical situations faced by a central character. His exploration of social issues included the limitations put on women in A Doll’s House, sexually transmitted diseases in Ghosts and common voracity in An Enemy of the People. Variations of Ibsen’s problem plays were found in the works of George Bernard Shaw and other later writers. 20th century Problem Play Problem plays saw a sort of an upsurge in the mid-twentieth century. In Britain, dramas, such as Houghton’s Hindle Wake developed the genre to shift the nature of the ‘problem’. According to scholar and author Chris Baldick, in The Modern Movement: 1910-1940, this ‘resolutely realistic problem play set in domestic interiors of the mill town Hindle’ starts with the ‘problem’ of an apparently seduced woman, but ends with the woman herself rejected her status as a victim of seduction ‘the ‘problem’ is not, after all, the redemption of a betrayed maiden’s tarnished honour, but the readiness of her respectable elders to determine a young woman’s future for her without regard to her rights—including here her right to erotic holiday enjoyment.’ In the United States, the problem play began to be linked to debates over civil and racial rights issues. Issues related to race were faced head on in Angelina Weld Grimké’s, Rachel. The problem play was also used by socialist or communist playwrights in the and 1930s, and it coincided with forms of documentary theatre seen in works such as Carl Crede’s Paragraphs as well as others.

Self-Instructional Material 21 Background Studies ‘Check Your Progress’ 7. List the names of some playwrights who helped develop the problem play. NOTES 8. List one characteristic of the 19th century problem play.

1.6 THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

The term ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ usually refers to a body of plays produced by a group of dramatists around World War II, the popularity and prominence of which continued till the 1950s. In 1962, Martin Esslin in his book The Theatre of the Absurd used the term for the first time. Esslin states in his book that the Theatre of the Absurd ‘strives to express the senselessness of the human condition and the inadequacy of the rational approach, by the open abandonment of rational devices and discursive thought.’ The absurdist theatrical tradition in many ways was deeply influenced by the impact that the Second World War had on society. The death of millions of people in the concentration camps of the Second World War had made human life out to be meaningless. This meaninglessness also started reflecting the art of the time. The theorist Theodore Adorno summed up the feeling of the time by stating, ‘To write a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric’. Absurdist playwrights who came into prominence after the Second World War seemed to echo the core existentialist philosophical thoughts of as espoused in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). Existentialism is a philosophy that suggests that man is in a solitary existence and his life is essentially meaningless, thus, trying to decipher any meaning or purpose in it is futile and absurd. In his book Camus stated, ‘In a universe that is suddenly deprived of illusions and of light, man feels a stranger…This divorce between man and life, the actor and his settings, truly constitutes the feeling of absurdity.’ It was this absurdity of human life that the playwrights of the theatre of the absurd wished to bring out. The Theatre of the Absurd took the basis of existential philosophy and combined it with dramatic elements to create a style of theatre which presented a world that cannot be logically explained; life is in one word, Absurd. The concept of the alienation of man in a hostile universe is the content and method of the absurd drama. It must be borne in mind that Absurdism is both a philosophy and a technique. Some prominent writers of the Theatre of the Absurd are Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot; Endgame) and Eugène Ionesco (The Bald Soprano, Rhinoceros). Samuel Beckett, the most influential of all writers in this movement, was an Irishman living in Paris, who wrote in French and then translated many of his own works into English. His plays project the senseless irrationalism and absurdity of life, in dramatic forms that go against realistic settings, logical meaning or a consistently evolving plot. Waiting for Godot presents two tramps in a waste place, fruitlessly and hopelessly waiting for an unidentified person, Godot, who may or may not exist and with whom they sometimes think they remember that they may have an appointment. One of them remarks ‘nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful.’ The play is ‘absurd’ in the double sense that is grotesquely comic as well as irrational. It is a deliberate parody of the traditional assumptions of Western culture, of traditional drama and even of its own inescapable participation in the dramatic medium. is another playwright whose works are allied to The Theatre of Absurd. His three best-known plays are The Birthday Party, The Caretaker and . In these plays, security and safety are always destroyed. As with all plays that owe anything to the Absurdist movement, the plays are funny but the humour is mingled with menace,

22 Self-Instructional Material particularly since the characters usually end by being denied the security for which they Background Studies crave. Absurdist drama is distinguished by an almost total lack of exposition. A breakdown of casual sequence makes the plot discontinuous. Often there is a decided lack of closure. The uncertainties of open-ended conclusions are appropriately matched by the language that NOTES is itself constantly questioned. Absurdist drama emphasizes the intractability of language as a means of communication, and thus reflects the cultural crisis of the post-modern era with great fidelity. Edward Albee (born 1928) is one of the few American exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd. The Zoo Story (1958), one of Albee’s earliest dramatic ventures, has a similar complexity: it is a clinically accurate study of Schizophrenia, an image of man’s loneliness and inability to make contact, and also, on the ritual and symbolic level, an act of ritual self- immolation that has curious parallels with Christ’s atonement. Some common features of absurdist plays are:  Metaphysical anguish related to the absurd condition of human life.  Rejection of any coherent narrative or logical pattern of thoughts, unlike conventional drama.  Invariably it depicts a disjointed world, in the form of dreamlike surroundings or nightmares, where the protagonist tries to bring sense to the absurdity he is placed in.  Most of the playwrights of this mode mixed farce and tragedy, which results in the creation of an unpredictable world.  The tragic sense of loss that is so prominent in these works is interlaced with a sense of religious quest.  Disconnected language, use of repetition, puns, etc.

1.7 WORKING CLASS DRAMA

During the 1950s, a larger literary movement had begun in England by a group known as the ‘Angry Young Men’. This group rebelled against artistic traditions of literature. They were against anything ‘highbrow’ which they considered as ‘fake’. They were more interested in writing about the common people living in provinces rather than the elites in the city. The British novelists and playwrights who came under this group expressed dissatisfaction against socio-political issues of the society they lived in. Later on, there was another huge break in tradition. There was a rise of authentic working class literature written by people living in the industrial north of England instead of London. Their discontent rose on seeing the hypocrisy of the upper classes and the mediocrity of the middle class. Some of these writers included John Osborne, Arnold Wesker, Alan Sillitoe, , John Braine and John. However, by the 1960s these writers began to concentrate on distinctive themes and were no longer part of the original Angry Young Man group. The phrase ‘Angry Young Man’ was taken from Leslie Paul’s autobiography which was published under the same name in 1951. The term became popular after the publication of John Osborne’s 1956 play Look Back In Anger. The play had Jimmy Porter, a first-of- his-kind hero, who became the epitome of an angry young man who, dissatisfied with the social and political attitudes around him, reacts against the middle class. Kingsley Amis’ works included the satire on academia , That Uncertain Feeling, , One Fat Englishman, Stanley and the Women and the Old

Self-Instructional Material 23 Background Studies Devils which won the Booker Prize in 1986. Wesker’s significant contribution to the genre was his trilogy Chicken Soup with Barley, Roots and I’m Talking about Jerusalem. One of Silitoe’s major works was Saturday Night and Sunday Morning which was also adapted into a film. His other works are The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, The Flame NOTES of Life, The Open Door, Leonard’s War, and Snowdrops. The radical changes that were taking place in literature were due to the changes that England had experienced after the Second World War. Let us briefly discuss the history of post-war England before we discuss the features of working class drama. Historical Background The position of England was peculiar after the Second World War. In the international political scenario, where the ‘sun had never set on the ’, it was beginning to lose colonies rapidly, India being one of the most recent one (1947). Following India was a series of erstwhile colonies coming onto their own. The British common man soon realized where his country stood and a sense of betrayal began to set in. Moreover, England was faced with many internal crisis of its own. An unrelenting class divide was realized by writers like Osborne to be a residue of feudalism that still persisted in the minds of people. As much as Britain took pride in being a democracy, the divide between the elite and the working-class persisted. In the education system, it was more apparent than in other places. This was the period when the white tiled institutions as they were referred to came up. These were the universities meant for the common people unlike the prestigious brick institutions restricted to the elite few. For individuals graduating out of these colleges, life became even more difficult. In the first place, the state dared them to dream and then squashed that very dream for them. Having secured a degree, a common young boy or girl could aspire to white collar jobs, but at the time of reckoning, they had the ‘red brick’ graduates to compete against. Comfortable and rewarding jobs had always been the privilege of the aristocratic, and things still remained the same. These young man and women had to struggle against a monstrous class divide that often led to frustration and therefore pessimism. Jimmy Porter’s anger in Look Back in Anger is a result of this pessimism. He is a frustrated young man, who is educated, but runs a sweet shop. These are the men Osborne chose to represent in his writings. During the times when John Osborne wrote Look Back in Anger, the following incidents were taking place in the outside world: (a) Cold war Post World War II, the western world was divided into two major power blocks: the US and the USSR. The former was identified with the ideology of capitalism while the latter was a socialist state. Between these two blocks, England could at best manage to secure a secondary position as a pawn of the US. This proved harmful to the confidence of the nation’s spirit and gave a blow to the English pride. (b) Independence of colonies Following India’s independence in 1947, many African nations also began to gain independence one after the other. Therefore, people like Colonel Redfern in the play Look Back in Anger found themselves in a peculiar situation with nowhere to go. The land they had ruled till then had forced them to leave, and the land they had left many years ago, seemed strange and different. People like Colonel Redfern were people who felt out of place everywhere, and

24 Self-Instructional Material through the character of Alison’s father, the playwright has drawn attention to such pitiable Background Studies yet annoying characters. (c) Political situation of England in the 1950s In all, the English nation was battling external blows and internal turmoil. The successive NOTES Conservative as well as Labour regimes could not do much to solve the problems of a nation that found itself powerless in the middle of the twentieth century. The glorious dream of colonization was over and England had to wake up to an unpleasant reality. The problems of corruption, unemployment, class system and unequal development remained. Let us now examine the features of the working class or kitchen sink drama. Kitchen Sink Drama After the end of the Second World War, drama in England moved to two different directions: the Theatre of the Absurd and the Working Class or Kitchen Sink Drama. We have already discussed the Theatre of the Absurd previously. The absurdist plays experimented radically and extended what dramas could represent. On the other hand, the working class dramas took a divergent path. Working class dramas were not interested in experimentation. They were more interested in depicting the ‘real lives’ of the English people as it actually existed. They were called ‘kitchen sink’ dramas to contrast them with the ‘drawing room’ comedies that characterised much of the English stage in the preceding century. The playwrights who wrote these sorts of plays argued that the speech and action of most of the plays of the time did not represent contemporary English life and still depicted the manners and habits of the middle class as it was before the war. Playwrights like John Osborne wrote about the frustration that the lower class felt at being denied opportunities that were accorded to the elite. Plays were written showing the struggles faced by the working class who fought to uphold their socialist ideals. Such plays helped to raise the consciousness of the lower classes in England. Kitchen-sink or working class drama flourished from the late 1950s onwards in Britain to the new wave of realistic drama. It portrayed the family lives of working- class characters both on stage and in broadcast plays. Such works were mostly created by playwrights including Arnold Wesker, Alun Owen and others, who depicted in their work a notable departure from the conventions of middle-class drawing-room drama. A notable example of this kind of drama is Wesker’s play Roots (1959), which actually starts with one character doing the dishes in a kitchen sink. There was a new interest among young painters in domestic scenes, with stress on the banality of life. In John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger, Jimmy’s wife is shown ironing the clothes many times in the play. Jimmy himself is fed up with the daily routine - reading the newspaper, ironing the clothes by his wife, etc. Thus, this type of drama depicts the real lives and social inequality of ordinary working-class people to the stage. The lives of these people were caught between struggles of power, industry, politics and social homogenization. The kitchen was considered to be the realm of the domestic, of females and servants, and Victorian drama often excluded any mention of it. Kitchen sink dramas, however, turned this notion around and made the kitchen the centre of familial and social life. Another chief characteristic of the kitchen sink drama was the way in which its characters expressed their unvarnished emotion and dissatisfaction with the ruling class status quo. This can be seen clearly in the play considered to be the standard bearer of this kitchen sink genre: John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger. In Osborne’s play, Jimmy Porter plays the role of the Angry Young Man. He is angry and dissatisfied at a world that offers him no social opportunities and a dearth of emotion. He longs to live a ‘real life.’ He feels, however, that the trappings of working class domesticity keep him from reaching this better

Self-Instructional Material 25 Background Studies existence. His anger and rage are thus channelled towards those around him. Osborne’s play is a study in how this pent up frustration and social anger can wreak havoc on the ordinary lives of the British people. In the case of the Porter’s attic apartment, the kitchen and living spaces were all one room on the stage. The boundaries of intimate domestic life NOTES and public life were blurred and created a realism not seen before in British theatre. Whether social or domestic, the kitchen sink drama changed the trajectory of British theatre. Though many of the authors considered to have been written in this genre such as Osborne, Arnold Wesker, Shelagh Delaney and John Arden, they never claimed the title of kitchen sink dramatist. These authors’ plays contained themes of common life that deeply resonated with British culture of the period. These types of plays signalled a resolute shift of British theatre into the 20th century.

‘Check Your Progress’ 9. Who used the term ‘The Theatre of the Absurd’ for the first time? 10. What do you understand by the phrase ‘Angry Young Men’?

1.8 SUMMARY

 The theatre or drama of ideas was a 19th century dramatic literary movement pioneered by playwrights such as Henrik Ibsen, John Galsworthy and George Bernard Shaw.  Drama of ideas was a form of discussion play in which there is a clash of opposing ideologies that helps bring out the critical problems of social and personal morality.  In the history of the English drama, Shaw occupies a position second only to that of Shakespeare. He dominated the English theatre for over sixty years and his influence, name and fame were all pervasive. He built up his own theatre, ‘the theatre of ideas’.  The most important period of the English poetic drama was the period during the reign of Queen Elizabeth in the 16th century. Due to the influence of the Renaissance, playwrights like Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe in particular helped its growth and development.  W.B Yeats played an important role in the revival of modern poetic drama, as a theorist as well as a playwright.  Besides producing his own distinguished verse plays, Yeats discovered the talent of John Millington Synge, who is one of the most interesting of modern dramatists.  The poet T.S. Eliot was the one who truly brought back the poetic drama to the masses. He was one of the foremost poets to experiment with his artistic productions.  A problem play is a play in which some burning problem or problems of the day are critically examined, but no solution to these problems is suggested.  The term ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ usually refers to a body of plays produced by a group of dramatists around World War II, the popularity and prominence of which continued till the 1950s.  Absurdist playwrights who came into prominence after the Second World War seemed to echo the core existentialist philosophical thoughts of Albert Camus as espoused in his The Myth of Sisyphus (1942).  Existentialism is a philosophy that suggests that man is in a solitary existence and his life is essentially meaningless, thus, trying to decipher any meaning or purpose in it is futile and absurd. 26 Self-Instructional Material  During the 1950s, a larger literary movement had begun in England by a group known Background Studies as the ‘Angry Young Men’. This group rebelled against artistic traditions of literature.  Working class dramas were not interested in experimentation. They were more interested in depicting the ‘real lives’ of the English people as it actually existed. NOTES  Kitchen-sink or working class drama flourished from the late 1950s onwards in Britain to the new wave of realistic drama. It portrayed the family lives of working- class characters both on stage and in broadcast plays.  Though many of the authors considered to have been written in this genre such as Osborne, Arnold Wesker, Shelagh Delaney and John Arden, they never claimed the title of kitchen sink dramatist.

1.9 KEY TERMS

 Existentialism: It is a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.  Kitchen-sink drama: It refers to plays in post-war British style that were characterized by realistic depiction of drab or sordid subjects and used working-class domestic settings.  Cold War: It refers to the state of hostility that existed between the Soviet bloc countries and the Western powers from 1945 to 1990.  Premonition: It means a strong feeling that something is about to happen, especially something unpleasant.

1.10 ANSWERS TO ‘CHECK YOUR PROGRESS’

1. Mystery plays, also known as pageants or as Corpus Christi plays, are the most important form of popular medieval religious drama, which represented a scene from the Old or New Testament. 2. Towards the close of the 15th century, another type of play arose, called the interlude. It was a play enacted in the midst of other festivities or business. The interlude was usually a short, humorous piece used as a comic diversion between the more serious parts of a sacred play. 3. The theatre or drama of ideas was a 19th century dramatic literary movement pioneered by playwrights such as Henrik Ibsen, John Galsworthy and George Bernard Shaw. 4. From the dramatic point of view, the first half of the nineteenth century was almost completely barren. Many of the major poets had tried drama, but none of them had achieved any success. The greater part of their work never saw the stage. The professional theatre of the period was in a low state. 5. The most important period of the English poetic drama was the period during the reign of Queen Elizabeth in the 16th century. 6. W.B Yeats played an important role in the revival of modern poetic drama, as a theorist as well as a playwright. Along with his benefactress the playwright Lady Gregory, Yeats established the Abbey Theatre in Dublin as one of the most experimental European theatres of its time.

Self-Instructional Material 27 Background Studies 7. The problem play was developed in the19th century by many artistic writers such as Henrik Ibsen, G.B. Shaw, etc. 8. The problem play of the 19th century was characterised by its intention to confront the audience with the difficulties experienced by the characters in the play. NOTES 9. In 1962, Martin Esslin in his book The Theatre of the Absurd used the term for the first time. 10. During the 1950s, a larger literary movement had begun in England by a group known as the ‘Angry Young Men’. This group rebelled against artistic traditions of literature. They were against anything ‘highbrow’ which they considered as ‘fake’.

1.11 QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

Short-Answer Questions 1. Write a short-note on the drama of ideas. 2. Comment on the 19th century and 20th century problem play. 3. What was the Angry Young Men literary movement? 4. How was the Shakespearean poetic drama different from the modern poetic drama? Long-Answer Questions 1. Discuss the evolution of George Bernard Shaw as a playwright and describe his role in the development of the theatre of ideas. 2. Discuss how Yeats, Synge and Eliot helped revive the poetic drama in the twentieth century. 3. What was the theatre of the absurd? Discuss some of the features of absurdist plays. 4. Describe the conditions of English society after the Second World War which helped in creating the conditions of working class drama.

1.12 FURTHER READING

Innes, Christopher. 2002. Modern British Drama: The Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Trussler, Simon. 1983. Twentieth Century Drama. Berlin: Springer. Chambers, Colin. 2006. Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. London: A&C Black. Rebellato, Dan. 1956 and All That: The Making of Modern British Drama. London: Routledge. Esslin, Martin. 2015. The Theatre of the Absurd. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Hinchliffe, Arnold. 2017. Modern Verse Drama. London: Routledge.

28 Self-Instructional Material Yeats and Eliot UNIT 2 YEATS AND ELIOT

Structure NOTES 2.0 Introduction 2.1 Unit Objectives 2.2 W. B. Yeats: The Countess Cathleen 2.2.1 Life and Literary Career of W. B. Yeats 2.2.2 Historical Background of The Countess Cathleen 2.2.3 Theme of The Countess Cathleen 2.2.4 Synopsis and Critical Appreciation of The Countess Cathleen 2.2.5 Issues and Analysis 2.3 T. S. Eliot: The Cocktail Party 2.3.1 Life and Literary Career of T. S. Eliot 2.3.2 Historical Background of The Cocktail Party 2.3.3 Synopsis and Theme of The Cocktail Party 2.3.4 Critical Appreciation of The Cocktail Party 2.4 Summary 2.5 Key Terms 2.6 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 2.7 Questions and Exercises 2.8 Further Reading

2.0 INTRODUCTION

The early 20th century is recognized as the age of modernist approach. ‘Modernism’ does not mean ‘modern’ as contemporary, or ‘modern age’ to be the age of Renaissance. Rather a collective effort to revive Western Literature in the period after the World War is termed as modernism. The revival of poetic drama is one of the developments of the inter-war period, which gained considerable attention through the plays of T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats. Dissatisfied with realism and the tradition of naturalistic prose dialogue, eminent poets of the time like Yeats and Eliot, experimented in verse drama. Yeats attempted to revive poetry on the stage at the Abbey Theatre but he lacked the essential qualities of a dramatist. The plays of T. S. Eliot have attracted considerable attention. They contain some of the best dramatic poetry since the Elizabethans, and mark a definite stage in Eliot’s emotional growth. In ‘A Dialogue on Dramatic Poetry’, Eliot dwells upon the difficulties faced by the modern verse drama, but he believes that poetry used as a medium rather than a mere embellishment can contribute much more to the genre of poetic drama. This unit deals with two verse dramas: Yeats’ The Countess Cathleen and Eliot’s The Cocktail Party.

2.1 UNIT OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you will be able to:  Describe W. B. Yeats’ early life and literary career  Discuss the historical background of the play The Countess Cathleen  Assess the synopsis and critically analyse the verse drama The Countess Cathleen  Describe T. S. Eliot’s early life and literary career

Self-Instructional Material 29 Yeats and Eliot  Analyse the play The Cocktail Party  Explain the issues that Eliot discusses in the play The Cocktail Party

NOTES 2.2 W. B. YEATS: THE COUNTESS CATHLEEN

William Butler Yeats is considered to be one of the 20th century’s most prominent poets of both and Britain. He is one of the stalwarts of of his generation. 2.2.1 Life and Literary Career of W. B. Yeats W. B. Yeats was born on 13 June 1865 in Sandymount, Ireland. He spent his early childhood years in Ireland where he received his early education. Perhaps, because one of his early ancestors had been married to an English woman, his family soon moved to England, where he continued his education in London. Yeats became fascinated with the occult from an early age, but perhaps this was to be understood due to his Irish ancestry. It was this fascination with the occult and the legends that he started reading poetry from a fairly young age. He was soon to become one of the most prominent figures of English literature, both in the Irish as well as the British literary circles. It was due to his stature that Yeats helped establish the Abbey Theatre in England. Yeats pioneered the Movement along with his other contemporaries, such as Edward Martyn and Lady Gregory. W. B. Yeats was also interested in politics and served two terms as a senator. Both his parents belonged to wealthy families. William’s father, John Yeats, had been studying law before his marriage, but he gave that up to study art at the Heatherley Art School in London. William’s mother, Susan Mary (Pollexfen) Yeats, came from a rich business family who were in the shipping and milling business. The Pollexfen family lived in Sligo. It was in this ancestral home that and his wife Susan Mary Pollexfen moved a few years after the birth of their son William Butler Yeats. The mansion appeared to have shaped and shaded the creative blossoming, growth and fruition of Yeats into the literary figure he is recognised today. To a great extent, the scenic environment of the Pollexfen home, which was located in Merville, Sligo, impacted the creative work of Yeats, both symbolically as well as in actuality. Yeats referred to this beautiful and scenic surrounding as ‘the country of my hearty’. This gives credence to the theory that creative people are influenced to the greatest level and degree by their home environment, the neighbourhood and the events that unfold in their early childhood years. William Butler Yeats had one brother, Jack, and two sisters, Elizabeth and Susan Mary. Elizabeth and her sister were called Lollie and Lily by their close friends and family. All the four siblings were highly creative and artistic. went on to become a famous artist, while both Lollie and Lily were involved in the then Art and Craft movement. The Yeats siblings were raised according to the , which was undergoing great turmoil and upheavals during the 19th century. For the most part, the family had been supportive of these changes, but the same changes seemed to have a distinctly coloured impact on the psyche and faith of Yeats, and these influences remained with him till his death. It was obviously the result of these changes that his style of writing changed and became more cynical, focusing to a great extent on the spiritual facade people appeared to be wearing. Yeats began to write poetry at a very young age and his early works appears to have been influenced a great deal by other great poets of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Movement, such as and Edmund Spencer. This is apparent from the slow, lyrical 30 Self-Instructional Material and gentle tone and pace of his poetry, the first volume of which was published as early as Yeats and Eliot 1898. This style of writing continued until the beginning of the 20th century. Although the Yeats family moved to Sligo when Yeats was very young, the few years spent in Sandymount, Ireland, were the most influential in his life. The legends and the tales of the occult that he heard became the central topic of the first volume of poetry that he had NOTES published. Beginning with the year 1900, however, William Butler Yeats appeared to mature as a poet. He renounced his earlier fascination for the occult and legends; becoming more realistic and physical. His themes and focus shifted to the spiritual facade people seemed to wear for the most part, as well as cynical theories and ideologies of life that he perceived as a rational, thinking adult human being. This maturity in his writing style continued all his life. In 1923, Yeats won the for his contribution to English Literature. It was during the 1880s that the government in Ireland saw major upheavals, away from the Protestant Ascendancy minority to the home rule and rise to power of Charles Stewart Parnell. It was during these years that Ireland became more nationalistic in its governance and policies. While moving away from the Protestant Ascendancy Church, the Catholics became more powerful by the year 1900. These political changes as well as religious and spiritual shift did have an immense impact on the writing and literary works of William Butler Yeats. Moreover, Yeats began to explore his heritage and personal identity as an Irishman. The search for his roots and identity were perhaps a result of the relocation of his family from Ireland to England. This is understandable when children are forced to move away from the place of their birth and early childhood at a young age, and become aware as young adults of such tremendous and religious or spiritual shifts in the faith of their ancestral turf. This change in the political scenario too appeared to have influenced his interests in politics and his subsequent foray into politics as well. It was in the year 1867 that the Yeats family moved to England so as to help John Yeats pursue his artistic career better. Initially, Susan Mary taught the young children at home, regaling them with folktales. When he had time, John Yeats taught his children chemistry and geography. He would often take W. B. Yeats on natural history trips, exploring the surrounding Slough cliffs and countryside. In late January 1977, W. B. Yeats was enrolled in the Godolphin School, where he studied for four years. However, he was not a bright student. During the first year, his teachers reported that he was poor in spelling, while his best subject was Latin, and he did not do very well in other subjects. Yeats was tone-deaf and had problems learning languages and math. He loved zoology and biology. In 1880, the Yeats family returned to Dublin in Ireland, possibly because John Yeats was finding it difficult establishing himself as an artist. Yeats got enrolled into the Erasmus Smith High School in Dublin and after school hours he began spending plenty of time at his father’s studio which was quite close to his school. It was here that Yeats met the city’s well-known writers and artists. In the year 1885, the Dublin University Review published some of Yeats’ poems and an essay titled ‘The Poetry of Sir Samuel Ferguson’. He attended the Metropolitan School of Arts from 1884 to 1886. The school is now known as the National College of Arts and Design. W. B. Yeats began writing poetry seriously at the age of 17; his former works being strongly influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Among his former works was a poem about a magician who established a throne in Central Asia. The first volume of poems received much criticism and then Yeats left these themes behind and turned to Irish folklore and mythology for inspiration. He was also inspired a great deal by , who he later Self-Instructional Material 31 Yeats and Eliot would claim was a person who spoke great truths to a small clan. In the year 1881, Yeats published a novella and a short story, titled John Sherman and Dhoya. In the year 1889, W. B. Yeats met Maude Gonne. She was a rich English heiress, who having read his works and liking some of his earlier works, actually sought him out. She was NOTES an Irish nationalist and was a year and a half younger than Yeats. Yeats became obsessively infatuated with her, and she had a significant and lasting impact on both—his life and his creative works—after that. As a matter of fact, the verse drama The Countess Cathleen is said to be based on her. In September 1917, Olivia Shakespeare introduced W. B. Yeats, then 52 years old, to Georgie Hyde Less, aged 24. He proposed to her, and despite being warned by her friends, she accepted his proposal. The couple were married in October the same year. The couple had two children named Anne and Michael. W. B. Yeats did not believe in when it came to the political arena. He believed that the national collective or the voice of the people had more strength and significance than petty individualistic interests. This was the reason why he supported the concept of fascism, believing that fascism was a triumph or vindication of the common man and common voice. The verse drama The Countess Cathleen was based on the relationship the poet W. B. Yeats shared with . Written in blank verse, with only a few lyrics, the poem was a part of the poet’s second volume of poems called The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics, which was published in 1892. The poem was then revised many times with various editions since it was first published. According to Yeats, the poem needed to be completely rewritten and revamped to make it suitable to be performed in the form of a play at the Abbey Theatre in 1911. It was published with this complete overhaul in 1912. Yeats worked hard to rewrite and revamp the poem. The first round of editing seemed to be so abysmal that the editors found it impossible to collate the entire work. Although, initially, the poem had been more of a farcical realism in form, the final version was more subtle and suggestive, written more as a dance drama. The poem was based on the poet’s real life obsessive infatuation with the chief protagonist, Maud Gonne. Maud Gonne was married to someone else who was Yeats’ rival. Her husband had been assassinated due to his involvement in the Easter Uprising. Both Maud Gonne and her husband were greatly and actively involved in the political upheavals that rocked both Ireland and England during that period. Like most writers and artists of his time, Yeats was also involved in the politics of his country, Ireland. Yeats had been a member of the Irish Nationalist Party participating actively in the revolutionary activism. He believed he would be able to live a life of conventional traditionalism. During these years, his political beliefs and activities influenced much of his writing and creativity. It may perhaps be inferred, too, that his political involvement had also influenced his involvement with Maud Gonne. However, with time, Yeats became increasingly disillusioned with the political scenario of his times. This type of disillusionment is to be expected when the participants do not appear to find anything worthwhile or beneficial emerging from the political changes taking place in their country. This is perhaps the reason why the poet seemed to begin to distance himself, or become more introverted and aloof, from the political arena. This change in his political convictions continued until the year 1922, when he was elected the Senator for the first term by the . Although he had been a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood before this, he began to distance himself from the actual and active politics, so much so that he even began to change the themes of his creative works, shifting away from politics. 32 Self-Instructional Material Yeats fell in love with Maud Gonne when he met her for the very first time. This could Yeats and Eliot have been because she praised him, his poetic skills, and his earlier poetry as well. However, Maud Gonne appeared to be more determined and unemotional than him. His love was not reciprocated. He later admitted that he saw only what he wished to see and what was apparent on the surface. Maud Gonne was single-minded in her nationalistic activities and NOTES expected and perhaps demanded the same from Yeats. She wanted him to become as engrossed and active in these activities like she was. Yeats seemed to know his mind much better and did not involve himself in the nationalist movement. On the contrary, he began distancing himself from the movement and all political activities. However, between the years 1891 and 1901, W. B. Yeats proposed Maud Gonne four times, and was rejected every time. He later admitted that the troubles in his life began after the first proposal, yet he was so obsessed with her that he proposed marriage to her three more times. In 1903, without making it public, Maud Gonne married another Irish nationalist, Major John MacBride. Yeats began to ridicule and mock MacBride both through personal letters as well as through his poetry. Writers and artistic people usually make use of their creative work to express their feelings and anger, and in that respect, Yeats proved to be no different from his contemporaries. In retrospect, it appeared that more than his lady love, Yeats was more devastated by the fact that Maud Gonne had converted to Catholicism before she married MacBride. She had also been his constant source of inspiration or his muse for several years which he had suddenly lost. Hence, his sense of loss seemed more to do with his work and its impact on that than his love or his personal life. In spite of the fact that Maud Gonne had given birth to a son in 1904, her marriage to MacBride was not happy or successful. Even though other well-wishers intervened, the couple decided to get a divorce. Since both England and Ireland had banned divorce, the couple applied for a divorce in Paris, France. Gonne made plenty of allegations against MacBride to strengthen her case, naming Yeats as her accessory or witness. However, Yeats decided to keep away from the entire drama, refraining from going to Paris to attend the court hearings. None of the accusations made by Gonne were accepted by the French court, and the couple did not get a divorce. In fact, the only accusation that was accepted by both the court and MacBride was that during the entire course of their marriage, he had been drunk once. Finally, Yeats ended his alliance with Maud Gonne. Despite this, however, the two consummated their relationship in Paris in 1908. Gonne continued to influence his writings for the time being. He also remained unmarried until much later in his life, finally marrying Georgie Hyde Lees, who was more than half his age. The first edition of the verse drama The Countess Cathleen was more expressive and boldly direct. Having founded the Abbey Theatre, Yeats was expected to write plays to be produced at the theatre. The Countess Cathleen was selected to be staged there but was found to be too direct. This was perhaps the reason why he was asked to make revisions and editions to tone down both the message and the language used while converting the poem into a dance drama. 2.2.2 Historical Background of The Countess Cathleen The poet and playwright W. B. Yeats is said to have based the poem and the play on the supposedly Irish legend called ‘The Countess Cathleen O’Shea’. Yeats read this legend in an English newspaper which was published in Ireland, sometime during the year 1867. Obviously, he read the story much later. He then tried to research and track the origins of the legend. Self-Instructional Material 33 Yeats and Eliot Yeats had been so inspired by the tale that he had tried to find out how it had started in the first place. Initially, he perhaps was unable to do much. Eventually, Yeats had apparently discovered that the story, or the so called legend, had been adapted from an English story. Persistent in his research, Yeats soon discovered that the English story had actually been NOTES translated from a French tale, titled Les marchands d’âmes. The female protagonist of the French tale had apparently been named ‘The Comtess Ketty O’Connor’. This original French tale, apparently, had originally been published as part of an anthology titled Les matinées de Timothée Trimm written by Léo Lespès. W. B. Yeats had obviously been fiercely and passionately Irish. The name ‘O’Connor’ in the original French version probably indicated to the poet that the story was perhaps based on an Irish character. Yeats was born in Ireland, but when he was still a toddler, his family moved to England. His mother’s ancestors had apparently been of English ancestry. John Yeats, Yeats’ father had been an artist, and had decided to move to England in an attempt to further his artistic career. But young Yeats had been influenced and inspired by the Irish legends and folktales that Ireland is famous for. This inspiration probably stayed with Yeats all his life, even more than that of Maud Gonne. In spite of this, probably from his second volume of poetry, Yeats based his poems on the character of Maud Gonne, who remained his muse and romantic interest for almost a decade. As an adult, however, it appeared that his interest in Maud Gonne began waning with her conversion to Catholicism just before she was to marry an Irish army officer, Major MacBride. Yeats had been brought up as a Protestant and remained fiercely Protestant in his faith and religious belief. In spite of this religious faith and belief, Yeats subscribed to the belief that Ireland needed to listen to the voice of the collective common man, something like fascism. Yeats appeared to hate and maybe despise individualism. This had been the political inclination as admitted and claimed by Yeats during his lifetime. However, it is difficult to understand this. To all intents and purposes, fascism is more about one individual forcing the collective common people of a nation to follow his or her diktat. Yeats had also been part of the Republican Movement in his country, which made it easy to understand his adamant refusal to become part of the nationalist movement in Ireland, although he had become obsessed with Maud Gonne, who continued to urge him to join the nationalist movement until her marriage to Major MacBride. Her interest in Yeats continued even after her marriage to MacBride as would his interest in her. Yeats only appeared to completely overcome his obsession with Maud Gonne when she attempted to make him an accessory to her divorce case with her husband Major MacBride. Ireland, at the time Yeats wrote the poem and play, The Countess Cathleen, had been part of the British Empire. The country and entire assets of Ireland were controlled entirely by England during the late 19th and 20th centuries. It was during these years that most people in Ireland had joined the nationalist movement. The nationalist movement had attracted plenty of sympathisers from Great Britain. Maud Gonne was one such sympathiser. Although it had been reported that Maud Gonne had sought out Yeats in Ireland after having read his earlier poems and admired them, she later claimed that she had actually met the poet and playwright in England during the years he had lived there. It was perhaps an attempt to say that she had joined the nationalist movement in Ireland only because she had met Yeats first and was drawn to the movement only because of her interest in him. This political scenario had been described by W. B. Yeats in his play and poem titled The Countess Cathleen. The poet describes how the farmers in Ireland became landless and poverty stricken because the English overlords or rulers took away the ownership of 34 Self-Instructional Material their land and farms. The farmers were then in debt, losing their cattle and farm implements, Yeats and Eliot which were considered the only wealth and source of income of the farmers across the globe. Yeats described this political reality in the play when he wrote about the English Government in the form of the English overlords of Countess Cathleen and other nobles and NOTES high ranking people in the country. The reference to the English overlords owning the souls of the people in Ireland perhaps relates to the feeling of being enslaved by the English government. People who are slaves to someone do not have any claim even to their own souls, being forced to think, say and do what their owners demand of them. This is precisely how he and many people of his generation must have felt during the years their country had been governed by the British Empire. In retrospect, those were the years when the British Empire had probably been the most powerful nation to reckon with anywhere in the world. The British Empire had also spread its power across many other countries across the world, including Asia and Africa. The playwright describes how the poor farmers of his country continued to lose more and more, perhaps being forced to give up their claim to the crops they grew on their own land. Under these circumstances, when the great famine took place in their country, the poor farmers were unable to sustain themselves even with meagre food crops or money, while their landlords, such as Countess Cathleen, had the privilege to a comfortable life which she decided to denounce once she came to know about the plight of the farmers. Selling one’s soul to someone does not actually imply just selling their soul, but goes much deeper than what appears on the surface. When the nobility of the country of Ireland sold their souls to their landlords in Great Britain, they sold their loyalty, the lands and belongings of the poor farmers and their families living and working on tiny plots of land dotting their estates, and everything else that stood on their lands except the castles they lived in. This complete shift in their loyalty and their refusal to want freedom from the ruling foreign powers helped make the rich estate owners still richer and they were the only handful people in the entire country who had food while the rest of the working class, including the farmers who were the actual people who worked and toiled on their farms, became economically and spiritually more dependent on the devil. This meant the poor farmers began to believe that God was angry with the entire nation and the . They began to believe that God had caused this famine in order to punish the people of Ireland and no human being could save them from the wrath of God. The poor farmers, like Shemus and his son Teigue, then believed that the only option left for the poor farmers in Ireland was to sell their souls to the evil spirits and the devil and give up their lives. The great famine probably did take place in the country, causing the poor farmers of the country of Ireland to lose everything they possessed, leaving them starved and hallucinating. Moving away from their spiritual and religious faith and beliefs, the poor farmers became more depressed and hopeless with each passing day. This situation probably made many young people belonging to rich families begin to view the political scene more closely, drawing their own conclusions. They had had access to education and were certainly more aware of their own rights and the rights of the poorer sections of society. This awareness perhaps made many of them disillusioned with the so- called nationalist movement or all other movements that had swept across the country. Yeats did admit his disillusionment with the political scenario distancing himself from all such movements. Much later, after Ireland became independent, Yeats did serve two terms as a senator representing a new and fledgling political party. Ireland, which has always been a country steeped in spiritualism, mysticism and legends, had influenced the writings

Self-Instructional Material 35 Yeats and Eliot and creativity of most artists and writers of that generation. The poor farmers and other poor sections of the country, who were largely illiterate, began to believe that the famine and their pitiable condition were the result of God’s anger. Starvation and feeling of impending death and doom must have made their beliefs in those legends even more realistic. NOTES Although, to begin with, Yeats may have based the main female protagonist in the poem The Countess Cathleen on the real life persona of Maud Gonne, it is obvious he was more influenced by more than just that. Maud Gonne was admittedly an extremely beautiful young lady. But as has been mentioned earlier in this text, the resemblance would have ended with this similarity. To be more precise, Yeats had been more inspired by the character of The Countess Cathleen O’Shea and had decided to blend in reality with his own fascination for the supernatural and the legends of Ireland. Those were the times when most of Europe was witnessing economic and spiritual decline. Politically, most of the world was embroiled in war, dominion and supremacy. Hence, it becomes difficult to connect the poem and the play with the real life character of Maud Gonne. On the contrary, neither the poem nor the play show the characterization of Countess Cathleen to have been anything like Maud Gonne. 2.2.3 Theme of The Countess Cathleen The central theme of the verse drama The Countess Cathleen appears to be pretty simple. The central plot which revolves around the protagonist, Countess Cathleen, is intended to cast the character in a sympathetic light. The poem was later converted into a verse drama that could be staged later at the Abbey Theatre. The character of the protagonist, Countess Cathleen, is said to have been based on Maud Gonne, who had been for many years the muse for most of the creative works produced by William Yeats. The protagonist, Countess Cathleen, is said to have been so moved by the plight of her tenants during a famine that she decides to sell her soul to the devil to save her tenants from starvation and definite death. The tenants on their part had actually sold their own souls to the devil as well. But the Countess decides to release them from their plight and death by bargaining her own soul in exchange for their souls. However, because her intentions are so pure and selfless, she is redeemed by God and is saved from the devil, after which she is shown to ascend to heaven because of her final pure and selfless deed. The poem, which was first published in the year 1892, was part of the volume titled The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics. The poem, in order to be suitable to be staged as a play, underwent plenty of editions and revisions, and in all subsequent versions, the title came to be spelt The Countess Cathleen. The poem when it was first written by the poet was not actually intended to be staged or performed in the form of a play. It was only later that perhaps Yeats had been asked to change it to the extent that it could be performed on stage. Subsequent editors and critics of the time, such as Russell K. Alspach, were later to claim that the first draft of the poem was so abysmal that in order to be made suitable for performance and public consumption, it had to be drastically changed entirely. This could also mean that perhaps the first edition or the first version of the poem titled The Countess Cathleen is not available anywhere. In fact, according to Alspach, the first version had been so illegible that it had been virtually impossible to collate and make sense of. Yeats, therefore, had been called upon to make drastic and massive changes to the entire text so that it could later be performed on stage.

36 Self-Instructional Material The poet it appears had been so besotted with Maud Gonne that he had cast the Yeats and Eliot protagonist of the poem and play in a beautiful, tinted, altruistic shade—a character who is so concerned about the plight and sufferings of her tenants that she is ready to risk her own life to save theirs. W. B. Yeats, as a matter of fact, based much of his writings, especially during the NOTES early years, on folktales and Irish legends. While it is true that Maud Gonne had been his muse for several years, it is quite possible that the central theme of the poem was too surrealistic to have been based on an actual living person. On the other hand, it is quite possible that the central character, the protagonist of the poem, may have been inspired by Maud Gonne to some extent, but the plot itself or the events that unfolded in both the poem and the play, were too surrealistic to have been based on real events. 2.2.4 Synopsis and Critical Appreciation of The Countess Cathleen The poem, or the play, The Countess Cathleen, revolves around the character of a Countess who has plenty of farmer tenants living on her estate. The castle and the farming lands are located somewhere in Ireland. As events unfold, there are scenes that depict a famine that has engulfed the country of Ireland. The slow devastation is so dismaying that slow death or the fear of approaching death is causing the poor farming families, living on the estates of the Countess Cathleen, to hallucinate and talk in a deranged manner. This is quite possible because the farmers must have been uneducated and illiterate making them speak of supernatural or surrealistic things in their deranged condition. On the other hand, it is also a known and accepted fact that the poet and playwright W. B. Yeats had been fascinated and influenced by the legends and supernatural folklore that he had heard as a child growing up in Ireland. His first volume of poetry had in fact been completely inspired by these Irish legends and folktales. Hence, it is quite possible that the character of the countess was not entirely based on Maud Gonne. It is also quite possible that Yeats, like many creative people, decided to blend supernatural with realism, and create the character of the Countess. As the poem or the play unfolds, the audience are shown that during a famine, a family of Irish farmers living on the estates of the Countess Cathleen, begin to talk of strange creatures that become visible only to them. These rambling discourses appear to imply that evil spirits are lurking and possibly hunting in the area. On the other hand, it is quite possible that these rambling discourses could have been due to the fact that the poor farmer and his family were aware of their approaching death and had begun to hallucinate in fear and despair. As the poem proceeds, Countess Cathleen, who is apparently out on rounds with her entourage, arrives and asks the family for directions to her castle. Upon realizing her identity, the family is bitter and vociferous in their accusations. They accuse her of being heartless and cruel, of not caring about their plight and the fact that they are almost at death’s door. Remorseful, the Countess opens her purse, and gives them what little she finds in it. She explains to them that that is what is left in her purse. She had been on rounds of her estate, and had offered money to other families living on her estate. Because this family had not received enough, she invites them to come to her castle the next day for more help. After the Countess leaves with her entourage, the farmer named Shemus and his son Teigue, complain bitterly that even in her charity, the countess had been so tight fisted. The farmer’s wife Mary is more grateful and admonishes her husband. At this point, the farmer is shown to become angry with his wife calling upon the three evil spirits of the forest to enter his house.

Self-Instructional Material 37 Yeats and Eliot It is precisely at this moment that two travelling merchants come to the farmer’s house. They pretend to be the evil spirits and offer Shemus and his son money in exchange for their souls. They also advice them to go around the countryside and inform people that they are offering money in exchange for people’s souls. NOTES The presence and mention of the supernatural in the poem and the play are obviously the result of the fascination and inspiration that Irish legends and tales of the occult had on the poet. It is difficult to envisage how the main character or the protagonist, Countess Cathleen, could have been based entirely on the character of Maud Gonne. At this point, it is more likely that the Irish legends had more impact on Yeats than Maud Gonne in carving out the events that unfold in the play. The Countess is shown to reach her castle in complete distress at the plight of her tenants. Aleel tries to distract her and relieve her tension. He begins to tell her a story about a Queen of Fairies, Queen Maeve. Apparently, this Queen Maeve had loved a mortal who died. This made her weep. However, Aleel tells her she had actually wept not because the mortal had died pining for his love for her or even because she had loved him in return, but only because she had forgotten his name. At this point, Oona interrupts, admonishing Aleel for troubling the Countess. Aleel retorts that he had actually been trying to relieve the Countess and ease her distress for at least ten minutes. Aleel continues telling Countess Cathleen that while she had been out on her rounds to her estates some men had broken into the castle and stolen food. Oona appears to be uncomfortable at this revelation. But Countess Cathleen surprises them when she tells them that the poor men had not committed any crime according to her because they were starving as a result of the famine. At this point, Shemus and Teigue arrive at the castle. They report how they had been given money in exchange for their souls. This piece of news devastates Countess Cathleen. She offers the father and son duo to buy back their souls and save their lives. The duo turn her down, declaring that no one can save them, when God himself had abandoned Ireland and turned away from its people. As the poem proceeds, Countess Cathleen orders Aleel, who is her steward or manager, to sell her entire estate except for the house and use the proceeds from the sale to buy food for her starving farmers. She announces to Aleel and Oona that from that moment onwards, she wished to devote herself to serve the poor farmers. At this point, Aleel tells her that he had had a dream in which an angel of God had appeared to him, ordering him to tell Countess Cathleen to run away from her estate. Hearing this dream, however, Countess Cathleen declares that it could not have been an angel of God, and more likely it could have been a pagan God. On the contrary, she tells Aleel to leave the estate and find happiness and contentment elsewhere, which would at least be something more than she herself had achieved. The Countess appears to have been emotionally moved at the sight of the starving farmers living on her estate. It could also be that the Countess had become aware that her life as a Countess appeared to be shallow and meaningless feeding on the troubles and sorrows of the poor farmers and their families living and working on her estate. The version of the poem The Countess Cathleen, as presented here, is obviously the final edited version that had been rewritten so as to make it suitable for performance on stage and for public consumption. Therefore, it could happen that the character of the protagonist was so shaped and shaded as to make it appear in a sympathetic light to the audience. The blend of the supernatural with the more realistic elements of the poem reveal the genius of the poet. This proves how skilled or talented Yeats was.

38 Self-Instructional Material The narrative of the Queen of Fairies, Maeve, is obviously a reminder of the childhood Yeats and Eliot years the poet had spent in Ireland. It is difficult to shake off the impact of the environment or events that surround or impact a person’s life during the childhood years. This is more so when the artist is creative and calls upon childhood memories and environment to inspire and shape their works of creation as adults. NOTES The mention of the Queen of Fairies and of the evil spirits who demand souls in return for money appear to have been included in the narrative more for effect and to spice up the narrative. But these elements have been blended in so smoothly and effortlessly that they appear to be a natural part of the main plot or narrative. Let us go through some lines from the poem The Countess Cathleen: All the heavy days are over, Leave the body’s coloured pride Underneath the grass and clover, With the feet laid side by side. The above lines would probably mean that the poet is trying to tell his audience that all problematic days are over. Instead, it is perhaps time to leave aside, or give up the ego or pride, that is usually symbolically coloured with a different hue. It is time to bury that pride and ego outside in the fields under the leaves of clover. The line the feet laid side by side is probably intended to describe that when people are buried, their feet are usually kept side by side in the coffin. Therefore, also when ego or pride is buried, the feet of pride or ego should be laid side by side, so that there is no room for any pride or human ego to go back to humanity. Bathed in flaming founts of duty She’ll not ask a haughty dress; Carry all that mournful beauty To the scented oaken press. Here, the poet is perhaps trying to describe the female protagonist of his poem to have bathed in the bright of duty. Her duty was to serve her people. She is shown to be so dedicated that she apparently does not care what she wears. It could also mean that she does not wish to clothe herself in pride or ego, but rather in selfless attire. The poet has probably tried to depict her mournful beauty. This probably shows that her beautiful face had been filled with sadness at the plight of her people when she went to meet them in the beautiful and scented groves of oak trees. Did the kiss of Mother Mary Put that music in her face? Yet she goes with footstep wary, Full of earth’s old timid grace. The poet wonders as to was it Mother Mary who had blessed the Countess with her kiss. The poet also perhaps is saying that the Countess’ beauty resembles to that of music. Even when she is blessed by the Mother, she seems to be afraid and careful, lest she angers the evil spirits. In spite of being born with such spiritual and ethereal grace, the Countess appears to be filled with timidity that is inherent only in mere mortals. ‘Mong the feet of angels seven What a dancer glimmering! All the heavens bow down to Heaven, Flame to flame and wing to wing.

Self-Instructional Material 39 Yeats and Eliot These lines have probably been used by the poet to describe how the seven angels of God carried the Countess to heaven when she had sold her own soul in exchange for the souls of the poor farmer’s family living on her estate. Her noble deeds and selflessness could only be rewarded by the seven angels who descended to earth while the heavens bowed NOTES down to God, and the seven angels came together, joining hands, entwining their flaming wings to hold her in their midst, while they flew back to heaven. The above lines clearly express Yeats’ fascination with spiritual legends and his intense Protestant faith. The lines also probably show the exact level of his obsessive infatuation for the beauty of Maud Gonne. He probably likened her beauty to being ethereal to an extent that she had been his muse for several years. This infatuation probably ended when Maud Gonne converted to Catholicism on the eve of her marriage with Major MacBride. 2.2.5 Issues and Analysis The central theme of the poem The Countess Cathleen appears to be the presence of supernatural forces who are apparently moving around in the countryside. The poet was admittedly influenced a great deal by Irish legends and tales of the supernatural. Ireland is known for such tales, and has always been known for the tales of the occult and the legends. Creative people do get inspired and influenced by such tales. Yeats was also inspired by these tales, and his first volume of poetry is said to have been based on these tales of the supernatural. The poem The Countess Cathleen also appears to have been inspired by the same tales of the supernatural. Let us look at some of the major aspects of the poem. Maud Gonne Many analysts claim that the central character of Countess Cathleen had been based on Maud Gonne. However, on reading the play, it does seem difficult to imagine how the character of the Countess could have been inspired by Maud Gonne. The real life persona of Maud Gonne was a determined young lady, completely sure of what she wanted and pursued that with single-minded determination and grit. The determination and passion for the nationalist movement, for instance, did not leave much room for emotions. When she realized that W. B. Yeats was not interested enough to engage in the nationalist movement, Maud Gonne just moved on and married another Irishman, Major MacBride, who was involved in the same movement. Maud Gonne was not at all remorseful involving Yeats in her divorce case with Major MacBride. For his part, the poet was completely infatuated with the lady for several years. He had proposed to her four times and was rejected every time. This made it obvious that the interest Maud Gonne showed in the poet was more towards his writing and her involvement with him was conditional. She would have accepted his proposal for marriage if he would have agreed to involve himself actively in the nationalist movement. The character of the Countess in the poem, however, is swayed by emotions, being moved by the starving plight of the poor farmers living and working on her estate. Rua’s Home Rua’s home was the home of the farmer who first sells his soul in return for money and later moves to the Countess’ castle. The Rua cabin was Shemus and Mary Rua’s home. Although called a cabin, it was more likely a hut that was warmed and lit by stinking fires. This cabin is where the play opens. The main door opens into the farmyard. This door allowed the farmer and his wife to tend to their handful chickens and look out at the woods surrounding their little hut and the trees that grew around their little cabin. 40 Self-Instructional Material Yeats believed that dramatic impact should be depicted symbolically than through Yeats and Eliot physical embellishments. In keeping with this belief, the walls of the cabin as well as the tree trunks visible to the audience were painted in muted and flat colours that could not reflect or display light or shadows. The flat tones helped give both the cabin and the trees an eerie and supernatural effect. The fields that were rented out to the Rua family appeared to be tiny NOTES and rocky. The rocky surface did not allow them to actually grow any productive crops on that little piece of land. The physical terrain made it impossible for the farmer’s family to earn a decent living. The famine made the matter even worse. The farmers and their families living on the Countess’ estate were poverty-stricken, burdened with debt, and too illiterate to be aware of their rights. The families, especially the Rua family, were in fact superstitious rather than spiritual, and so naïve that anyone could have easily tricked them. This was proved to be true when the two travelling salesmen arrive on the scene and understanding their plight and mental trauma were able to trick them into accepting money ‘in return for their souls’. The Countess Cathleen’s Castle The Countess is apparently served by an entourage of faithful people. Foremost among them are Aleel, the steward or manager, and Oona, who is some kind of a secretary. The poet and playwright Yeats describes the castle to be located geographically somewhere in the woods surrounding the Rua home. In the play The Countess Cathleen, the playwright has described it as an old castle with walls that were painted flat grey against a bright gold. The large hall in the entrance of the castle was described to have been filled with kegs or large barrels that were filled with gold. It was perhaps intended to be in stark contrast to the apparent and abject poverty of the tenant farming families. The hall also had an oratory or a sort of audio system with an altar where the Countess prayed. The playwright and poet has proved through this creative work that he loved Ireland probably more than England. Yeats has described the Countess to be graceful and of noble birth, and her religious faith and her personal wealth making her apparently immune to the evil spirits of the English, allowing her to use her wealth to save the lives and souls of her starving and poverty-stricken farmer tenants. According to Yeats, it was only because of her Irish posterity that she was able to save her poor tenants. Analysis The poet has used his creativity to depict the main protagonist, Countess Cathleen, to be so noble that she could only have been of Irish blood to have been able to save her poor and starving people from the devil or the evil spirits that were sent by the English. The symbolism used by Yeats would actually prove that the character of the Countess was actually not based on Maud Gonne since she was an English woman. She was in Ireland to participate in the Irish nationalist movement. She was neither of noble heritage nor actually wealthy. There would be no room for any comparison between the character of Maud Gonne and that of the Countess. Maud Gonne had been feisty and single-minded in her pursuit towards everything. She never revealed any emotions or gentleness during her entire liaison with Yeats. The Countess, on the other hand, had been of noble birth, a wealthy single woman, who was actually moved by the plight of the farming families living on her estate. She had made it a point to take a tour of her vast estate during the famine to keep track of the needs of each family, giving them money to meet their immediate needs. When she had realized that she did not have enough to meet the needs of the Rua family, she had given them what little remained in her purse and asked them to come to her castle the next day for more money. Self-Instructional Material 41 Yeats and Eliot Upon her return to the castle her manager had told her that someone had entered the castle and stolen food when she had been out on the tour of her estate. Perhaps the manager had hoped she would punish the culprits. Instead, the Countess had declared that the thieves had probably been starving as a result of the famine, and so she did not consider that they NOTES had committed any crime because they had probably stolen the food because they had been desperate and needed that little food they had stolen. When the Countess hears the Rua father and son duo report that someone had bought their souls in return for a little money, she was shocked and immediately offered to buy back their souls from the two travelling salesmen so that they could live longer. The Countess was told by the Rua father and son that no one could save them any longer because they were of the idea that God had abandoned their country Ireland, and turned away from the poor people living in their country. On hearing this, and realizing their abject feeling of betrayal and hopelessness, the Countess had ordered her manager to immediately sell her entire property except for her house and use the proceeds from that sale to buy food for the starving people living on her estate and elsewhere in the country. It is difficult to imagine how Yeats could have thought that Maud Gonne could have been endowed with such noble intentions and feelings of selfless devotion at any level. In real life, Maud Gonne had been a normal young woman who had probably thought she could compel Yeats to share her passion for political beliefs, and join her in the nationalist movement, simply because he was obsessively infatuated with her beauty.

‘Check Your Progress’ 1. Why did W. B. Yeats begin to search for his roots and identity as an Irishman? 2. Why did W. B. Yeats discard individualism over fascism? 3. Name the legend on which Yeats has based the play The Countess Cathleen. 4. What was Rua’s home?

2.3 T. S. ELIOT: THE COCKTAIL PARTY

Thomas Stearns Eliot became the most prominent poet of 20th century. Besides being a poet, Eliot is also known as an essayist, literary and social critic, playwright and publisher. 2.3.1 Life and Literary Career of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot was born on 26 September 1888 in the city of St. Louis in the United States. In the year 1914, when Eliot was 25, he relocated to England, where he lived for the rest of his life. It was in England that he worked and married. In 1927, when he was 39, Eliot became a British citizen, giving up his American citizenship and passport. Eliot was an acclaimed poet and playwright of the Modernist movement. He received great recognition and fame for his poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock which he wrote in 1915. This was followed by other great poems: (1922), (1925), and (1930). These poems were followed by others such as which was written in 1943. Eliot is also known for his plays. These included Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 for his ‘outstanding pioneering contribution to modern-day poetry’. Some of his works were either republished or published for the first time after his death on 4 January 1965. These included To Criticise the Critic which was published in 42 Self-Instructional Material 1965, The Waste Land: Facsimile Edition which was published in 1974. In 1996, a collection Yeats and Eliot of his poems written between 1909 and 1917 was published titled Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909–1917. The were known as Brahmins. T. S. Eliot’s grandfather, , had apparently relocated to St. Louis in Missouri, United States, to set up the NOTES American branch of the Unitarian Christian Church. William Eliot’s son Henry Eliot set up a business, becoming the treasurer and president of his company, the Hydraulic Press Brick Company. Henry Eliot’s wife Charlotte Stearns was a poet and social worker. Thomas Eliot was named after his maternal grandfather, Thomas Stearns. T. S. Eliot was the youngest of six siblings. Eliot was afflicted with a congenital double inguinal hernia which made it impossible for him to take part in physical activities and have friends of his own age. It was this enforced isolation probably that made Eliot find solace in literature which became his passion as he grew older. When he first learnt to read, he began at once to read stories of the Wild West, and thrillers and the adventures of Tom Sawyer. This was not surprising as most young boys love to read Tom Sawyer’s adventures. Suffering the constant physical pain of his congenital malady must have been difficult for a young boy, and the large volumes of books he read while curling up on a window seat must have helped begin the creative journey, allowing him to dream and imagine for hours at a time. Between the years 1899 and 1905, Eliot learnt languages at the Smith Academy. These languages included German, French, Ancient Greek and Latin. When Eliot was 14, he read a of the poetry of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald titled Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. This inspired the young Eliot to start writing poetry. In February 1905, as a school exercise, Eliot wrote a poem, which was the first poem to be published in the Smith Academy Record. The poem was called A Fable for Feasters. In April the same year, the Smith Academy Record published a poem which was untitled at that time. This was later edited and published with the title Song in Harvard University’s student journal called Harvard Advocate. Besides the two plays Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party, Eliot has written five more plays. These included: published in 1934, The Rock also published in 1934, The Family Reunion published in 1939, The Confidential Clerk published in 1953, and The Elder Statesman first published in 1959 but was first performed in 1958. In 1904, Eliot visited the World Fair of St. Louis where he had the opportunity to visit the Igorot village. This experience of a primitive way of life inspired Eliot to write the short story The Man Who Was King the following year. He published two more short stories the same year: A Tale of a Whale and The Birds of Prey. In 1909, after just three years, Eliot received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Harvard University. In spite of admitting that he hated universities and the people at universities, Eliot completed his doctoral dissertation from Harvard University. However, he never returned to Harvard to take the final oral examination for the Ph.D. degree because the First World War had begun. In 1914, he shifted to England. In early 1915, he met Vivienne Haigh-Wood who was a Cambridge governess. They married at a registry office in June the same year. He paid a short visit home to his family without his new bride and returned to London where he took up multiple teaching positions. However, the marriage was not successful because of Vivienne’s health problems. They separated in the year 1933, and five years later, her brother admitted her to a mental asylum where she died in 1947. In 1984, the play Tom & Viv was written Self-Instructional Material 43 Yeats and Eliot based on their relationship. It was adapted into a full length feature film in 1994. Eliot later admitted that it was perhaps his determination to remain in England that he forced himself into believing that he actually loved Vivienne. It was perhaps more accurate to believe that in a new place away from a large and close knit family, he had forced himself to believe that NOTES he had fallen in love with the first woman he had been introduced to. The decision to marry had also been a hasty one, not giving much thought to it. Although Eliot taught languages such as Latin and French at several schools, he apparently was not making enough money. In order to make extra money, he reviewed books and taught at evening extension classes. In August 1920, Eliot went to Paris with Wyndham Lewis—a writer, painter and critic—where he met the author . As is well known, first impressions are seldom accurate. When they met for the first time, Eliot took Joyce to be proud, while James Joyce was of the opinion that Eliot could not be a good poet. However, they soon became good friends. On subsequent visits to Paris, Eliot always made it a point to meet James Joyce. Eliot’s friendship with Wyndham Lewis also became stronger. In 1938, the artist made a portrait painting of the playwright/poet. Charles Whibley, another friend, referred Eliot to Geoffrey Faber. This meeting proved extremely significant. In the year 1925, Eliot became a director with the publishing company Faber and Faber, where he remained for the rest of his working life. This was how the poet and playwright made a foray into publishing. As the director at Faber and Faber, Eliot’s responsibilities included, among others, publishing prominent English poets such as Ted Hughes, Stephen Spencer and W. H. Auden. It is a well-known fact that writers and artists are influenced a great deal by their faith and religious beliefs. On 29 June 1927, Eliot converted to Anglicanism from Unitarianism that had been practised by his family. In November the same year, Eliot became a British citizen and gave up his American passport. He also became a warden of his parish church. Another significant change in his life was that he became a life member of the Society of King Charles the Martyr. Eliot then described himself as being Anglo Catholic in religious belief and faith, Royalist in political affiliation, and Classicist in literature. By the year 1932, Eliot had been considering a legal separation with his wife Vivienne for some years. At this point in his career, Harvard University offered him a professorship for a year for the academic year 1932-33. Realizing that it would offer the opportunity to maintain space and distance to be able to think calmly, he accepted the offer, leaving Vivienne in England. When he returned, the couple were formally separated. Eliot did not actually meet Vivienne between his departure for America and her death in the year 1947. During the years 1938 and 1957, Mary Trevelyan who was from London University was became his only public partner. In spite of this liaison, the poet and playwright did not marry her. Instead, he began sharing a flat in Chelsea with his friend John Davy Hayward. John Hayward began collating and archiving Eliot’s writings. This friendship proved fruitful in multiple ways. Hayward collated Eliot’s poems that he had written before The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock, and published them in a volume called Poems Written in Early Youth. Eliot and Hayward parted ways in 1957, but Hayward kept these poems and donated them to King’s College in 1965. At the age of 68, Eliot married his former secretary at Faber and Faber, Esme Valerie Fletcher, who was then 30. He had no children with either of his wives. The couple knew each other well because they had worked closely for several years. Although the wedding was solemnised in a church, it was kept secret, and the only people who attended the ceremony were Fletcher’s parents.

44 Self-Instructional Material During the early 1960s, Eliot’s health began to deteriorate. He soon began to work as Yeats and Eliot an Editor at the Wesleyan University Press, where he was introduced to new poets from across Europe. He died on 4 January 1965.

2.3.2 Historical Background of The Cocktail Party NOTES The play The Cocktail Party by Thomas Stearns Eliot was probably one of the most critically acclaimed of the seven plays he had written. It is significant to note that The Cocktail Party has been interwoven with multiple aspects from the Ancient Greek play titled written by . First performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949, it was critically acclaimed and ran to full houses at both London and New York theatres in 1950. It was the same year, in 1950 that The Cocktail Party received the . The play explores the complexities of human relationships and in particular between a husband and wife. The entire play has been set against the backdrop of the Chamberlayne couple, Edward and Lavinia, and their marital problems. It appears that the marital problems between married couples and the role of the mistress in such troubled marriages had formed a common thread in most of the plays written by Thomas Eliot. It is a well-known fact that Eliot had had a troubled and an unsuccessful marriage with Vivienne, who he had married after an extremely brief acquaintance. Events that unfolded in his marriage after that would have revealed that Eliot had possibly married Vivienne to alleviate his loneliness. However, because loneliness is certainly not a reason people should marry, the marriage had not been a happy one. In the play The Cocktail Party, the playwright has explored the concept that man is essentially a lonely being and people who accept this truth would be better able to deal with most problems within their marital relations. Two people who marry are seldom alike and having to live in close proximity is not easy. In relation to man being an essentially lonely being, here is a quote by Thomas Eliot from the play The Cocktail Party: Everyone’s alone—or so it seems to me. They make noises, and think they are talking to each other; They make faces, and think they understand each other, And I’m sure they don’t. Is that delusion? Can we only love something created in our own imaginations? Eliot: The Cocktail Party This was a profound thought. Eliot had been born with a congenital double hernia which had forced him to lead an extremely isolated childhood. He had found solace in literature and spent hours reading books. This forced isolation had perhaps shaped his life and way of thinking. This was perhaps also the reason why human relationships, especially between married couples, had been a constant theme in most of his plays. The play The Cocktail Party explores two aspects of human relations. These are the human psyche and the intricacies of marital relationships. Or perhaps the play has explored the reality of the human psyche and the strength of the human mind with marital relationships. 2.3.3 Synopsis and Theme of The Cocktail Party The play The Cocktail Party was written by the playwright and poet Thomas Stearns Eliot and was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949. The following year, in 1950, the play ran successfully both in London as well as at New York theatres. The Cocktail Party, when it was performed on Broadway, received the Tony Award for Best Play for the year 1950. Self-Instructional Material 45 Yeats and Eliot The focal point of the plot of the play is the troubled and complicated marital relationship between a couple, Edward and Lavinia. A mysterious stranger, who remains unintroduced and unidentified through the first Act, is revealed later to be a psychiatrist. When this psychiatrist intervenes and counsels the couple, they realize that they love each other, and NOTES the struggles and hard work they will need to put in in order to save and nurture their marriage will be worth it. When the play opens in the drawing room of the Chamberlayne flat in London, it appears to be a satire on traditional cocktail parties which were a common feature of the upper class society during that period. However, as the play proceeds, the audience begin to understand that the narrative is intended to describe the darker and more complicated side of relationships between married couples. It appears that the character of the mistress is a common feature in many plays of Eliot. Not just the character of the mistress, but the playwright has also apparently portrayed the mistress to be a sort of martyr with shades of Christian martyrdom, or the sacrificing and suffering mistress. In this play The Cocktail Party as well, Eliot has depicted the character of Celia, who has apparently been the protagonist Edward’s mistress for quite some time, to sacrifice her desires to marry her lover and find acceptance in society, when he conveniently informs her that he has decided to make his marriage with Lavinia work with professional help from a psychiatrist. Looking at these elements, it is easy to wonder if the playwright had perhaps based the play The Cocktail Party on his own first marriage to Vivienne and his obvious disinterest in trying to save that relationship. While still legally married to Vivienne, Eliot had had a female companion with whom he had made all his public appearances for many years. They had never married however, and the liaison had ended, perhaps providing the sacrificing character of a mistress which he found necessary to incorporate into most of his plays. Eliot had studied Ancient Greek as one of the subjects at school. He had based some aspects of the play The Cocktail Party on the play Alcestis by the Ancient Greek playwright Euripides. Although The Cocktail Party had become the most popular and well-received play written by Eliot when he was alive, it is not well remembered in modern times. On the other hand, his first play Murder in the Cathedral which had been written in 1935, is still considered his most successful play. According to the narrative of the play The Cocktail Party, Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne have been married for almost five years. From the narrative, we come to know that they are rich and they hosted regular cocktail parties at their large flat in London as per the custom of that period. When the play opens, one such cocktail party is again being hosted by the Chamberlaynes, but Lavinia is not present. Although embarrassed and clearly extremely upset by her absence, Edward attempts to pass off her absence as a sudden and unexpected one, because she had ostensibly fallen sick and had gone to his aunt’s home to recuperate. The guests do not appear to be very concerned by her absence and continue chattering and drinking. Edward is shown to become increasingly irritated as the party proceeds. The guests appear to be familiar with one another, except for a stranger. The stranger does not indulge in any conversation with any of the guests throughout the party and remains both unintroduced and unidentified through the entire first Act. Edward appears to be visibly relieved when the guests prepare to leave because he is obviously impatiently waiting to talk to the as yet unknown guest. When the guests finally

46 Self-Instructional Material leave, the audience realizes that the unknown guest is a psychiatrist who assures Edward Yeats and Eliot that he will bring Lavinia back the next day. The psychiatrist advises Edward that things need to change between them and that he will help them make things work out. When Celia returns to the flat, admitting that she is aware that Lavinia has actually left him, and that they should take the opportunity to get married, she is surprised to hear that NOTES Edward wants to end their affair because he has realized he loves his wife and wants to make things work with her. This is obviously the sacrificing mistress character. In the second Act, it is revealed that Lavinia in the meantime has not remained the quiet and self-suffering wife, but has also been engaged in a secret liaison with another regular guest at their cocktail parties, Peter. Despite this startling revelation, both Edward and Lavinia realize that they still love each other and with counselling and guidance from the psychiatrist, Sir Henry Harcourt Reilly, they decide to work out their marriage. As the play comes to an end, Edward and Lavinia are shown to be together and are seen to prepare to host another cocktail party with the same regular guests. Eliot has written some notable quotes during the entire narrative of the play The Cocktail Party. One of his most noteworthy quotes on the complexities and realities of human relationships is given here: We die to each other daily. What we know of other people is only our memory of the moments during which we knew them. And they have changed since then. To pretend that they and we are the same is a useful and convenient social convention which must sometimes be broken. We must also remember that at every meeting we are meeting a stranger. This quote expressed Eliot’s conviction that human beings keep changing and evolving on an almost daily basis. This means that it is just not possible that any person remains the same over even two consecutive days. This means that even though we are meeting someone we have already met or have supposedly known for some length of time, people must always understand and remember this significant fact of life: We should always go by the premise that every time they meet someone, they must view and accept the person as a complete stranger, and begin building a relationship from that moment on. Theme The playwright T. S. Eliot has woven a number of themes into his play titled The Cocktail Party. The play which has three Acts, is used by the playwright to describe human relationships and their complexities, especially in the so-called upper or elitist classes. Apparently, cocktail parties are hosted and attended by the upper classes. Within those human relationships, Eliot has focused on the relationship between a husband and his wife. The relationship between a husband and his wife is something that is precious, sensitive and extremely private. It is possible that either or both partners within a marriage may at times stray, or be attracted to someone outside the marriage. Usually, when this happens, the marriage breaks down, resulting in a divorce or separation. A marriage is so precious a relationship that it is necessary at the outset for both partners to be entirely certain that they do want to get married to the person concerned. After the marriage takes place, there should be no space within that relationship for a third person to enter that space, whether for a single night or for a longer period of time. The playwright has focused on the need for a man and a woman to understand that no two people are alike or perfect, yet the relationship of marriage is so precious and sensitive that both partners involved need to struggle with their own and the partner’s past, the guilt or shame involved, and accept those flaws and idiosyncrasies. No one is perfect, yet when two Self-Instructional Material 47 Yeats and Eliot people love one another and decide to be married to one another, it means they accept the other person as they are. The flaws and the follies should not matter at all. Eliot has based his play on the premise that although it is possible that either one or both partners within a marriage may find momentary diversion with someone outside their NOTES marital relationship, it is possible to save and nurture that marital relationship either with the help of a third person or by sitting down and discussing the problems with each other. Sometimes, the third person could be related to them, or it could be a psychiatrist or marriage counsellor. Within the play The Cocktail Party, the playwright has shown how the main protagonists Edward and his wife Lavinia are having problems with their marriage because they have both been involved in a relationship with someone outside their marriage. Yet both partners, Edward and Lavinia, discover that they love each other and need to save their marriage and work on it. Eliot has shown that both the partners decide to seek professional help and approach a psychiatrist, Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly. These complexities within a relationship between Edward and Lavinia draw the attention of the audience to the fact that while the central theme of the play is based on human relations, there are multiple sub themes woven into the central theme, in order to describe how two people married to each other can make their marriage work, survive and flourish if they really love their partner and want to be with that person. Eliot has also explored the actuality of cocktail parties, or rather of the upper classes. Eliot has described as to how the rich and elite classes actually live through these parties. Eliot himself did not belong to a wealthy family. His father had been a successful businessman, but Eliot needed to work at multiple teaching jobs in order to make some extra money. Perhaps the cost of living a good life in England was too high during his that period. It was however true that Eliot had had to work in the publishing industry and at various teaching positions in order to earn consistently well. Human relationships are always complex because no two human beings resemble each other or think like each other. Relationships between husbands and wives in the upper classes could become as strained and farcical as they do in the middle classes. In fact such relationships are perhaps more farcical in the upper classes because the upper classes are always called upon to present a pretty and happy exterior to the outside world. The middle or the working classes are perhaps more open and able to be more honest and transparent in their relationships. Upper class couples who experience problems in their marriage do not have the luxury of divulging these problems to either their family or friends, since they always need to put on a happy front in public. It is easy to understand and relate to the complex confusions emanating from always being forced to pretend, not just to the world at large, but also to themselves. At some point, the external masks may be revealed and the ensuing exposure of pompous arrogance and ridiculous reality has been very well described by Eliot. Eliot has tried to expose the dynamics of two distinct relationships between three characters in the play. Edward is the main male protagonist in the play and Lavinia is his wife. The other female character of some significance is Celia, who as the play progresses, is revealed to the audience as being the woman who is involved with Edward. Edward is depicted as a large and bumbling man, who is not very attractive to the women he meets. In spite of this, he is rich, and this is why he is able to indulge in a secret liaison with Celia. However, a young man is shown to seek advice from Edward about his romantic interest in Celia. According to the young man, Celia appears to be leading him on, or doing nothing in any case to put an end to the advances from the young man. 48 Self-Instructional Material In spite of this divulgence, upon finding out that Lavinia has apparently left her husband Yeats and Eliot for whatever reasons, Celia confronts Edward with the suggestion that he should take this opportunity to get a divorce from his wife and marry her. Edward, who seemed to be happy with both his marriage and his extra marital liaison till then, now suddenly seemed to be having second thoughts about his extra marital liaison with Celia. Contrary to her expectations, NOTES Edward wants his wife back and wants to make his marriage with Lavinia work. Another important sub-plot is the constant struggle that people need to go through in order to achieve something. As the play unfolds, the audience observe how Edward struggles with himself, his past and his conscience, to understand and reach a decision that helps him understand that he will need to struggle to make his marriage with Lavinia work. But he loves his wife too much to let his marriage suffer. Hence, any struggle would be worth making his marriage with Lavinia work. Celia who wants to marry Edward, upon realizing that Edward wants his wife back in his life in spite of the underlying problems, struggles to come to terms with this truth and let go of her desires and dreams. Lavinia, for her part, who may have decided to leave her husband because of his involvement and liaison with Celia, decides to return to her husband, obviously after having to struggle with the burden of her sadness, heartbreak and jealousy, in an effort to make her marriage with Edward work. Yet another significant plot or theme explored in this play is that of acceptance. Eliot perhaps taking a page from his own life, appears to suggest that a couple needs to make their marriage or relationship survive and thrive, but in order to be able to do this, they both need to accept that as individuals, they both have had their pasts. In order to make their present relationship flourish and blossom, they both need to abandon their egos and their pasts, and build something meaningful with what they have on their plate at the present moment. Eliot has chosen love as the constant plot or undercurrent across the entire narrative. Edward who has an extra marital liaison with Celia is forced to reconsider his feelings for his wife, Lavinia. At the final calling, when he is forced to actually choose between his wife Lavinia and the other woman Celia, he realizes that he is unhappy without his wife, that he actually loves his wife Lavinia, and that he will work hard to make his marriage with her work when she returns to their home the following day. It is love and acceptance that are essential ingredients to make a marriage flourish, and for any couple to live contentedly and happily with one another. This level of love and acceptance makes everything else trivial and unimportant. 2.3.4 Critical Appreciation of The Cocktail Party The Cocktail Party was written by the poet and playwright T. S. Eliot in 1949. The play is based on human relationships and explores the different aspects and nuances of relationships between couples and those around them. At the beginning of the play, Eliot introduces the entire cast and major characters who are attending a cocktail party at the London flat belonging to the Chamberlayne couple, Edward and Lavinia. These characters include Edward who is the host, Julia, Celia, Alex, Peter as well as the guest who remains unidentified and unintroduced until the end of the play. In spite of being unknown, this guest is shown to have a great deal of influence and impact on Edward and the decisions he will eventually make with regard to his marriage and relations with his wife Lavinia. To a large extent, this unknown guest, precisely because of being unintroduced until the end, does not have much to say to the other guests attending the cocktail party.

Self-Instructional Material 49 Yeats and Eliot The play opens on the interiors of a large flat belonging to Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne, who are hosting a cocktail party. The host, who is the main protagonist, appears to be uneasy because his wife Lavinia is not at home to greet their guests. A male guest named Alex begins telling tales of his travels to exotic places such as India. He talks of NOTES some Maharaja he had met on his travels. Julia, another guest, appears to be regular at most cocktail parties. She is described as being sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued. However, she is also described as always missing the point of every story being told or narrated at such cocktail parties. The guests ask Julia to perform her usual imitation of an inimitable Lady Klootz and her wedding cake. It is apparent that Julia narrates this tale and imitates at every party she attends and all the guests have perhaps heard her many times. But it feels as though she is usually invited to such parties just because she can entertain the guests with her imitation. However, this time, Julia appears reluctant to repeat the same tale, or perhaps she has something new to narrate. She begins talking about a family she had met who had a son. The guests wonder why the son should be mentioned as a separate entity when the tale is about the family as a collective unit. Julia goes on to expand her tale. She tells the guests present and the audience that the son was more fascinating than the parents because he was gifted. The son, says Julia, was fascinating because he was able to hear the cries of bats, possibly which no one else could. A young man named Peter present in the party is a playwright who describes a scene or a play that he had written, but which was obviously to his chagrin, never performed on stage or published. Through this entire narrative, Edward becomes increasingly more irritated and tense. He is obviously extremely disturbed by his wife’s absence. Although most of the guest appear to be familiar with one another and are introduced to the audience when others call out to them, there is one guest who remains both unintroduced and unidentified to both— the other guests in the party as well as to the audience. His presence is significant because he appears to have some extent of influence over Edward and his decisions. Obviously embarrassed and upset that his wife Lavinia is not present at the party, Edward asks his old and sick aunt to tell the guests that Lavinia is sick and resting at her house and sends her apologies. After some time, the guests seem ready to leave. This seems to relieve the host, Edward. Everyone leaves, except the unidentified person. When the others leave, he sits down to have a drink with Edward and they begin talking about Lavinia. The unidentified person informs Edward that he knows Lavinia is not actually at his aunt’s place. The guest assures the host that Lavinia will return to Edward within 24 hours, but that she will not be the same person who had left the house. She will be a completely different person, a changed woman. Her arrival will change things between the couple, bringing changes into Edward’s life as well. The guest suggests that Edward and Lavinia will need to rebuild their relationship on a fresh start from that point onwards. After the unidentified guest leaves, Julia and Peter come in. Julia is looking for her keys, but after a short futile search, realizes that her keys have been in her purse all the time. She leaves without Peter. Peter tells Edward that he has returned because he wants his advice and help. Peter claims he has fallen in love with Celia and although she seemed to be interested in him for some time, she had begun to distance herself from him recently. Peter requests Edward to talk to Celia on his behalf. After Peter leaves, Celia re-enters the flat. Her intentions and place in Edward’s life become clear. She informs Edward that she has discovered that his wife Lavinia is not actually at his aunt’s home, but has left him. Celia suggests that he should take this opportunity to file a divorce and instead marry Celia. Obviously, still uneasy and disturbed, Edward at

50 Self-Instructional Material first agrees. But he then informs Celia that his wife is returning home the next day and that Yeats and Eliot he is actually trying to make his marriage work. At the end of Act I, however, when Lavinia returns home, Edward does not seem to be very happy and his wife begins cleaning up the flat after the party and doing the routine chores. NOTES In Act II, the unidentified guest from the first Act is revealed to be a psychiatrist named Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly. Sir Henry, during the second Act, invites Edward and Lavinia to his office to talk about their relationship and to work at making it successful. The discussion between the couple reveals that while Edward was having an affair with Celia, Lavinia had also been involved with another character, Peter. At the end of the second Act, Sir Henry is shown to assess the human relationship. When the psychiatrist is shown to recite a poem on destiny, life and death, perhaps, then Eliot may possibly have written this significant quote: It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous. Resign yourself to be the fool you are...... We must always take risks. That is our destiny... Eliot: The Cocktail Party These words perhaps reveal how Eliot may have believed in destiny and how nothing is greater than our destiny. Human beings, according to Eliot, must not be afraid to take risks or make mistakes. Destiny demands that whether people make mistakes or take risks, they must continue to live and interact with other people. People should not be afraid of being a fool or a laughing stock in front of others. There may be times, there may be various people who view a person as a fool. The point is people must continue to interact in social scenarios. People must always accept being treated like a fool or joker by at least one or two people in a crowd or gathering. On the other hand, if people could accept themselves or view themselves as fools, and being ridiculous, it would save them much heartburn. The third and final Act is set two years later. Edward and Lavinia are in their flat, hosting another cocktail party. During the party, Peter hears of Celia’s sudden and violent death. Sir Henry is shown to recite a poem depicting destiny, life and death. The play The Cocktail Party closes on the Chamberlaynes’, Edward and his wife Lavinia, together at playing their individual and collective roles in society. The narrative is interspersed with incidents where characters are reciting poetry and writing plays of their own. These sub plots as well as the complexities of human relations, the struggles to make marriages work, are all obviously pages taken from the life of the playwright himself. Eliot has obviously interspersed these incidents into the play to convey to his audience that relations between couples needs to be worked at consistently and with determination, if couples want their marriage to work then nothing external is important enough to enter and impact those marriages. The play moves effortlessly through the entire narrative, while Eliot has ensured that some emotions and nuances remain consistent throughout the entire narrative. While the playwright, on the surface of it, appears to criticize the lifestyle of the rich and elite society, and uses sarcasm to convey his criticism, there are other undercurrents. Eliot appears to suggest that human relationships, especially relations between couples, need to be worked at. Both partners need to struggle hard and constantly in order to let go of their own and their partner’s pasts and any flaws. This struggle is essential if they want to make their relationship work and flourish. The plot could have been inspired from his own life because his first marriage with Vivienne was unhappy and unsuccessful.

Self-Instructional Material 51 Yeats and Eliot This struggle and acceptance is important if a relationship is to survive and flourish. Edward admits to Celia at the final moment that he loves his wife Lavinia who will return to their home and that he will work hard at making their marriage work. It is obvious that Celia had probably not been expecting this response from her lover and Eliot has described how NOTES Celia would also need to struggle to accept Edward’s decision to remain with his wife and let her, Celia, go. 2.3.5 Issues and Analysis The play The Cocktail Party was first performed in 1949 at the Edinburgh Festival. The narrative has been divided into three Acts. The play has been set in London and for the most part revolves around the large London flat of the two main protagonists, Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne. It is possible that the plot or the main theme of this play was inspired by the breakdown of marriage between Thomas Stearns Eliot and his wife Vivienne. It is common knowledge that writers and playwrights are most often inspired by events taking place either in their own lives or in the society they live in. Since the play was first performed in the year 1949, it would be certainly acceptable to assume that it was set in London during the 1940s. Moreover, some aspects of the content or narrative could have been influenced by an Ancient Greek play by Euripides that perhaps Eliot studied at school. It is a well-known fact that the playwright T. S. Eliot usually used complex relationships between married couples as an inspiration for his plays, thus intertwining the concept of marital relationships into his plays at some point. Another feature common in most of his plays is the concept of the mistress involved in an extra marital liaison with the husband but who is depicted as a suffering and sacrificing character who, according to Christianity, allows the husband to return to his wife. During the lifetime of the playwright, the play The Cocktail Party is said to have become extremely popular, running full shows whenever and wherever it was performed. It had also won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1950. What is noteworthy is that Eliot appeared to harbour the conservative and narrow minded way of thinking that was common in those times. This is apparent from the fact that most of his plays are said to depict a marriage between a man and a woman, and the character of the mistress sacrificing her desire and love and letting the husband return to his wife. Analysing this aspect shows that the husband in most plays was shown to actually have his cake and eat it too. This meant that while it suited him or until it suited him, the husband enjoyed the extra marital liaison with a mistress. Yet, when the sanctity of his marriage was threatened or in other words his wife decided she had had enough and wanted to walk out of the marriage, the husband suddenly wakes up to the fact that he actually still loved his wife, and wanted to return to his wife. He suddenly decided to work at making his marriage survive and flourish, ending his affair with his mistress. This aspect of marriage is a common one in most marriages even in modern times. The theme has been used in plenty plays and movies down the ages. Yet, it appears that the play The Cocktail Party is not remembered so well today. In fact, it is Thomas Eliot’s first play, Murder in the Cathedral, written in 1935, that is still remembered till date. Perhaps it was the title of the play The Cocktail Party that made the play so popular at that time because cocktail parties were a common feature and event within the high society during those years. In the late 20th and 21st centuries, however, cocktail parties have lost their prominence, perhaps contributing to the fact that the play The Cocktail Party is not so popular now.

52 Self-Instructional Material Perhaps one important addition to the central theme of the play The Cocktail Party Yeats and Eliot could be the fact that Eliot has described Lavinia Chamberlayne to be as strong minded and strong willed as her husband. This was perhaps the first time Eliot had shown the female protagonist to also indulge in an extra marital liaison. In fact, she is shown to not just have had an extra marital liaison, but to have chosen a younger man to be engaged with. NOTES Another surprising element in the play is that when Lavinia leaves her husband, no one actually knows where she has gone, but the young man she has so far been involved in an extra marital liaison with, Peter, approaches Edward after the party, to request him to intervene on his behalf, and ask the older lady he is involved with to live with him, Peter. However, probably, unable to confess the entire truth to Edward at this point, Peter is described as telling Edward that he has been involved in an affair with Celia who has suddenly turned cold turkey. Edward is obviously shocked at this piece of information because Celia is the woman he himself has been having an extra marital affair with. The audience, who soon realize the actual state of affairs between Edward and Celia, are left to wonder if Celia has actually been cheating on Edward. Edward calls Celia at the end of the first Act and she comes to meet him. Celia tells Edward that she has discovered that Lavinia has actually left him and this is the opportune moment they have both waiting for. Edward could now file for divorce, according to Celia, and he and Celia could get married. However, Celia is shocked to hear Edward inform her that he is ending his affair with her and returning to his wife. Edward tells Celia that the unknown guest at the party that night was a psychiatrist and with his help Lavinia would return to their home the next day. Edward informs Celia that he wants to make his marriage work because he realized that he still loved his wife very much. How complex marriages are is a theme explored by many writers and playwrights. It was perhaps the first time that a playwright had attempted to describe how a wife is also having an affair, that too with a younger man. It is not until the second Act that both the main protagonist Edward as well as the audience realize that the older lady Peter had been talking about was not actually Celia. On their visit to the office of the psychiatrist Sir Henry Harcourt Reilly, Lavinia informs them that while Edward had been enjoying an extra marital liaison with Celia, she herself had been engaged in an extra marital affair with Peter. The audience is left to wonder whether Edward Chamberlayne would have decided to end his affair with Celia if Peter had had the courage to inform him the truth that he was in love with Lavinia and wanted to be with her. The audience is also left to wonder whether Edward Chamberlayne would have decided to rethink and rework on his marriage if he had known the truth about his wife’s affair with another man. It is only the timely intervention by the psychiatrist Sir Henry Harcourt Reilly that both Edward and Lavinia decide to actually end their extra marital affairs and rework on their marriage and not just work but flourish as well. The scene in the office of the psychiatrist Sir Henry Harcourt Reilly in fact reveal two startling truths. Edward Chamberlaybe who had been certain that his wife Lavinia had walked out of their marriage because she had discovered that her husband had been involved in an extra marital liaison with Celia, suddenly realizes that as a matter of fact his wife had had no inkling of his affair with Celia at all. Lavinia informs him in the presence of the psychiatrist that she had decided to walk out of their marriage because she had been involved in an extra marital affair with Peter. Edward then reveals the fact that he himself had been involved in an extra marital affair with Celia. Truly, human relationships are extremely complex.

Self-Instructional Material 53 Yeats and Eliot Eliot had decided to give a voice to the character of Lavinia in his play The Cocktail Party which was a rare occurrence in those times. One is left to wonder if perhaps Eliot had been trying to make peace with his own conscience because in his private and personal life he had not attempted to rework his own NOTES first marriage with Vivienne. On the contrary, Eliot had made public appearances for several years with another woman with whom he had been involved even when he was still legally married to Vivienne. Vivienne was then admitted to a mental health institute after legal separation from her husband Eliot, where she had remained until her death. Cocktail parties had been a regular and popular feature of the rich and elite society in London during Eliot’s time. The interactions between the various guests at the cocktail party hosted by Edward and Lavinia appear to express Eliot’s satirical disdain for such events. While the character of Alex is shown to narrate his travels to exotic places, Julia is another character who is shown to regale the guests at every party with her imitations of a certain Lady Klootz and her wedding cake. The character of Peter is shown to be a budding playwright who has written a play. He narrates scenes from the play but is disappointed since it had still not been performed. The audience is left to wonder whether perhaps this was a reflection on a play written by Eliot that had still not been staged. On consideration it would appear that Eliot had been greatly influenced and inspired by plenty of events taking place in his own life. He was a well-known and successful poet as well and the psychiatrist Sir Henry Harcourt Reilly is shown to recite a poem on destiny, life and death in his office after both Edward and Lavinia have discussed their individual affairs. It could be that the poem was written by Eliot himself since he was also a brilliant poet. Eliot, who appears to have used the play The Cocktail Party to make peace with his conscience about the breakdown of his own marriage to Vivienne, had made an important observation about the burden people carry: Your burden is not to clear your conscience. But to learn how to bear the burdens on your conscience. Eliot: The Cocktail Party The truth about guilty conscience is that people should understand that no matter how hard they try or how much they work at it, their guilt at having hurt another human being will never really and absolutely go away. The burden of that guilty conscience will always remain with them and haunt them till they die. On the other hand, according to what Eliot possibly believes, the burden of the guilt they carry will not be their actual burden. On the contrary, the real burden they will need to carry and consider will be to find ways to deal with the guilt they carry. In another instance, through the narrative of the play The Cocktail Party, Eliot expressed another profound thought. Human beings, in their interactions with the people around them, usually begin to think that there is something wrong with the people or more probably with the world around them. But that thought itself would be enough to drive the people completely crazy. Here is what Eliot had to say about this in The Cocktail Party: I must tell you that I should really like to think there’s something wrong with me- Because, if there isn’t, then there’s something wrong with the world itself-and that’s much more frightening! That would be terrible. So I’d rather believe there is something wrong with me, that could be put right. From the above lines, we can infer that Eliot would have advised people to live by the premise that they should all think and believe that something was wrong with them, individually. Because if people lived by the premise that something was wrong with the people around them or the world that they lived in, it would be too frightening to consider that thought. 54 Self-Instructional Material Imagine looking at everyone around them, everything around them with suspicion or with Yeats and Eliot fear, trying to figure out what people were thinking and what everything was doing to harm them! On the other hand, if people had to live by the premise that something was profoundly wrong with themselves, there would always be room to seek help, approach people who were professionally qualified or trained to help them correct that wrong. This thought holds NOTES true for every human being, across all generations and for all social environments or economic backgrounds. In another instance, during the narrative of the play The Cocktail Party, the playwright makes yet another profound observation. This observation also had a reference, obviously to the complexity and sensitivity of a marital relationship between a man and a woman. This is what he had to say about marriage in The Cocktail Party: Reilly: The human condition...they may remember the vision they have had, but they cease to regret it, maintain themselves by the common routine, learn to avoid excessive expectation, Become tolerant of themselves and others, Giving and taking, in the usual actions what there is to give and take. They do not repine; Are contented with the morning that separates and with the evening that brings together for casual talk before the fire. Two people who know they do not understand each other, breeding children whom they do not understand and who will never understand them. Once more, this observation had been based on events that had taken place in Eliot’s personal life. As has been mentioned elsewhere, Eliot had spent most of his life in total isolation, not interacting with peers of his own age, or perhaps even with his own siblings. In any case, his siblings were much older than him. These facts probably shaped his thoughts that two people could never really live together because they were complete strangers to one another. Having to live together in the same house, as complete strangers, would be frightening. Because when two people live together, they need to be tolerant of one another, of their own idiosyncrasies, of one another’s mood swings, temperaments, and living habits. Most often, people always find something in the other person, they do not like or are unable to tolerate. The thought of two people marry one another and live together in the same house, sharing the same bed and having children frightened Eliot. Two people who are actually strangers and living together in such close proximity was a frightening thought to Eliot. Because going by the premise that they were both strangers, they would never really be able to understand one another completely. But having to bear children was more frightening. Because those children would also remain complete strangers to their parents. So, in effect, according to Eliot, neither would the parents ever completely understand their children, nor would the children ever completely understand either their parents or each other. When we analyse these thoughts of the playwright, we must accept that these concepts hold some relevance even in the present times. How much do we actually understand people around us, even the people who are supposedly closest to us?

‘Check Your Progress’ 5. What made it impossible for Eliot to take part in physical activities and have friends of his own age in his childhood days? 6. When did Eliot convert to Anglicanism from Unitarianism? 7. What are the two aspects explored by Eliot in the play The Cocktail Party? 8. Who was the stranger present in the cocktail party hosted by Edward in The Cocktail Party?

Self-Instructional Material 55 Yeats and Eliot 2.4 SUMMARY

 The early 20th century is recognized as the age of modernist approach. ‘Modernism’ NOTES does not mean ‘modern’ as contemporary, or ‘modern age’ to be the age of Renaissance. Rather a collective effort to revive Western Literature in the period after the World War is termed as modernism.  The revival of poetic drama is one of the developments of the inter-war period, which gained considerable attention through the plays of T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats.  Dissatisfied with realism and the tradition of naturalistic prose dialogue, eminent poets of the time like Yeats and Eliot, experimented in verse drama.  William Butler Yeats is considered to be one of the 20th century’s most prominent poets of both Ireland and Britain. He is one of the stalwarts of English Literature of his generation.  Yeats became fascinated with the occult from an early age, but perhaps this was to be understood due to his Irish ancestry. It was this fascination with the occult and the legends that he started reading poetry from a fairly young age.  Yeats began to write poetry at a very young age and his early works appears to have been influenced a great deal by other great poets of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Movement, such as Percy Bysshe Shelley and Edmund Spencer.  The verse drama The Countess Cathleen was based on the relationship the poet W. B. Yeats shared with Maud Gonne.  The poet and playwright W. B. Yeats is said to have based the poem and the play on the supposedly Irish legend called ‘The Countess Cathleen O’Shea’.  Ireland, at the time Yeats wrote the poem and play, The Countess Cathleen, had been part of the British Empire. The country and entire assets of Ireland were controlled entirely by England during the late 19th and 20th centuries. It was during these years that most people in Ireland had joined the nationalist movement.  The poem, or the play, The Countess Cathleen, revolves around the character of a Countess who has plenty of farmer tenants living on her estate.  As events unfold, there are scenes that depict a famine that has engulfed the country of Ireland. The slow devastation is so dismaying that slow death or the fear of approaching death is causing the poor farming families, living on the estates of the Countess Cathleen, to hallucinate and talk in a deranged manner.  The Countess appears to have been emotionally moved at the sight of the starving farmers living on her estate.  When the Countess hears the Rua father and son duo report that someone had bought their souls in return for a little money, she was shocked and immediately offered to buy back their souls from the two travelling salesmen so that they could live longer.  Thomas Stearns Eliot became the most prominent poet of 20th century. Besides being a poet, Eliot is also known as an essayist, literary and social critic, playwright and publisher.  T. S. Eliot was born on 26 September 1888 in the city of St. Louis in the United States. In the year 1914, when Eliot was 25, he relocated to England, where he lived for the rest of his life.

56 Self-Instructional Material  Eliot had been born with a congenital double hernia which had forced him to lead an Yeats and Eliot extremely isolated childhood. He had found solace in literature and spent hours reading books.  The play The Cocktail Party by Thomas Stearns Eliot was probably one of the most critically acclaimed of the seven plays he had written. It is significant to note that The NOTES Cocktail Party has been interwoven with multiple aspects from the Ancient Greek play titled Alcestis written by Euripides.  The play explores the complexities of human relationships and in particular between a husband and wife. The entire play has been set against the backdrop of the Chamberlayne couple, Edward and Lavinia, and their marital problems.  A mysterious stranger, who remains unintroduced and unidentified through the first Act, is revealed later to be a psychiatrist. When this psychiatrist intervenes and counsels the couple, they realize that they love each other, and the struggles and hard work they will need to put in in order to save and nurture their marriage will be worth it.  The play which has three Acts, is used by the playwright to describe human relationships and their complexities, especially in the so-called upper or elitist classes. Apparently, cocktail parties are hosted and attended by the upper classes. Within those human relationships, Eliot has focused on the relationship between a husband and his wife. The relationship between a husband and his wife is something that is precious, sensitive and extremely private.  What is noteworthy is that Eliot appeared to harbour the conservative and narrow minded way of thinking that was common in those times. This is apparent from the fact that most of his plays are said to depict a marriage between a man and a woman, and the character of the mistress sacrificing her desire and love and letting the husband return to his wife.  Cocktail parties had been a regular and popular feature of the rich and elite society in London during Eliot’s time. The interactions between the various guests at the cocktail party hosted by Edward and Lavinia appear to express Eliot’s satirical disdain for such events.  The thought of two people marry one another and live together in the same house, sharing the same bed and having children frightened Eliot. Two people who are actually strangers and living together in such close proximity was a frightening thought to Eliot.

2.5 KEY TERMS

 Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood: It was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  Disillusionment: It is a feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be.  Mysticism: It is a belief that union with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute, or the spiritual apprehension of knowledge inaccessible to the intellect, may be attained through contemplation and self-surrender.  Bumbling: It refers to acting in a confused or ineffectual way; incompetent.

Self-Instructional Material 57 Yeats and Eliot 2.6 ANSWERS TO ‘CHECK YOUR PROGRESS’

1. Yeats explored his heritage and personal identity as an Irishman. The search for his NOTES roots and identity was perhaps a result of the relocation of his family from Ireland to England. 2. W. B. Yeats did not believe in individualism when it came to the political arena. He believed that the national collective or the voice of the people had more strength and significance than petty individualistic interests. This was the reason why he supported the concept of fascism, believing that fascism was a triumph or vindication of the common man and common voice. 3. The poet and playwright W. B. Yeats is said to have based the poem and the play The Countess Cathleen on the supposedly Irish legend called ‘The Countess Cathleen O’Shea’. 4. Rua’s home was the home of the farmer who first sells his soul in return for money and later moves to the Countess’ castle. 5. Eliot was afflicted with a congenital double inguinal hernia which made it impossible for him to take part in physical activities and have friends of his own age. 6. On 29 June 1927, Eliot converted to Anglicanism from Unitarianism that had been practised by his family. 7. The play The Cocktail Party explores two aspects of human relations. These are the human psyche and the intricacies of marital relationships. 8. The stranger was a psychiatrist, Sir Henry Harcourt Reilly, who had come to help Edward and Lavinia to make their marriage work and to reunite them.

2.7 QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

Short-Answer Questions 1. Write a short note as to how the Pollexfen home shaped and shaded W. B. Yeats’ creative blossoming. 2. Name who greatly influenced Yeats in his literary career. 3. Why was Yeats and his contemporaries disillusioned by the political scenario of their times? 4. Write a short note on the theme of The Countess Cathleen. 5. What was T. S. Eliot’s association with James Joyce? How did they become good companions? 6. What is the theme of Eliot’s play The Cocktail Party? 7. How has Eliot described Julia in the play The Cocktail Party? 8. How has Eliot described the concept of marriage and the relationship between a husband and a wife in The Cocktail Party? Long-Answer Questions 1. Describe W. B. Yeats’ early life and his literary career. 2. Discuss the historical background of the play The Countess Cathleen.

58 Self-Instructional Material 3. Provide the synopsis and critically analyse the verse drama The Countess Cathleen. Yeats and Eliot 4. Describe T. S. Eliot’s early life and his literary career. 5. Critically analyse the play The Cocktail Party. 6. What are the issues that Eliot discusses in the play The Cocktail Party? Explain in NOTES detail.

2.8 FURTHER READING

Yeats, William Butler, and Allan Wade. 1908. The Collected Works of William Butler Yeats: The Countess Cathleen. Chapman and Hall. Yeats, William Butler; John Millington Synge; Sean O’Casey. 1977. Classic Irish Drama ‘The Countess Cathleen’: ‘The Playboy of the Western World’. . Al-Youssef, Youssef. 2015. National Identity in Irish Drama. A Study of Selected Plays by Yeats, Synge and O’Casey. GRIN Verlag. Gale. 2001. A Study Guide for T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Cocktail Party’. Michigan: Gale Group. Harrington, Kevin. 1973. T. S. Eliot’s Use of Myth in The Cocktail Party. Phelan, Virginia B. 1990. Two Ways of Life and Death: Alcestis and The Cocktail Party. University of Michigan: Garland.

Self-Instructional Material 59

Shaw, Synge and Ibsen UNIT 3 SHAW, SYNGE AND IBSEN

Structure NOTES 3.0 Introduction 3.1 Unit Objectives 3.2 George Bernard Shaw: 3.2.1 About the Author 3.2.2 Plot Summary and Brief Analysis 3.2.3 Key Characters 3.3 J. M. Synge: The Playboy of the Western World 3.3.1 Life of J. M. Synge 3.3.2 Plot and Dramatic Technique 3.3.2 Characters and Themes 3.4 Henrik Ibsen: Ghosts 3.4.1 Characters in Ghosts 3.4.2 Summary and Explanation 3.4.3 Critical Issues in Ghosts 3.4.4 Feminist Reading of Ghosts 3.4.5 Power and Sexuality in Ghosts 3.5 Summary 3.6 Key Terms 3.7 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 3.8 Questions and Exercises 3.9 Further Reading

3.0 INTRODUCTION

As opposed to the somewhat well-defined contours of Elizabethan drama, the Modern period was different in its appeal. Considered to have begun in the early twentieth-century, Modern drama owes its genesis to several different forces that changed the ways in which man responded to the unities of time, space and action. Antonin Artaud in an article titled ‘No More Masterpieces’ describes how the classics ought to be kept aside to allow newer theatric preoccupations to flourish. In other words, Oedipus Rex could no longer be considered relevant as a Modern concern. Instead, it was time for the anti-hero—the imperfect angst ridden individual to emerge onstage as the protagonist. Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is considered to be the seminal existential text of the Modern period; emblematic of a kind of predicament which was peculiar to the Modernists. A major figure in modern drama was George Bernard Shaw who saw himself as a playwright of ideas. Some other figures are J. M. Synge and Henrik Ibsen. This unit will deal with the plays of Shaw, Synge and Ibsen.

3.1 UNIT OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you will be able to:  Discuss the plot summary and provide a brief analysis of the play Saint Joan  Assess the significance of the key characters of the play Saint Joan  Describe the highlights of the life of J. M. Synge  Analyse the plot and dramatic techniques used in the play The Playboy of the Western World

Self-Instructional Material 61 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen  Evaluate the life and works of Henrik Ibsen  Analyse the critical issues in the play Ghosts  Provide a feminist reading of Ghosts NOTES  Explain the concept of sexuality and power in Ghosts

3.2 GEORGE BERNARD SHAW: SAINT JOAN

George Bernard Shaw wrote the play, Saint Joan, based on the life and trial of . The play was first published in 1924, very soon after the Roman Catholic Church had canonized her as a saint. The play takes its information and details from the comprehensive records of her trial that are available. Shaw has picked up incidents from these records, and dramatized them. After Shaw did a thorough study of the records, he concluded that all people who were a part of the trial, were merely acting on their beliefs and in good faith. Shaw expresses his feeling about crime in his preface to the play: There are no villains in the piece. Crime, like disease, is not interesting: it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is all [there is] about it. It is what men do at their best, with good intentions, and what normal men and women find that they must and will do in spite of their intentions, that really concern us. 3.2.1 About the Author One can safely say that Archibald Henderson, official biographer of G. B. Shaw gave an appropriate title to his work—George Bernard Shaw: Man of the Century. Much before his death at the age of 94, Shaw was recognized as an institution in the literary circles, as a playwright as well as a critic. He was popularly known by his initials, G.B.S. among the literary crowd. He was born on 26 July 1856, in Dublin, Ireland, and died on 2 . On the occasion of his ninetieth birthday in 1946, he was felicitated by the authors of his time and was presented with a festschrift, which is a collection of writings published in honour of a scholar. This collection was entitled GBS 90, and was the collective effort of many distinguished writers. In Shaw’s own words, his family was ‘shabby but genteel’. Shaw was the only son and the third child of his parents. His father’s name was George Carr Shaw, and he was a civil servant. He later shifted careers and became a merchant but did not find much success in this venture. As per Shaw, his father was a heavy drinker and unable to hold his drink. However, he would be apologetic later on about his ‘alcoholic antics’. Shaw believes that he inherited his wit and comic genius from his father. Shaw’s mother was Lucinda Gurley Shaw, who was a talented singer and music teacher. It was because of her efforts that Shaw developed a passion for music, especially the opera. Even as a child, Shaw was a big admirer of Mozart and had committed to memory many of Mozart’s works. Later on, Shaw taught himself to play the piano, in his own unique style. Shaw was openly critical of formal education and schoolmasters. He himself was tutored by his uncle, the Reverend George Carroll, until he turned ten. Then, he was admitted to Wesleyan Connexional School in Dublin and later attended two other schools for short periods of time. He hated his time at all the schools and insisted that he did not learn anything at any of them. However, the unique thing about Shaw was that he had an inquisitive mind and unlimited capacity for self-study, which are qualities that are innate and cannot be developed in a classroom. Shaw writes in The Revolutionist’s Handbook, an appendix to : ‘He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.’ Shaw insisted that all art should

62 Self-Instructional Material be didactic, and also fancied himself as a teacher, despite his lack of respect for schoolmasters. Shaw, Synge and Ibsen Of his early education, he claims: ‘I can remember no time at which a page of print was not intelligible to me and can only suppose I was born literate.’ He remembered that by the age of ten, he had studied almost all the works of Shakespeare and the Bible as well. The depletion of the family’s funds forced Shaw to take up a job in a land agency NOTES office as a clerk when he was 16. He did not want this as his profession because he wanted to become a writer. He worked at there for five years and in 1876, left to join his mother in London, where she taught music. Until 1879, he was largely supported financially by his mother, while he tried to make something of himself as a writer. Between 1879 and 1883, he wrote five novels. However, he realized after this that his writing talent would be better showcased in the form of plays, rather than novels. Again, in 1879, Shaw had to take up employment against his wishes, at a firm that was selling the new telephone invented by Edison. Shaw’s job was to interview with people living in the East end of London to take their permission for installing telephone poles and equipment. After just a few months, he was frustrated enough to leave and vowed that this would be the last time that he ‘sinned against his nature’ by taking up such employment. Other important things also happened to Shaw in 1879. This was the year when he discovered his penchant for public speaking, after he happened to join the Zetetical Society. This society was actually a debating club and the members regularly held long discussions on various subjects including science, religion and economics. He quickly became popular and was much in demand as a speaker. As a result, he regularly started attending meetings. At a similar meeting in 1882, he happened to attend a speech by and was spellbound. Henry George was an expert of Land Nationalization and the Single tax. For Shaw, this marked the beginning of his interest in social theory and economics, whereas previously, he had only focussed on the continuing conflict between science and religion. After he discovered that to fully appreciate George’s theories, one had to know ’s theories, Shaw was quick to study a French translation of Marx’s . On reading this book, he discovered a passion for . Another eventful year for Shaw was 1884. He read a discourse called Why Are the Many Poor? and really liked it. He discovered that it was published by the and went to attend the next meeting they held. The group had many distinguished members, such as and Shaw identified immediately with the intellectual ideas of the group. He officially became a member in September, and just four months later, in January, was elected to the Executive Committee. One of the debaters at Zetetical Society was Sidney Webb, with whom Shaw could relate immediately. Shaw persuaded Webb to become a Fabian. Very quickly, the two men, along with the talented Mrs. Webb, came to be recognized as stalwarts of the Fabian Society which believed in and advocated constitutional and evolutionary socialism. Shaw’s views were frequently shared in public parks and meeting halls. They also found a place in The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism (1928). He also uses many of these ideas in his own plays. The next stage of his career saw Shaw becoming a literary, music, and art critic, mainly due to the influence of , who is a well-known drama critic, and also the editor and translator of Ibsen’s work. In 1885, Shaw joined the Pall Mall Gazette as part of the reviewing staff. Previously, he had acted as ghost-writer of music reviews for G. L. Lee. Shaw’s mother knew Lee very well. However, the stint with the Pall Mall Gazette would be his first actual experience as a critic in his own right. Soon, and also with the help of William Archer, Shaw became an art critic for the very influential World. Archer felt that Shaw did not know much about art, but Shaw believed that he did, and this was an important

Self-Instructional Material 63 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen quality for a critic. Shaw himself believed that all one needed to learn about art was to look at as many pictures as possible, having started many years ago in the Dublin National Gallery, and he did it diligently. Since Shaw began a close association with William Archer, he realized that Ibsen’s NOTES plays were highly original and very different from anything else seen at the time. Shaw became a huge supporter of Ibsen’s work. Shaw wrote ‘When Ibsen came from Norway, with his characters who thought and discussed as well as acted, the theatrical heaven rolled up like a scroll.’ While Ibsen’s work did not gain much public acceptance and was rejected for being too realistic, Shaw had no doubt that Ibsen was a great ethical philosopher and a social critic—which Shaw himself aspired to becoming. Shaw read a paper on Ibsen at a Fabian Society meeting on 18 July 1890. This paper later came to be known as The Quintessence of Ibsen (1891). At times, it is also known as The Quintessence of Shaw. The paper expresses Shaw’s heartfelt views on what a dramatist should do. Shaw insisted that a dramatist’s first concern should be how his characters deal with various social forces. The dramatist should also focus on a new morality based upon a scrutiny and test of conventional beliefs. Shaw’s first play was called Widowers’ Houses. It was very much in keeping with his views expressed in the paper on Ibsen, on what a dramatist should be concerned with. In terms of structure, it is a conventionally written three-act play, with the key problem coming to the forefront in the second Act and a resolution in the final Act. However, as far as the theme is concerned, the play was revolutionary. It centred on the evils of slum-landlordism, which was hardly something the Victorian audience would consider entertaining. It was produced at J. T. Grein’s Independent Theater in London, and did create a lot of sensation because of the theme but did not become very successful as a play. However, Shaw was very happy, just to be able to create an upset. He knew he had got what he wanted—the public’s attention. He had started writing another play, , which was almost a comedy of manners. Shaw’s play Arms and the Man came out in 1894, and ran well at the Avenue Theatre from April 21 to July 7. It was revived multiple number of times. With this play, finally, the real Shaw emerged—the playwright who could successfully combine humour, fun as well as seriousness of purpose. The play was called ‘a satire on the prevailing bravura style’, and that it sets forth the ‘view of romance as the great heresy to be swept from art and life’. In 1894 itself, Shaw wrote Mrs. Warren’s Profession, which attracted a lot of public attention. Shaw considered it one of his so-called ‘Unpleasant Plays.’ The play explored the economic grounds for prostitution and the struggle between the prostitute mother and her daughter. This was explosive subject content and it created a sensation which lasted for many years both in the US and Europe. One can go as far as to say that in this play, Shaw was more of the speaker than the artist. The play is still counted as one of the most provocative dramas of ideas. The untiring Shaw was already working on his first indisputably grand play, Candida. The play first showed in 1895, and gained immediate acclaim. It never lost its appeal and has been part of many anthologies. The play was best known for super character portrayal and the clever use of sudden twists in the plot. It is the story of how Candida and the Reverend Morell, who was a popular man and an advanced thinker, established an honest and sound basis for an enduring marriage. When he was associated with the Fabian society, Shaw was introduced to the likeable heiress, Charlotte Payne-Townshend, who was an Irish lady and very concerned about social justice and its manifestations. Shaw liked her immediately. Later she took care of him

64 Self-Instructional Material through a prolonged illness. Charlotte and Shaw were married in 1898. Throughout their Shaw, Synge and Ibsen marriage, she was his modest but sensible critic and assistant. The end of the 19th century saw prolific writing from Shaw—he completed You Never Can Tell, , and The Devil’s Disciple. The last one was a Victorian- type melodrama, which was first enacted in the United States. It immediately became NOTES successful there, in terms of ticket sales as well as otherwise. By the time 20th century rolled around, Shaw had written Caesar and Cleopatra and The Admirable Bashville. With so much flowing out of his pen, he became a force to be reckoned with in the modern drama of 20th century. The year 1903 was special for Shaw because it brought with it the publication of Man and Superman. It was first enacted (except for the in Hell intermezzo, which is the Act III) in 1905. By 1925, Shaw had written 23 other plays. The most popular among these are (1905), Androcles and the Lion (1912), (1913), Heartbreak House (1919), (1920), and Saint Joan (1923). By 1932, the Ayot St. Lawrence Edition of his collected works was published. Shaw became a world- renowned playwright. However, he refused any honours, including a knighthood and the offered by the Crown. But in 1926, he did accept the Nobel Prize for Literature. During his acceptance speech, in his own typical fashion, he said that a grateful public had chosen to bestow him with this award because he had not published anything that year. Shaw was consistent in his refusal to offers made by filmmakers. There is a story to when popular producer Samuel Goldwyn approached him, and Shaw said to him: ‘The difficulty, Mr. Goldwyn, is that you are an artist and I am a businessman.’ Subsequently, the enthusiasm and capability of made an impression on him, and Shaw started work on the screenplay of Pygmalion for movie production. The film released in 1938, and was a huge success. It was followed by Major Barbara and Androcles and the Lion, and thus, Shaw became accessible to much bigger audience. The musical adaptation of Pygmalion, named , opened on 4 February 1956 in New Haven, Connecticut. It starred and Julie Andrews, and was a grand success. The film version of the play won an Academy Award in 1964 for Best Picture. Shaw felt this about life: ‘I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch, which I have got hold of for the moment; and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.’ His life was actually like a bright torch which kept burning until to the very end, even though he was bedridden. Shaw was 92 years old in 1949, when his play was produced at the Malvern Festival. Around the same time, his widely acclaimed Sixteen Self Sketches was published. He was sketching out yet another play when he passed away on 2 November 1950. 3.2.2 Plot Summary and Brief Analysis The play is set in the 15th century. It begins with an incident in 1429. A young lady, whose name is Joan of Arc, also known as The Maid sometimes, insists that she wants to meet Robert de Baudricourt and will not leave until she has spoken to him. He meets her and she tells him of her visions and the fact that the voices of Saints Margaret and Catherine have told her that she should go to the Dauphin of France and to raise the siege of Orleans. Orleans is currently in control of the English forces. She asks Baudricourt to give her horses and armour to complete the task she has been given by the saints’ voices. Baudricourt is convinced because she seems so simple and earnest and grants her request.

Self-Instructional Material 65 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen When she reaches the Dauphin’s castle, she hits a major roadblock in the form of the Dauphin’s refusal to be involved in war or siege of any kind. The Dauphin is well aware of France’s incapability in terms of military fortunes and refuses to take such a big risk against the English army. However, when Joan is alone with the Dauphin, she manages to convince NOTES him that he leading the war is indeed the answer. He seems to understand that Joan’s idea cannot put France in any more trouble than it already is. After the difficult task of convincing the Dauphin is achieved, Joan proceeds to Orleans and meets Dunois, the commander of the French forces at the Loire River. He tells her that it is essential that the wind direction is favourable for an attack to succeed but again, she convinces him to proceed anyway. The wind does change direction suddenly to become favourable to them and Dunois agrees his allegiance to Joan of Arc. As war seems to be going in French favour, the leader of the English army, Warwick is in discussion with his chaplain, de Stogumber. They seem to believe that the French forces’ unbelievable success in the war could only be credited to sorcery that the Maid is doing, and thus, she must be a witch. The two men are joined in their discussion by the Bishop of Beauvais, Peter Cauchon. He adds his own intellectual concern to the discussion. He thinks that Joan is trying to override the authority of the Church. Warwick, on the other hand, who is not very religious, says that Joan is encouraging the poor serfs to pledge allegiance directly to the king, which is against the normal order of things. As per the normal order, the serfs owe allegiance to their immediate lords and masters and this is what keeps the feudal system going. If Joan gets her way, the feudal system would be destroyed. Additionally, if as per Joan, people start committing their devotion to their native countries, such as England or France, instead of to the universal authority of the Church, it would decrease the power of the church. Such developments would ruffle a lot of feathers among the men at the top, in the feudal system and the Church as well. So, for all these reasons, the men agree that The Maid must be put to death. With the many victories, Joan has successfully fulfilled the commands given to her by the voices. The English forces have been forced to retreat and the Dauphin is crowned the king at the Rheims Cathedral. Once the crowning ceremony is over, Joan is eager to move on to Paris and recapture the city from the English. However, neither the Dauphin, nor Commander Dunois are ready to start another war and want to enjoy the recent successes instead. Besides this, the Archbishop is also starting to find Joan to be too defiant and filled with pride. Joan decides that she will have to stand alone for her convictions, just like ‘saints have always stood alone.’ She takes this decision despite being warned that the State or the military or even the Church would not come to her rescue if she is captured by enemy forces. The action shifts to nine months later and it is revealed that Joan has been imprisoned and chained for the last nine months and is now on trial for heresy. She has been repeatedly questioned about the authenticity of the ‘voices’ that asked her to attack English forces. After much confusing questioning, the accusers force Joan to admit that the voice did not come from Saints, but from Satan. Once this has been established, she is banished to permanent, isolated imprisonment and she is allowed only bread and water for sustenance. Joan protests against this punishment and tears up her recantation. Thereupon, she is carried to the stake and burnt after being accused of being a witch. The Executioner is careful to point out later that Joan’s heart would not burn, which confirms that she is a witch. There is an epilogue, which is set 25 years later and in it, Joan is seen reappearing before the Dauphin and other accusers. The accusers and the Dauphin have been condemned now and considered guilty of multiple crimes by another court, and Joan has been acquitted and declared innocent. 66 Self-Instructional Material Next, the scene is set in 1920 and Joan is canonized by the Church, which means that Shaw, Synge and Ibsen she is declared to be a saint. She can now return among the living and live respectably. But when she asks people if she should return, they are horrified and they tell her to stay dead. Joan asks of God, ‘O Lord, how long before the world will be ready to accept its saints?’ NOTES 3.2.3 Key Characters The key characters in the play are given in this section. Let us first start with the protagonist of the play, Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc Joan of Arc is the protagonist of the play. She is also referred to as The Maid. Shaw has stayed true to the historical character of Joan of Arc and presented her as a country girl, who is simple but not stupid and uneducated but not unintelligent. For people around her, Joan’s ideas are presented as voices which speak to her from heaven, as Shaw specifies in his Preface. Despite her simplicity, her military acumen is flawless. This is established early on in the play when she displays her tactical knowledge by always knowing where the canons and other artillery are to be placed. Her strategic skills are never in question, until the moment when she is captured. Her basic honesty and innocence stand out throughout the play, especially when seen in contrast with other hypocritical characters. She is also logical and has plenty of common sense which are visible in her theosophical arguments with her accusers. Where Joan falls short, is in her naiveté regarding the constricted thinking of the medieval society and the petty feudal system. Her strong belief in the correctness of her own conscience and her rejection of the authority of the Church have led Shaw and others to consider her to be the first Protestant to be martyred by the Catholic Church. Robert de Baudricourt He is a gentlemanly squire from Lorraine, the district to which Joan belongs as well. As a person of rank, he is the first one to support Joan in her plans of overpowering the English. He provides her the first armour and also the opportunity to showcase her military acumen. Bertrand de Poulengey (Polly) He is among the first few men who believe in Joan’s visions and also helps Joan get an interview with Baudricourt. He also later rides with her in the Orleans siege. The Archbishop of Rheims He initially considers Joan to be a simple, pious girl who is humbly devoted to God. However, with her military successes, her accurate recounting of visions and her act of crowning the Dauphin, the Archbishop begins to find her to be too strong minded and defiant and sides against her. Monseigneur de la Trémouille He is a part of the court of the Dauphin, as the . He is also the commander- in-chief of the French army and when Joan is given command of the forces, he is intensely jealous and resentful of her. He is used to bullying the Dauphin into listening to him, but Joan seems to be able to do the same as well. Gilles de Rais (Bluebeard) He is a captain in the French army and devoted to The Maid and her ideas. However, he is not really a religious individual. Self-Instructional Material 67 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen The Dauphin He is portrayed as a weak, sniveling and laidback leader who is not sufficiently involved in the fortunes of the court or the country. Joan, however, convinces him to take charge like a NOTES man and assert the authority which he has but does not want. He is later crowned as Charles VII in the Rheims cathedral. Dunois (The Bastard) He is youthful, well-liked and a capable leader of the French army. He can see Joan’s military acumen but makes no move to save her in the final battle. The Earl of Warwick He is in charge of the English forces and detests and opposes Joan most strongly. He feels threatened by Joan’s ideas of the people owing allegiance first and foremost to the king, rather than the various feudal lords. He believes that Joan should die because otherwise, she poses a huge risk to the restrictive, existing feudal system. John de Stogumber He is the chaplain serving in the English army. Initially, he is loud and forceful in his criticism of Joan. He is sure that she is a witch and should be burnt at the stake. His resentment is blind because he actually does not understand the threat she poses to the Church’s authority or even to the feudal lords. However, later on, once he witnesses her burning, he has a profound change of heart and becomes a broken man. He spends his remaining days trying to be of service to the others so that he can work away some of the guilt he feels for his blind, fierce attacks against Joan. Peter Cauchon He is the official, well-read theologian of the church and represents the ‘considered wisdom of the Church.’ He sees Joan as a clear threat to the traditional power of the Church. In fact, he boasts of his own blind submission to the ideology and authority of the Church, over his own individuality. When he sees Joan defy the authority of the Church and assert her own ideas instead, and sees that she does not need the Church to communicate with God, he considers it heresy in its highest form. The Inquisitor While Physically, the Inquisitor is meant to look like a gentle and nice old gentleman, in ideology he represents the beliefs of the Church in their strictest forms. He is fully dedicated to these beliefs and institutions and to the overall wisdom of the Church. According to him, a person’s conscience can never be over and above the authority of the Church, whether it’s Joan or anybody else. He gives a long speech about his ideas and emerges clearly as a defender of church institutions and a person who is strongly against individualism of any kind. D’Estivet His ideas are based on pure legalism and he acts as the prosecutor against Joan. He expresses impatience with the indirect questions of the court. Courcelles He is a young priest who helps to compile nearly 64 charges against Joan and is later very disappointed that a number of them, such as ‘she stole the Bishop’s horse’, are quickly

68 Self-Instructional rejected by the court. Material Brother Martin Ladvenu Shaw, Synge and Ibsen He is a compassionate young priest who worries for Joan’s life and seems deeply concerned about Joan’s powerlessness in intellectually distinguishing or understanding the accusations levelled against her. According to him, her only crime is her ignorance. But once she is put in NOTES prison, he feels that it is a just decision. However, when Joan is at her funeral stake, he holds up the cross so that she can see it. He also later assists in Joan’s rehabilitation. The Executioner He represents the horrors of the stake. His other significance is in reporting that The Maid’s heart did not burn. An English Soldier He is the common soldier who gives Joan a cross made out of two sticks. For doing this, he receives one day a year out of Hell.

‘Check Your Progress’ 1. Who is the official biographer of G.B. Shaw and what did he name the biography? 2. How did Shaw’s mother influence him? 3. In which era is the play set? 4. What is the first roadblock in Joan’s path of siege against the Orleans? 5. What is the role played by Courcelles?

3.3 J. M. SYNGE: THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD

While one notices only passing shades of Irishness reflected in Beckett, one can mark it clearly in the plays of Edmund John Millington Synge (J. M. Synge), an important Irish playwright, poet and prose writer of the 19th century. As part of the ‘Celtic Revival’, Synge’s writing is focused on the identity, problems and the future of Irish people. The Playboy of the Western World is therefore an important play, not just for being so different from other modern dramas, but for representing Irish identity through an objective perspective. The Playboy of the Western World is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge. The play was performed for the first time at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 26 January 1907. It was set in Michael James Flaherty’s public house in County Mayo (on the west coast of Ireland) during the early 1900s. The play focuses on how Christy Mahon, the protagonist of the play, is received as he wanders into a small Irish village, claiming that he has murdered his father. The villagers are more interested in his courageous act, rather than condemning him for his immoral deeds, and therefore embrace him as ‘the playboy of the western world’. He captures the romantic attention of the bar-maid Pegeen Mike, the daughter of Flaherty. The important characters in the play are:  Christy Mahon  Old Mahon: Christy’s father, a squatter  Michael James Flaherty: A publican

Self-Instructional Material 69 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen  Margaret Flaherty (Pegeen Mike): Michael’s daughter and the bar-maid  Shawn Keogh: Pegeen’s fiancé  Widow Quinn: A widow of about thirty NOTES  Philly Cullen and Jimmy Farrell: Farmers  Sara Tansey, Susan Brady, Honor Blake, and Nelly: Village girls  A Bellman  Some peasants 3.3.1 Life of J. M. Synge Edmund John Millington Synge was born in Newtown Villas, Rathfarnham, County Dublin on 16 April 1871. In a family of eight children, John was the youngest son. His parents were part of the Protestant middle and upper class. His father’s family was landed gentry from Glanmore Castle, County Wicklow and his maternal grandfather, Robert Trail, had been a Church rector of Ireland in Schull, County Cork and a member of the Schull Relief Committee during the Great Irish Famine (1845-49). His earliest poems are to some extent Wordsworthian in tone: his first ‘literary composition’ was a nature diary, which he created in collaboration with Florence Ross when they were both children. His grandfather, John Hatch Synge, was a follower of the educationalist Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and started an experimental school on the family estate. Synge, although often unwell, had a happy childhood in Rathgar, Dublin where his maternal grandmother stayed. He developed a passionate interest in ornithology as he spent time on the banks of the River Dodder in the grounds of the nearby Rathfarnham Castle and during family holidays at the seaside resort of Greystones, Wicklow, and the family estate at Glanmore. These childhood impressions are well reflected and evoked in Synge’s writings. Synge was given private education at schools in Dublin and Bray. Later, at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, he studied flute, violin, piano, music theory and counterpoint. Although he went to Europe primarily to study music, he changed his mind and decided to focus on literature. Synge was a brilliant student, which helped him to win a scholarship in counterpoint in 1891. In 1888, he along with his family, moved to the suburb of Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire). In 1889, Synge entered Trinity College, Dublin, from where he graduated in 1892 with a Bachelor of Arts. During his college life, he studied Irish and Hebrew, together with continuing his music studies and playing with the Academy orchestra in the Antient Concert Rooms. Moreover, he joined the Dublin Naturalists’ Field Club and read Charles Darwin. Synge wrote: When I was about fourteen I obtained a book of Darwin’s.... My studies showed me the force of what I read, [and] the more I put it from me the more it rushed back with new instances and power... Soon afterwards I turned my attention to works of Christian evidence, reading them at first with pleasure, soon with doubt, and at last in some cases with derision.’ He then says, ‘Soon after I had relinquished the kingdom of God I began to take up a real interest in the kingdom of Ireland. My politics went round... to a temperate Nationalism. Later, Synge inculcated an interest in Irish antiquities and the Aran Islands, and became a member of the Irish League for a year. The setting of his renowned play The Playboy of the Western World is the Aran Islands. He later quit the Irish League because, as he told Maud Gonne, ‘my theory of regeneration for Ireland differs from yours ... I wish to work on my own for the cause of Ireland, and I shall never be able to do so if I get mixed up with a

70 Self-Instructional Material revolutionary and semi-military movement’. Synge published his first known work, a Shaw, Synge and Ibsen Wordsworth-influenced poem, in Kottabos: A College Miscellany, in 1893. As his reading of Darwin corresponded with a crisis of faith, Synge abandoned the Protestant religion of his childhood around this time. After graduating, Synge went to Germany to study music. During 1893, he stayed at NOTES Coblenz, and moved to Würzburg in January 1894. Synge decided to abandon music and pursue his literary interests, partly because he was shy about performing in public and partly because of self-doubt in his ability. In June 1894, he returned to Ireland, and moved to Paris the following January to study literature and languages at the Sorbonne. In Dublin, he fell in love with Cherrie Matheson, a friend of his cousin and a member of the Plymouth Brethren. However, she rejected his proposal because of their differing religious viewpoints. Synge was significantly affected by it and therefore strengthened his determination to spend most of his time outside Ireland. In 1896, he visited Italy to study the language for a time before returning to Paris. Later the same year, he met William Butler Yeats (W. B. Yeats), who encouraged him to stay for some time in the Aran Islands and then return to Dublin to devote himself to creative work. This was an important year in the history of as Synge, Yeats, and Lady Gregory, together established the Irish National Theatre Society, which later formed the Abbey Theatre. Synge also wrote literary criticism for L’Irlande Libre, a monthly journal started and edited by Maud Gonne. He also contributed his literary criticism for other journals as well as unpublished poems and prose in a decadent, fin de siècle style. In due course, these writings were collected together in the 1960s for his Collected Works. He also attended lectures at the Sorbonne by the noted Celtic scholar Henri d’Arbois de Jubainville. In 1898, he spent the summer on the Aran Islands. The next five summers were also to be spent on the Aran Islands, where he kept himself busy by collecting stories and folklore, and improving his Irish, while continuing to live in Paris for most of the rest of the year. He also visited Brittany regularly. During this period, Synge wrote his first play, When the Moon has Set. He sent the play to Lady Gregory for the Irish Literary Theatre in 1900. However, it was rejected by her and was not published until the play appeared in the Collected Works. His first account of life on the islands was published in the New Ireland Review in 1898. His book-length journal, The Aran Islands, was completed in 1901 and published in 1907 with illustrations by Jack Butler Yeats. Synge called the work ‘my first serious piece of work’. When Lady Gregory read the book’s manuscript, she asked Synge to replace any direct naming of the place by adding more folk stories to it. However, he did not adhere to her advice as he wanted to create something more realistic. The book is a slow-paced reflection of life on the islands and reflects Synge’s belief that beneath the Catholicism of the islanders, it was possible to detect a substratum of the older pagan beliefs of their ancestors. His experiences in Aran Islands were to form the basis for several plays about Irish peasant and fishing community life that Synge went on to write, including the play under study. Synge left Paris for London in 1903. He had composed two one-act plays, Riders to the Sea and The Shadow of the Glen in 1902. These plays were approved by Lady Gregory and The Shadow of the Glen was staged at the Molesworth Hall in October 1903. Riders to the Sea was performed at the same venue in February 1904. The Shadow of the Glen, under the title In the Shadow of the Glen, formed part of the bill for the opening run of the Abbey Theatre from 27 December 1904 to 3 January 1905. As both these plays were based on stories that Synge had collected on the Aran Islands, Synge depended on props from the Aran Islands to help set the stage. He also relied on Hiberno-English, the English dialect of Ireland, in order to strengthen its usefulness as a language. This was partly because of his belief that Gaelic could not survive as a language. Self-Instructional Material 71 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen The Shadow of the Glen is based on a story of an unfaithful wife, and it was attacked by Irish nationalist leader Arthur Griffith as ‘a slur on Irish womanhood’. Years later, Synge wrote, ‘When I was writing The Shadow of the Glen some years ago, I got more aid than any learning could have given me from a chink in the floor of the old Wicklow house where NOTES I was staying, which let me hear what was being said by the servant girls in the kitchen.’ This encouraged more critical attacks, which claimed that Synge portrayed Irish women in an unfair manner. Riders to the Sea was also attacked by nationalists, this time by Patrick Pearse, who criticized it because of the author’s attitude to God and religion. Moreover, Synge’s audience felt that he disfavoured the Irish nationalism for not idealizing his characters. However, Synge was also attacked later by critics for idealizing the Irish peasantry too much. Despite such controversy, Synge’s plays have now become an established part of the principle of English language theatre. Around this time, a third one-act play, The Tinker’s Wedding, was written but Synge initially made no attempt to have it performed, mainly because of a scene where a priest is tied up in a sack, which, as he wrote to the publisher Elkin Mathews in 1905, would probably upset ‘a good many of our Dublin friends’. When the Abbey Theatre was established, Synge was appointed as literary advisor to the theatre and soon became one of the directors of the company, along with W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. However, he differed from Yeats and Lady Gregory in his views about , as he wrote to Stephen MacKenna: I do not believe in the possibility of ‘a purely fantastic, unmodern, ideal, breezy, springdayish, Cuchulainoid National Theatre’... no drama can grow out of anything other than the fundamental realities of life which are never fantastic, are neither modern nor unmodern and, as I see them, rarely spring-dayish, or breezy or Cuchulanoid. His next play, The Well of the Saints, was staged in the theatre in 1905, which was again disapproved by nationalists, and again in 1906 at the Deutsche Theatre in Berlin. The critic Joseph Holloway claimed the play combined ‘lyric and dirt’. Synge had been suffering from Hodgkin’s disease, which was untreatable during that time. When he died at the age of only thirty-seven, he was at that time trying to complete his last play, The Last Black Supper. In the period from the late 19th to the early 20th century, there was a wave of revivalism in Ireland as a consequence of the Irish War of Independence. Writers such as Synge, Lady Gregory, W. B. Yeats and Sean O’Casey were active members of this self-conscious movement. The Abbey Theatre was started by them with an intention of showcasing and encouraging Irish theatre in contrast to the English stage. In Synge’s plays, one gets glimpses of Irish peasant life in all its spirit of vitality, celebration and ruggedness. When The Playboy of the Western World was first staged, it created controversies regarding the representation of Irish peasantry. However, with its keen sense of irony, Synge was able to go beyond idealization and explore the underbellies of Irish culture and rural life. Therefore, W. B. Yeats referred to Synge, Lady Gregory and himself in his poem The Municipal Gallery Revisited: John Synge, I and Augusta Gregory, thought All that we did, all that we said or sang Must come from contact with the soil, from that Contact everything Antaeus-like grew strong. We three alone in modern times had brought Everything down to that sole test again, Dream of the noble and the beggar-man.

72 Self-Instructional Material Important works Shaw, Synge and Ibsen Some of Synge’s important works are as follows:  In the Shadow of the Glen (1903)  Riders to the Sea (1904) NOTES  The Well of the Saints (1905)  The Tinker’s Wedding (1909) 3.3.2 Plot and Dramatic Technique The story is centred on Christopher Mahon (Christy) who is ‘the playboy of the western world’. He enters the community of Mayo as an outsider and is immediately established as a hero by gullible peasants who believe in his story about the killing of his father. Pegeen, who is engaged to Shawn Keogh is impressed as Christy represents an aspect of manhood that is lacking in her suitor. Christy is different, adventurous and appealing for the people, and women begin to seek attention from him. He easily becomes a playboy amongst the local women. When Christy’s father who is believed to have been killed by him enters the scene and reveals the truth to all, Christy becomes an object of spite and is punished for his deeds. The plot is linear, and develops around a false narrative of Christy’s. His story about bravely fighting his unkind father and murdering him makes him a hero amongst people who have no heroes of their own in their dull, monotonous lives. The ending gives a sense of closure to a series of violent and agitated moments in the play. Dramatic Technique: Language Synge uses Irish dialects in the play, especially in the dialogues of female characters. Living in Mayo in the Aran Islands, Synge discovered the lifestyle and practices of the people, and reflected them in the play. The language of the play is folk, rustic but with musical cadence and emotional intensity. It has been pointed out by critics that this play is a powerful combination of realism and poetry. In his depiction of the life of the folk on Aran Islands, Synge is realistic. In his language, he is poetic. 3.3.2 Characters and Themes The main characters of the play are given below followed by the themes of the paly. (i) Pegeen Mike: Pegeen Mike is the central female character in the play. She runs the store where Christy lands up mysteriously one night. She is attracted to him and is impressed by him. Their love grows mutually until she discovers his lie. Pegeen is shown to be an independent-minded girl who chooses Christy over Shawn with whom she is engaged. For her, the qualities that Christy represents are the qualities she desires in her man—sexuality that is not assertive, and a promise of adventure and bravery. As Shawn is unable to meet her expectations, she rejects him. When she realizes that Christy has lied to her and all the others, Pegeen is hurt and vengeful, and she decides to punish Christy for his misdemeanour. Pegeen is a strong character amongst the people of Mayo as depicted in the play. (ii) Michael James Flaherty: Michael Flaherty is Pegeen’s father in the play. He is a man who indulges in alcohol and leaves the responsibility of is establishment to his daughter. He is, like other men in the play, chauvinistic and assertive. However, it is when Pegeen declares her desire to marry Christy over Shawn that he relents against

Self-Instructional Material 73 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen her strong will. Men like Michael are shown to be representatives of a certain kind of thinking prevalent in the Irish peasant societies where men dictate morality to women and shun responsibility of any kind. (iii) Shawn Keogh: Shawn Keogh is presented as the original suitor of Pegeen Mike in NOTES the play. He appears to be a devout man who is scared of facing up reality. Every time he is called upon to take charge of a situation, he refers to God and asks for forgiveness. A man like him, as Pegeen declares, is not suited to a woman like her as he seems to be more interested in his prayers than in making love to her. His apologetic sexuality irritates Pegeen, and therefore, she chooses Christy for his element of adventure. (iv) Widow Quin: Widow Quin is a pathetic character in the play. She is a fairly young woman who is widowed at the age of thirty-two and is clearly lonely in her life. She becomes Pegeen’s competitor in seeking Christy’s attention. Her situation reveals the unfortunate lot of women who seek companionship but are stereotyped and discriminated against in society. (v) Christopher Mahon (Christy): Christy is the protagonist of the play, The Playboy of the Western World. The play revolves around his character and the parables he narrates about himself and his life. Christy is a confident young man, smart and manipulative. He uses these qualities to impress the people of Mayo and earn for himself a comfortable stay and employment. Not only this, he is also able to attract the attention of adventure-starved women of the county, thereby immediately becoming a ‘playboy’. His ability to easily make a favoured place for himself in a society where he is an outsider also demonstrates the power of a narrative to impress itself upon the minds of people as compared to bare truth. Fiction, when dressed with hyperbole and images, easily replaces truth, which is dull and cold in comparison. Through the character of Christy, the playwright successfully critiques the hypocrisy and dubious moral values of society and the fact that it only takes a moment for a hero to turn into a villain. (vi) Old Mahon: Old Mahon is Christy’s father who is believed to be the source of Christy’s misfortune and who is allegedly killed by his son. In the second half of the play, this old man, believed to be dead, appears on stage to the shock of all—the characters and the audience. The community of Mayo, so far enamoured by Christy and his accomplishments, turn against him the moment they realize his truth. Old Mahon’s life becomes responsible for the betrayal of Christy and his ultimate death. Themes The themes are as follows: (i) Morality: In the play, Synge dared to show the underbelly of the Irish society, hence the banning and controversies surrounding its initial productions. The people of Mayo are initially smitten by Christy and have no moral qualms regarding his act of patricide. In fact, they are impressed by it. Later, when the truth is discovered and Old Mahon comes to tell his story, the same action that had made Christy a hero becomes an abominable sin for the people. The hypocrisy of the society is shown here. For these people, Christy is an outsider, who comes from the ‘western world’, and therefore their interest in him is distanced and reserved at the same time. When the time of reckoning comes, the same women who were throwing themselves at him moments ago turn against him. His valour is considered a crime, and he a murderer. From a hero, Christy turns into a scapegoat in seconds. 74 Self-Instructional Material (ii) Heroism: For the people of Mayo, Christy is one who belongs to the western part of Shaw, Synge and Ibsen Ireland and brings a sense of adventure to their dull lives. As they are people who are seeking a hero, Christy represents courage and challenge to them. With his false narrative, Christy is easily able to convince people for whom narratives are integral parts of their lives. His story establishes him as a murderer, one who is forced to NOTES resort to this act as a last option. Christy becomes the apple of all women’s eyes, as his sexuality demands mothering from them, while the local men are presented as assertive and dominating. For the women including Pegeen Mike and Widow Quin, Christy is a pleasant alternative to the dull Shawn or rustic Michael. Synge presents heroism as a much-wanted element in communal life. (iii) Narrative: The play also raises interesting questions regarding the validity of art as a replacement of reality. In Irish culture, the oral tradition gives predominance to parables and stories, and therefore the art of narration is considered an alternative to truth. When Christy comes to the village, all the people are interested in hearing the story first hand from him. His narrative power attracts the attention of all, and he becomes a local favourite amongst them. Gabriel García Marquez in his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, points out how people love to hear a good story and would fain believe it rather than the truth, Synge highlights the same tendency of people. At some level, art begins to challenge reality. With added narratives, it becomes even more difficult to distinguish between truth and fiction.

‘Check Your Progress’ 6. What was the tone of Synge’s earliest poems? 7. Why did Synge decide to abandon music as a career choice? 8. Comment on the language of the play The Playboy of the Western World. 9. What is the nature of the plot in The Playboy of the Western World? 10. How is Pegeen different from the rest of the people of Mayo? 11. How does the morality theme reflect in the play The Playboy of the Western World?

3.4 HENRIK IBSEN: GHOSTS

Henrik Ibsen was born in a place named Skien in the country of Norway on 20 March 1828. However, in 1862, Ibsen was exiled to Italy. Here he composed the famous tragedy Brand. In 1868, Ibsen relocated to Germany where he wrote A Doll’s House, one of his most seminal plays. Following this, in 1890, he wrote Hedda Gabler, in which he created one of the most notorious characters that the theatre world had witnessed until then. But 1891, Ibsen had returned to Norway. By now, he was already a literary hero. Thus, on 23 May 1906, while in (Norway), Henrik Ibsen left this mortal world. It is believed that as a child, Henrik Ibsen displayed very little sign of the theatrical genius that he later turned to. He was the oldest of the five children who were born to Knud and Marichen Ibsen. Henrik Ibsen hailed from an affluent merchant family. His father was a rich merchant and his mother was an artist; she painted as well as played the piano and had a fondness for visiting the theatre. In his early years, Ibsen had expressed his interest in turning into a professional artist. However, as luck would have it, the family faced abject poverty by the time Ibsen turned eight years because his father’s business was wrapped in trouble. Such terrible was

Self-Instructional Material 75 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen the situation that they had to sell off everything they possessed to cover debts. Soon the Ibsen family moved to a rundown farm that was situated near the town. Here Ibsen spent a significant amount of time reading and focusing on painting, while performing magic tricks during leisure hours. By the time, Henrik had turned fifteen; he had left school and had joined NOTES work to support his family. Fortunately, he landed in a position of an apprentice with an apothecary which was located in Grimstad. As an apprentice, Ibsen worked for six years. While working here, he used his free time (which was extremely limited) to compose poetry and painting. In 1849, he composed his first play Catilina. It was a drama which was written in verse. This verse as well as the narrative was modelled on the writings of (who was one of his great influences). In 1850, Ibsen moved to Christiania (which we now know as Oslo) because he longed to study at the University of Christiania. Thus, his stay in the capital resulted in him being friends with other writers and other intellectuals around. Ole Schulerud, one of Ibsen’s friends, was the financer for the publication of Ibsen’s first play Catilina; though it is a different story that the play did not gain much notice. The very next year, Ibsen came across Ole Bull. Bull was a violinist as well as a theatre manager. As luck would have it, Bull developed an instant liking for Ibsen and offered him a job in the Norwegian Theatre in Bergen. Ibsen was expected to work as a writer and as a manager. The role was more than what Ibsen could have asked for. It taught him about all the things involving theatre. In his capacity, he got the opportunity to travel abroad, which offered him a scope to learn more about his craft. But in 1857, Henrik Ibsen came back to Christiania and got associated with another theatre. This experience turned out to be a frustrating affair for him because most complained that he was mismanaging the theatre. In spite of these difficulties, Ibsen managed to compose Love’s Comedy, which was a satirical look at marriage. This came out in 1862. The very year, in 1862, Ibsen left Norway; for the time being settling himself in Italy. In Italy, he wrote Brand. This play was a five-act tragedy. It was about a clergyman whose puritan devotion towards his faith lands his family in trouble and ultimately takes away his life. Brand made Ibsen a famous playwright in Scandinavia. But this was just the beginning and two years later, Ibsen produced Peer Gynt (considered to be one of his master piece). Peer Gynt was a modern take on Greek epics. Following Peer Gynt, Ibsen migrated to Germany in 1868. Once over there, Ibsen witnessed The Pillars of Society (a social drama) being performed in Munich for the first time. This play and its performance helped Ibsen establish his career as a playwright. This was followed up by A Doll’s House. A Doll’s House is considered to be one of the most famous plays of Ibsen. The play came out in 1879. Once the play reached the audience, it created furore throughout Europe because of the way it explored the struggles of Nora while being confined within the traditional roles (mother and wife), yet opening avenues for self-exploration and rationalizing the need. Ibsen had again hit hard, questioning the accepted social norms prevailing at that time. Such approach surprised his audiences while opening up a Pandora’s Box. While all were discussing Ibsen in the intellectual circuit, he decided to return back to Rome. In 1881, Ibsen came up with his next work Ghosts. But this play courted even more controversy than A Doll’s House. This play deals with taboo topics like incest as well as venereal disease. The protest against the work was extremely strong. Due to the nature and intensity of protest, the play was not performed as late as two years after the publication of the play. Following this, Ibsen came up with An Enemy of the People. This play highlighted one single man’s conflict with the community he was living in. Many scholars agree that it

76 Self-Instructional Material was Ibsen’s way of reacting to the backlash that he received for writing Ghosts. Ibsen Shaw, Synge and Ibsen composed The Lady from the Sea in 1888. After this, he came back to Norway. It is here in Norway that he spent the remainder years of his life. But the world was yet to see his most famous works Hedda Gabler. In 1890, with Hedda Gabler, Ibsen managed to create the most notorious characters that the theatre scene had ever experienced. Hedda was the NOTES daughter of a general. She was a newlywed who had developed a disliking towards her scholarly husband. Despite this, she rejects a former lover who appears to be a contender to her husband in a professional space. Hedda has often been dubbed as the female Hamlet. Finally in 1891, Ibsen came back to Norway. He was now a literary hero. Though he had left Norway as a frustrated artist but Ibsen had come back as a playwright of international repute. Yet for the rest of his life, Ibsen continued living an existence which was reclusive. Ironically, he gained prominence only in his later years. As many point out, he had in a way turned into ‘a tourist attraction’, especially in Christiania. An event was held in 1898 in his honour to mark Ibsen’s seventieth birthday. Ibsen’s compositions that were composed in the later part of his life seemed to possess a more self-reflective quality. They always had matured lead characters who looked back and tried living a life that reflected the consequences of the life choices they had made in their earlier life. Needless to say, each drama appeared to end on a dark note. was the first play that Ibsen wrote after he returned to Norway. In this play, the protagonist encounters a woman whom he had known in the past. She encourages him to make an unexpected promise. Again in the play When We Dead Awaken (1899), we come across an old sculptor who comes across one of his former models. After this encounter, the sculptor tries to recapture his lost creative ideas. This was Ibsen’s final play. Since Ibsen had by the time of his death gained the status of a literary genius, he received a state funeral that was organized by the Norwegian government. 3.4.1 Characters in Ghosts In this section, we will critically analyse the characters of Ibsen’s play Ghosts. Mrs Helene Alving: She is shown to live with her helping hand called Regina. She stays in a mansion somewhere in a countryside in Norway. According to the story, Helene had married Captain Alving (her late husband) after being suggested by some relatives. Unfortunately, her marriage was extremely horrible. Helene had once ran away to Pastor Manders as she was attracted to him. But Pastor Manders had made her return to Captain Alving. She somehow managed to endure her husband’s debauchery. But she was successful in sending their son, Oswald, away from home at the age of seven. Helene had hoped that her actions would keep her son away from his (now) dead father’s immoral behaviour. (Captain Alving died ten years prior to the start of the play.) In the meanwhile, Mrs Alving is shown to have established an orphan asylum in the memory of her dead husband. Helene did not want anyone to even consider once that her husband was not a man of good moral disposition. Yet at the same time, she was a woman of liberal attitude and, hence, feels compelled to inform her son regarding the truth about his father. Pastor Manders: As we know by now, he is a local priest. He hails from a nearby town. Manders was often seen sermonizing others about morality as well as about religion. Many a times, his financial association with regards to the orphanage appeared a bit suspicious. He had an inherent habit of bowing down to public opinion. Pastor Manders opines that Mrs Alving under no circumstances should have abandoned Captain Alving. He also believes that she should not have sent her son away from home at such a tender age. Pastor Manders displayed a tendency to get shocked easily.

Self-Instructional Material 77 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen Oswald Alving: In the beginning of the play, we get to know that Oswald has visited his home to spend the winter. It is informed that Oswald has most recently set his foot in Italy and that he is living a life which was relatively bohemian. Yet at the same time, he is projected as a promising painter. Unfortunately, Pastor Manders is of the opinion that Oswald has NOTES strayed away from his moral obligations. The son also remembers his father (Captain Alving). Though we get to know that Oswald is by nature an idealist, in the recent times, he has found within him a profound sense of listlessness. However, he blames himself for this action. He also shows a romantic interest in Regina. Regina Engstrand: She is the helping hand for Mrs Alving. The popular belief suggested that she was the daughter of Jakob Engstrand. Jakob was a carpenter while his wife (late Johanna) was the former maid of Mrs Alving. But as truth unfolds, we realize that she is ‘the illegitimate daughter of Johanna and Captain Alving’. But sadly for her, she comes across this information only at the end of the play. But throughout the play, the audience sees her resisting the affection of her father. On the other hand, she took immense pride in working at Mrs Alving’s domesticity. Moreover, one can see her returning Oswald’s affection. In her effort to impress Oswald, Regina even peppered her casual conversations in French. She had learnt the language hoping that Oswald will let her accompany him to Paris. Yet despite her desires, she is careful not to overstep into the bounds of what is considered to be socially proper. Jakob Engstrand: Jakob was a carpenter who had a deformed leg. He had married Johanna while she was pregnant with Captain Alving’s child. The baby born was a daughter, who was named Regina. In the initial phase of the play, we meet Jakob who is working on the orphan asylum which was established in the memory of Captain Alving. Jakob had a desire to use the money that he was saving to set up an ‘establishment’ for the sea-ward sailors. In his attempt to speak to Pastor Manders (an innate desire in Jakob was always to try his best to please the Pastor), he had explained that the establishment was a place where he intended to reform the sailors. Yet when he narrates this to Regina, it appears as if he is planning to set up a high-class saloon. Moreover, Jakob was an alcoholic. Captain Alving: As we read the play, we realize that Captain Alving has already died ten years prior to the time when the play is set. Captain Alving was considered to be a very famous man whose reputation was held in high esteem. Much before his death, he was turned into a chamberlain. Captain Alving never appears during the course of the play but is referred to at regular intervals. Mrs Alving suggests that Captain Alving was a man who was lazy as well as dissolute in nature. Johanna: Johanna acted as the servant at Alvings’ household. She gave birth to Regina after she was forced by Captain Alving to sleep with him at some point in her younger days. As the play unfolds, she is dead and we never see her appear on stage. 3.4.2 Summary and Explanation In this section, we will study the summary and explanation of all the Acts of the play. Act I From the very beginning of the play, we realize that it deals with the conflicts that haunts human generations. We also come across the idea that a child must always respect his or her parents. Someone like Engstrand had acknowledged that he is a person with drinking issues. But at the same time, he refused to acknowledge that he mistreated Regina. While on the other hand, Regina is insistent on not returning to live with him. The Pastor brought up the issue again. As the readers eventually understand, Engstrand has gained a special skill in

78 Self-Instructional Material manipulating the Pastor. He has also explained him that he is a man of proper codes of Shaw, Synge and Ibsen conduct. He was the one who was influential in insisting that the Pastor should have a word with Regina and bring some ways to help her father. Needless to say, the Pastor is unaware of the dark side of Engstrand that made sure that Regina put herself through the process of prostitution. Moreover, we also get to know that the Pastor was an absolute believer in filial NOTES piety. Obviously, the Pastor is a person who is obsessed with adhering to ideals. Regina is disrespectful to her father, while at the same time, she held ample respect towards the Pastor. Of course we realize that both the behaviours have erupted from the sense of pride which Regina held. She had a strong desire to move up in the social ladder. Apart from the complexities of relationship, the frequency of Mrs Alvin’s anxiety to make Regina move back to her father’s place pointed towards secrets which were of extremely deep nature. Needless to say, we also come across the gullibility of the Pastor as the story progresses. Pastor relies to believe that Engstrand is definitely a good man but he is also a person who is needy in many ways. Yet the audience already knows (from Engstrand’s conversation with Regina) that this was not true. The playwright’s conscious efforts to make the audience acquainted with various conversations always meant that the audience were more knowledgeable than the characters performing. This combination of gullibility and craftiness that the character of the Pastor displayed only throws light on a strong sense of irony. As Oswald enters the stage, he is shown wearing an overcoat which appeared light weight, while as the Pastor enters, we see the Pastor wearing an overcoat which was heavy. Moreover, he carried an umbrella with him which helped him protect himself from the rough weather outside. Of course, these details are extremely symbolic. Mrs Alving is not pleased to hear from the Pastor’s that Oswald has similarity with his father. Mrs Alving seems to detest the idea. Soon the readers are informed that this is because she hated her (now dead) husband. Yet, on the other hand, she idealizes her son and firmly believed that she has managed to save him from the influence of his father. Though Mrs Alving had rejected her husband’s ways, like a dutiful wife, she is careful to take care of his public image. Therefore, she rubs off the anecdote that her son had told about his father insisting him to smoke. Mrs Alving never wanted anyone to be a witness to the weaknesses of her late husband. Again in the argument between Oswald and the Pastor’s (regarding marriage), we further get a glimpse of their differing perspective. Oswald insists that those Norwegians who condemn Italian artists and those who are living together even if they are unmarried are hypocrites. Such a point of view only underlines the fact that they are not free from their own elements of corruption. Act II In this Act, we see the Pastor getting angry at Engstrand. Soon the Pastor realizes that Engstrand had fooled him once before. On the other hand, as far as Johanna was concerned, we see that Mrs Alving has no regret about sending her away along with the money. We soon see Mrs Alving realizing about the flawed worldview she holds. She addresses herself as a coward. Pastor Manders decides to tell Oswald the truth but he also realizes that it would make the youth unhappy. This also sets down the ground and suggests the Pastor’s obvious reluctance to change the status quo. The Pastor also shares a reluctance with Mrs Alving. What he does not share with Mrs Alving is the temptation to break free. He also does not question what anyone says. Although he argues with Mrs Alving, he does not come to any new conclusions. He just Self-Instructional Material 79 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen recites the gospel. He repeatedly turns a blind eye to class issues. He also emphasizes the difference between Johanna, the fallen woman, and Captain Alving, the fallen gentleman. In this Act, Mrs Alving’s idea of ‘ghosts’ manages to refocus on the play. We see ghosts in the sense of specific individuals coming back to life in new dimensions (as Regina NOTES is a ghost of Johanna) but we also see ideas that ‘haunt’ for consecutive generation. According to Mrs Alving, the notions of ghosts make us afraid of the light. In the play, we see gloomy clouds and rain, which imply hypocrisy, fear and duty. But later in the play, there are more images of light that upset the gloom. Act III In the beginning of this Act itself, we get to experience the baseness of Engstrand’s character. He does blackmail the Pastor. Moreover, he is too pompous to compare himself with Jesus Christ. We get the fairly obvious irony in the name ‘Captain Alving’s Home’. After all, it is symbolic of debauchery. Mrs Alving at long last acknowledges the truth. Needless to say, reactions are not unheard of. At the same time, the readers are not surprised that without an iota of hesitation, she chooses to leave Oswald. Mrs Alving’s attitude towards Oswald in the last scene is extremely unrealistic. She frequently tries to talk him out of his troubles. Finally when Oswald is ready to call them superstitious, she tries manage to recognize the irony of her behaviour. 3.4.3 Critical Issues in Ghosts Treading in familiar territories, the problems that Ibsen probes in A Doll’s House are almost the same as those of one encountered in the Ghosts. He focuses on the relation between past and future. Ibsen points out the relationship that constitutes the race and community on one hand, which, in turn, focuses on the individual on the other. Thus, we see the society which perpetuates itself by passing on a set of beliefs and customs from one generation to another in a way so that the individuals can take part in the culture as well as contribute to its dissemination. The play highlights how a new spirit that entered the English theatre sometimes around 1860 because of the rising influence of foreign dramatists. Needless to say that one of the most famous of them was Henrik Ibsen. This playwright from Norway is usually credited with being the ‘father of modern drama’. He is the most studied figure of modern theatre. Ibsen is the one who gave the modern drama lyricism, realism along with a masterful plot construction. He also focused on social issues in his now famous ‘problem plays’. Of course, Ibsen is dubbed as one of the ‘realistic’ playwrights. Ibsen professed that drama was true to life only when it dealt with human emotions. It reflects something that is near and dear to ordinary men as well as to women. Ibsen’s plays were many a times highly criticized. Ibsen composed Ghosts in 1881. When the play was first produced, it had created unexpected uproar from audiences as well as from critics alike because of the uncompromising treatment it received in terms of the taboo subject it dealt with. The play definitely talks about families and their issues of sexual promiscuity. It focuses on insanity as well as suffocation. Being one of famous ‘problem plays’, Ibsen focuses on the social ills that plagued his times. Ghosts is more similar to Greek tragedy, in the way that it talks about the undefinable ways in which fate works. When it was first presented, Ghosts was immediately labelled as gross obscenity. Yet today, in the era of AIDS, we find it to be more relevant than ever. The play deals with the themes of a disease that is also a form of moral judgment. After it was published in Scandinavia,

80 Self-Instructional Material the play was terribly attacked in the press. Thus, its sales figures were seriously troubled. It Shaw, Synge and Ibsen was difficult for Ibsen to find a single theatre whether in Norway or in England that would let it be staged. The stark, realistic material Ibsen addressed in Ghosts—dysfunctional marriage, adultery and even venereal disease—was considered so scandalous that it was banned from stages in Norway for about fifteen years and from England’s stages for about five years. NOTES This clearly shows that it was no ordinary play. It is one of the most vilified plays in the theatre history. The moral landscape of the play is pervaded by hypocrisy and opportunism. We realize that Engstrand is a hypocrite. He was a confident man who has convinced Manders that he is actually a good soul. We realize Regina sets her cap for Oswald. Yet this was not because she loved him but because she always longed to visit Paris. However, to keep her second options alive, she makes advances towards Pastor Manders. Ibsen believes that moral codes in a society enforces hypocrisy. Yet at the same time, this is not just limited to Mrs Alving’s household. Ibsen points out a terrible criticism towards a society which also carries an annihilating forces. The subject of inherited venereal disease was not the only thing that offended people but it was also Ibsen’s outrageous assault on bourgeois. This was a criticism that targeted the most respectable and significant representative of that period, and this was one of the rebellious elements of the play. We encounter the precise battle that Mrs Alving presents against the reactionary forces that lodged within herself. 3.4.4 Feminist Reading of Ghosts It is generally agreed upon that Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was the first attempt at trying to break away from the usual regular ‘destiny’ that the heroines were laced with. It was depicted in the 18th and 19th century narratives as well. In the play, Nora, the protagonist of the drama, is viewed as one of the most popular and appreciated persons in world literature. Through Nora, Ibsen introduces the idea that femininity might not be something inferior to masculinity. In this play, the protagonist takes a prominent place among all the female protagonists that Ibsen had created. This heroine was, of course, extremely strong and extremely ahead of the time in which she was created. Ibsen’s main female character, in Ghosts, is Mrs Helene Alving. She plays the role of a dutiful wife. Mrs Helene Alving discovers that her husband was obviously unfaithful to her. Yet at the court of Chamberlain, he occupied a high position. It was a title at the court that brought duties and privileges. But in reality, Mr Alving was a rogue. Initially, when Mrs Helene discovered his cheating, she decided to escape just like Nora walked out of the door in the end of A Doll’s House. Yet Mrs Helene’s escape from this abusive relationship turns into a protest against her husband as well as a statement against the patriarchal environment in which she stayed. Ibsen develops the theme of hereditary transmission in Ghosts. He speaks about the idea of transmission of predecessors’ sins to subsequent generations. Mrs Alving makes desperate attempts to keep her child away from his father. This was her way of ensuring that he does not inherit either his father’s disease or his immoral behaviour. In fact, she even does not want her son to inherit any of his father’s money. Ibsen employs Mrs Alving and Hedda Gabler to showcase that all woman carried the potential to lead as well as to occupy the traditional masculine positions. But it is only because of ‘the deeply noted ghosts of patriarchal ideology in society, she might not have a chance to prove herself or fully develop her potential without risk of becoming an outcast’.

Self-Instructional Material 81 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen 3.4.5 Power and Sexuality in Ghosts Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts still remains as one of the most criticized plays of all times. In this play, with subtle knowledge and intelligence, Henrik Ibsen threw light on the universal gender NOTES discrimination. He depicts the male and female characters in the similar dramatic vein which were based on the 19th century Norwegian bourgeois life. The kind of customs and values that they preach and highlight the attitude towards something like power and sexuality. Ibsen as a self-conscious critic and social reformer has managed to unearth the grim and mysterious images that hovered over the contemporary age. Needless to say, the play symbolizes of the hollowness and hypocrisy of the conventional morality. The play specifically highlights the shallowness of the regular bourgeois marriage. Ibsen’s only idea is to deal with the contemporary troubles. He talks about the role of religion in modern life. Thus, we come across the main antagonists who are constantly faced with conventions in the form of hypocrisy or even sexual passion. The Scandinavian middle class familial space is reflected in the play. Here Ibsen has dealt with contrasting dilemma as well as pangs of internal agonies that continue within the patriarchy as well as within the matriarchy. French philosopher Michel Foucault’s concept of ‘discourse’ can be used to explain the concept of power along with the clash of various other discourses in society. Foucault’s theory suggests that the system of knowledge has limited psychological constraints. Again, British literary critic Catherine Belsey (1985) discusses about the Foucauldian concept of discourse. She emphasizes that the female sexuality is simply not autonomous. At times, it is ‘being regulated severely by patriarchal discourse’. ‘The concept of discourse is connected with the issue of power relation and Foucault shows how different discourses in society contend for power by using knowledge. Foucault also theorizes the connection between power and the discourse of sexuality. He says that power controls sexuality for its own interest and also regulates the ‘knowledge of sexuality to ensure a knowledge-based administration of power.’

‘Check Your Progress’ 12. Name Ibsen’s first play. 13. What type of taboo topics does the play Ghosts deal with? 14. How important is Captain Alving’s role in the play Ghosts? 15. In what way does Ibsen develop the theme of hereditary transmission in the play Ghosts? 16. How is the Scandinavian middle class familial space reflected in the play Ghosts?

3.5 SUMMARY

 Shaw was born on , 1856, in Dublin, Ireland, and died on , 1950. On the occasion of his ninetieth birthday in 1946, he was felicitated by the authors of his time and was presented with a festschrift, which is a collection of writings published in honour of a scholar.  Shaw was openly critical of formal education and schoolmasters. He himself was tutored by his uncle, the Reverend George Carroll, until he turned ten. Then, he was admitted to Wesleyan Connexional School in Dublin and later attended two other schools for short periods of time.

82 Self-Instructional Material  In 1885, Shaw joined the Pall Mall Gazette as part of the reviewing staff. Previously, Shaw, Synge and Ibsen he had acted as ghost-writer of music reviews for G. L. Lee. Shaw’s mother knew G.L. Lee very well. However, the stint with the Pall Mall Gazette would be his first actual experience as a critic in his own right.  Shaw’s first play was called Widowers’ Houses. It was very much in keeping with NOTES his views expressed in the paper on Ibsen, on what a dramatist should be concerned with. In terms of structure, it is a conventionally written three-Act play, with the key problem coming to the forefront in the second Act and a resolution in the final Act. However, as far as theme is concerned, the play was revolutionary.  The play Saint Joan is set in 15th century. It begins with an incident in 1429. A young lady, whose name is Joan of Arc, also known as The Maid sometimes, insists that she wants to meet Robert de Baudricourt and will not leave until she has spoken to him.  There is an epilogue, which is set 25 years later and in it, Joan is seen reappearing before the Dauphin and other accusers. The accusers and the Dauphin have been condemned now and considered guilty of multiple crimes by another court, and Joan has been acquitted and declared innocent.  Joan of Arc is the protagonist of the play. She is also referred to as The Maid. Shaw has stayed true to the historical character of Joan of Arc and presented her as a country girl, who is simple but not stupid and uneducated but not unintelligent.  The Playboy of the Western World is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge. The play was performed for the first time at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 26 January 1907. It was set in Michael James Flaherty’s public house in County Mayo (on the west coast of Ireland) during the early 1900s.  The play focuses on how Christy Mahon, the protagonist of the play, is received as he wanders into a small Irish village, claiming that he has murdered his father.  Edmund John Millington Synge was born in Newtown Villas, Rathfarnham, County Dublin on 16 April 1871. In a family of eight children, John was the youngest son. His parents were part of the Protestant middle and upper class.  Synge was given private education at schools in Dublin and Bray. Later, at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, he studied flute, violin, piano, music theory and counterpoint. Although he went to Europe primarily to study music, he changed his mind and decided to focus on literature.  Later, Synge inculcated an interest in Irish antiquities and the Aran Islands, and became a member of the Irish League for a year. The setting of his renowned play The Playboy of the Western World is the Aran Islands.  Synge uses Irish dialects in the play, especially in the dialogues of female characters. Living in Mayo in the Aaron Islands, Synge discovered the lifestyle and practices of the people, and reflected them in the play.  Michael Flaherty is Pegeen’s father in the play. He is a man who indulges in alcohol and leaves the responsibility of is establishment to his daughter. He is, like other men in the play, chauvinistic and assertive.  Christy is the protagonist of the play, The Playboy of the Western World. The play revolves around his character and the parables he narrates about himself and his life. Christy is a confident young man, smart and manipulative. He uses these qualities to impress the people of Mayo and earn for himself a comfortable stay and employment.

Self-Instructional Material 83 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen  For the people of Mayo, Christy is one who belongs to the western part of Ireland and brings a sense of adventure to their dull lives. As they are people who are seeking a hero, Christy represents courage and challenge to them. With his false narrative, Christy is easily able to convince people for whom narratives are integral parts of NOTES their lives.  In 1868, Ibsen relocated to Germany where he wrote A Doll’s House, one of his most seminal plays. Following this, in 1890, he wrote Hedda Gabler, in which he created one of most notorious characters that the theatre world had witnessed until then.  In 1881, Ibsen came up with his next work Ghosts. But this play courted even more controversy than A Doll’s House. This play dealt with taboo topics like incest as well as venereal disease.  Ibsen’s compositions that were composed in the later part of his life seemed to possess a more self-reflective quality. They always had matured lead characters who looked back and tried living a life that reflected the consequences of the life choices they had made in their earlier life.  From the very beginning of the play Ghosts, we realize that it deals with the conflicts that haunts human generations. We also come across the idea that a child must always respect his or her parents.  Treading in familiar territories, the problems that Ibsen probes in A Doll’s House are almost the same as those of one encountered in the Ghosts. He focuses on the relation between past and future.  The play highlights how a new spirit that entered the English theatre sometimes around 1860 because of the rising influence of foreign dramatists.  Ibsen professed that drama was true to life only when it dealt with human emotions. It reflects something that is near and dear to ordinary men as well as to women.  When it was first presented, Ghosts was immediately labelled as gross obscenity. The play deals with the themes of a disease that is also a form of moral judgment.  The stark, realistic material Ibsen addressed in Ghosts—dysfunctional marriage, adultery and even venereal disease—was considered so scandalous that it was banned from stages in Norway for about fifteen years and from England’s stages for about five years.  It is generally agreed upon that Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was the first attempt at trying to break away from the usual regular ‘destiny’ that the heroines were laced with.  In this play, the protagonist takes a prominent place among all the female protagonists that Ibsen had created. This heroine was, of course, extremely strong and extremely ahead of the time in which she was created.  Ibsen’s main female character, in Ghosts, is Mrs Helene Alving. She plays the role of a dutiful wife.  Ibsen develops the theme of hereditary transmission in Ghosts. He speaks about the idea of transmission of predecessors’ sins to subsequent generations.  Ibsen employs Mrs Alving and Hedda Gabler to showcase that all woman carried the potential to lead as well as to occupy the traditional masculine positions.  In this play, with subtle knowledge and intelligence, Henrik Ibsen threw light on the universal gender discrimination. He depicts the male and female characters in the similar dramatic vein which were based on the 19th century Norwegian bourgeois life. 84 Self-Instructional Material Shaw, Synge and Ibsen 3.6 KEY TERMS

 Canonize: It is a practice in the Roman Catholic Church to officially declare a dead person to be a saint. NOTES  Preface: It is an introduction to a book, typically stating its subject, scope, or aims.  Festschrift: It is a collection of writings published in honour of a scholar.  Fabian society: The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow.  Three-act play: It is a dramatic production such as play or film which is divided into three acts or sections.  Realism: It is the quality or fact of representing a person or thing in a way that is accurate and true to life.  Morality: It is a set of principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour.  Bourgeois: In Marxist philosophy, the bourgeoisie is the social class that came to own the means of production during modern industrialization and whose societal concerns are the value of property and the preservation of capital, to ensure the perpetuation of their economic supremacy in society.  Rationalism: It is the practice or principle of basing opinions and actions on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response.

3.7 ANSWERS TO ‘CHECK YOUR PROGRESS’

1. Archibald Henderson, official biographer of G.B. Shaw gave an appropriate title to his work—George Bernard Shaw: Man of the Century. 2. Shaw’s mother was Lucinda Gurley Shaw, who was a talented singer and music teacher. It was because of her efforts that Shaw developed a passion for music, especially the opera. Even as a child, Shaw was a big admirer of Mozart and had committed to memory many of Mozart’s works. 3. The play is set in the 15th century. It begins with an incident in 1429. 4. When Joan reaches the Dauphin’s castle, she hits a major roadblock in the form of the Dauphin’s refusal to be involved in war or siege of any kind. The Dauphin is well aware of France’s incapability in terms of military fortunes and refuses to take such a big risk against the English army. However, when Joan is alone with the Dauphin, she manages to convince him that he leading the war is indeed the answer. 5. Courcelles is a young priest who helps to compile nearly 64 charges against Joan and is later very disappointed that a number of them, such as ‘she stole the Bishop’s horse’, are quickly rejected by the court. 6. Synge’s earliest poems are to some extent Wordsworthian in tone: his first ‘literary composition’ was a nature diary, which he created in collaboration with Florence Ross when they were both children. 7. Synge decided to abandon music and pursue his literary interests, partly because he was shy about performing in public and partly because of self-doubt in his ability.

Self-Instructional Material 85 Shaw, Synge and Ibsen 8. The language of the play is folk, rustic but with musical cadence and emotional intensity. It has been pointed out by critics that this play is a powerful combination of realism and poetry. 9. The plot in Synge’s play is linear, and develops around a false narrative of Christy’s. The NOTES ending gives a sense of closure to a series of violent and agitated moments in the play. 10. When she realizes that Christy has lied to her and all the others, Pegeen is hurt and vengeful, and she decides to punish Christy for his misdemeanour. Pegeen is a strong character amongst the people of Mayo as depicted in the play. 11. In the play, Synge dared to show the underbelly of Irish society, hence the banning and controversies surrounding its initial productions. The people of Mayo are initially smitten by Christy and have no moral qualms regarding his act of patricide. In fact, they are impressed by it. Later, when the truth is discovered and Old Mahon comes to tell his story, the same action that had made Christy a hero becomes an abominable sin for the people. 12. In 1849, Ibsen composed his first play Catilina. It was a drama which was written in verse. This verse as well as the narrative was modelled on the writings of William Shakespeare (who was one of his great influences). 13. The play Ghosts deals with taboo topics like incest as well as venereal disease. It highlighted one single man’s conflict with the community he was living in. 14. As we read the play, we realize that Captain Alving has already died ten years prior to the time when the play is set. Captain Alving was considered to be a very famous man whose reputation was held in high esteem. Much before his death, he was turned into a chamberlain. Captain Alving never appears during the course of the play but is referred to at regular intervals. Mrs Alving suggests that Captain Alving was a man who was lazy as well as dissolute in nature. 15. Ibsen develops the theme of hereditary transmission in Ghosts. He speaks about the idea of transmission of predecessors’ sins to subsequent generations. Mrs Alving makes desperate attempts to keep her child away from his father. This was her way of ensuring that he does not inherit either his father’s disease or his immoral behaviour. In fact, she even does not want her son to inherit any of his father’s money. 16. The Scandinavian middle class familial space is reflected in the play. Here Ibsen has dealt with contrasting dilemma as well as pangs of internal agonies that continue within the patriarchy as well as within the matriarchy.

3.8 QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

Short-Answer Questions 1. Write a brief summary of Shaw’s play Saint Joan. 2. Write short notes on the following characters presented in the play Saint Joan. (i) The Maid (ii) Badricourt (iii) The Archbishop of Rheims (iv) The Earl of Warwick 3. Provide a brief overview of J. M. Synge’s writing style over the course of his literary career. 86 Self-Instructional Material 4. Briefly describe the life and works of Henrik Ibsen. Shaw, Synge and Ibsen 5. How do the images of light and dark function in the play Ghosts? 6. In what ways is Mrs Alving a radical? 7. Identify the major things Mrs Alving does in order to maintain her husband’s good NOTES reputation. 8. Write a short note on power and sexuality in Ghosts. Long-Answer Questions 1. Describe the early years of Shaw’s literary career. 2. Discuss the structure, themes and success of Shaw’s plays with special reference to Saint Joan. 3. What is the main dramatic technique used in the play The Playboy of the Western World? 4. Identify and describe the various themes used by Synge in The Playboy of the Western World. 5. Critically analyse the various characters in the play Ghosts. Explain Mrs Alving’s attitude toward Pastor Manders. 6. Do you think Ibsen believed in ‘the joy of life’? Does he make fun about it through Oswald’s absurd ramblings? Elaborate your views. 7. Why has Ibsen named the play Ghosts? Elucidate with a focus on the various critical issues discussed in the play.

3.9 FURTHER READING

Innes, Christopher. 1998. The Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Unger, Kristin. 2007. George Bernard Shaw’s “Saint Joan” - A Character Analysis. Munich: GRIN Verlag. Louis Mencken Henry. 2009. George Bernard Shaw: His Plays. Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing. Shaw, Bernard. 1959. Saint Joan: A Chronicle Play in Six Scenes and an Epilogue. London: Penguin Books. Masefield, John. 1916. John M. Synge: A Few Personal Recollections with Biographical Notes. Letchworth: Garden City Press Ltd. Price, Alan. 1961. Synge and Anglo-Irish Drama. London: Methuen. Hargrove, Nancy Duvall. 1978. Landscape as Symbol in the Poetry of T. S. Eliot. United States: University Press of Mississippi. Batty, Mark. 2005. About Pinter: The Playwright and the Work. London: Faber. Billington, Michael. 2007. Harold Pinter. London: Faber and Faber. Cardullo, R. J. 2016. A Play Analysis: A Casebook on Modern Western Drama. New York: Springer. Northam, John. 1973. Ibsen: A Critical Study. Cambridge: CUP Archive. Sharma, Raja. 2015. Ready Reference Treatise: Ghosts. North Carolina: Lulu Press Inc. Self-Instructional Material 87

Beckett and O’Neill UNIT 4 BECKETT AND O’NEILL

Structure NOTES 4.0 Introduction 4.1 Unit Objectives 4.2 Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot 4.2.1 Life and Literary Career of Beckett 4.2.2 Central Theme of Waiting for Godot 4.2.3 Use of Language in Waiting for Godot 4.2.4 Dramatic Technique in Waiting for Godot 4.3 Eugene O’Neill: Mourning Becomes Electra 4.3.1 Life and Literary Career of O’Neill 4.3.2 Historical Background of Mourning Becomes Electra 4.3.3 Synopsis and Theme of Mourning Becomes Electra 4.3.4 Critical Appreciation of Mourning Becomes Electra 4.3.5 Issues and Analysis in Mourning Becomes Electra 4.4 Summary 4.5 Key Terms 4.6 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 4.7 Questions and Exercises 4.8 Further Reading

4.0 INTRODUCTION

This unit will deal with two dramatists, who represent on stage their spiritual frustration and longing for God, and their plays—Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra. Samuel Beckett is considered to be the Father of the Absurd as his play Waiting for Godot was to become the defining text of the Theatre of the Absurd. The most interesting aspect of Waiting for Godot is its plot. There is no story, unlike other plays, and there is no development or denouement whereby one can identify a plot. The plot has no single story, no tension and therefore no resolution. The essential situation remains the same: that on a given day, at a given place, Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for someone named Godot. The absence of a plot is symbolic of the meaninglessness of life itself. Because it is impossible to view and explain life in a linear manner, the plot is non-linear and random. The entry of characters on stage is abrupt and so is their exit. This is a reflection of modern life, one without a centre. This unit explores in detail Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot, its characters and plot, along with a brief biography of Samuel Beckett. Eugene O’Neill was the first American dramatist to regard the stage as a literary medium. Mourning Becomes Electra is a family drama and its central theme is revenge. The play Mourning Becomes Electra is a reinvention of the ancient Greek play titled Oresteia by Aeschylus. O’Neill has taken reference from the Electra complex wherein he portrays romantic love between the father and daughter.

4.1 UNIT OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you will be able to:  Trace the genre of absurd in Waiting for Godot  Discuss the plot and dramatic technique of Waiting for Godot Self-Instructional Material 89 Beckett and O’Neill  Analyse central characters in Waiting for Godot  Describe Beckett’s use of language in Waiting for Godot  Explain the life and literary career of Eugene O’Neill NOTES  Discuss the theme and main characters of O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra

4.2 SAMUEL BECKETT: WAITING FOR GODOT

Samuel Barclay Beckett was a playwright of Irish origin and came from a Protestant background. He lived in Paris through most of his adult life and even supported himself as an agricultural labourer for some time during Second World War when he had to go into hiding. Beckett’s writings are most well-known for the thread of existentialism that runs through them. The eternal quest for the meaning of life pervaded Beckett’s thoughts and thus, his craft. He used the abstract and the absurd to convey these and similar thoughts regarding life and death. In the early 1950s, a number of dramatists came forward—Ionesco, Adamov and Genet among them—whose works can be put within the theoretical structure of what has been termed as the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’. These dramatists did not regard themselves as a coherent group or school but all seemed to share certain attitudes towards the predicament of man in the universe, a stranger in an inhuman universe. Essentially, they were those summarized by Camus in his essay ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ (1942), which diagnoses humanity’s plight as purposelessness in an existence out of harmony with its surroundings. Awareness of this lack of purpose in all we do—the situation of Sisyphus, forever rolling a stone up a hill, forever aware that it will never reach the top, is a perfect metaphor here—produces a state of metaphysical anguish which is the central theme of writers in the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’. In their work, as distinct from the plays of Camus himself, for instance, the idea is allowed to shape the form as well as the content: all semblance of logical construction, of the rational linking of idea with idea in an intellectually viable argument is abandoned, and instead the irrationality of experience is transferred to the stage. Recognizing such ‘strangers’ in stage characters in the 1950s, Martin Esslin published his influential work, Theatre of the Absurd in 1961. He defined the plays which belong to this genre as presenting man’s metaphysical absurdity in aberrant dramatic style that mirrored the situation. The Theatre of the Absurd was never a formal movement and remained confined to post-war France mainly but with the arrival of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, it soared to international acclaim. Esslin’s main ‘absurdities’ are Beckett, Adamov, Ionesco and Genet with less attention to Albee and Pinter. As the Cambridge guide puts it: The techniques are of the disruptive kind associated with farce but there is no presiding context of harmony to give reassurance to an audience. Instead there are stage images of extraordinary concreteness dissociated from the milieu that normally defines them. Historically speaking, Waiting for Godot accomplished what had not been accomplished for many decades, what even T. S. Eliot’s impassioned dedication did not accomplish: it gave the theatre a new point of beginning. When Samuel Beckett began to write Waiting for Godot, he could not predict that he was sounding the clarion call of contemporary drama. The play opened new avenues in the history of 20th century drama. It was performed in Paris in 1953 and inspired a great variety of interpretative criticism, much

90 Self-Instructional Material of it centred on the character of the cryptic Godot. The play’s allusiveness has drawn a wide Beckett and O’Neill variety of interpretations and speculations. But it has been commonly agreed that the real subject of the play is not God but the act of waiting. A curious sense of the passage of time and the wretchedness of man’s uncertainty about his destiny has been communicated by Beckett out of the very unpromising material. NOTES The two principal characters in the play are Vladimir and Estragon, two tramps who are waiting endlessly for a Mr. Godot, though they do not know who he is or why they are waiting for him or when and where they will meet him. In the meantime, they get a message, apparently from Godot, that he has postponed his visit and will come the next day. Vladimir and Estragon consider hanging themselves but do not. The sub-plot involves the character of Pozzo, a sadistic master and Lucky, his mercilessly tyrannized servant. These two characters epitomize the master-servant relationship. Everything can be understood as a metaphor for the human situation: Godot could be anything or nothing, and in Vladimir’s and Estragon’s journey through time, it is pointless to consider whether it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive, because arrival is never seriously in question and even hope is scarcely possible. May be it is marginally better to travel than not to travel, to keep on going on because there is nothing better to do but even that is arguable. On the other hand, while these are associations the action of the play undoubtedly carries for most spectators, and it is not illegitimate to read it in this way, the play is not limited by such interpretations, it cannot be confined neatly and completely to them. Indeed, Beckett himself has made gentle fun of spectators eager to know what his plays mean: in his third full-length play, Happy Days, written in English and first produced in New York in 1961, he has his heroine, Winnie, who is throughout the play largely buried in a mound of earth, first up to her waist, then up to her neck, take exception to the comments of a couple of passers-by who want to know: What’s the idea?....stuck up to her diddies in the bleeding ground? What does it mean? What’s it meant to mean? To herself obviously, she does not mean anything, she just is. And in all Beckett’s plays we find a similar avoidance of exact definition, no doubt because Beckett himself does not know, or is not willing to define for himself, who Godot is, what Winnie means, what is the significance of the master-servant relationship sketched in Waiting for Godot and fully developed in End Game or any other of the questions which arise while watching his plays. And there is, anyway, something that tends to get overlooked in Beckett’s plays: a teasing sense of humour which makes even the blackest of them often very funny. Beckett himself seems to be forbidding us to take him quite as solemnly as we are inclined to. 4.2.1 Life and Literary Career of Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett was born on 13 April 1906 to William Frank Beckett, a quantity surveyor, and May Barclay, a nurse. Beckett studied French, Italian, and English at Trinity College, Dublin from 1923 to 1927 (one of his tutors was the eminent Berkeley scholar A. A. Luce). After teaching briefly at Campbell College in Belfast, Samuel took up the post of a lecteur d’anglais in the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. While there, he was introduced to the renowned Irish author James Joyce by Thomas MacGreevy, a poet and close confidant of Beckett who also worked there. This meeting had a profound effect on the young Samuel. Beckett assisted Joyce in various ways, one of which was research towards the book that became Finnegan’s Wake.

Self-Instructional Material 91 Beckett and O’Neill

NOTES

Fig. 4.1 Samuel Beckett

Beckett is regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century and is considered one of the last modernists. As an inspiration to many writers, he is also sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists. He is one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’. His work became increasingly minimalist in his later career. In 1929, Beckett published his first work, a critical essay titled ‘Dante... Bruno. Vico.. Joyce’. The essay defends Joyce’s work and method, chiefly from allegations of want on obscurity and dimness, and was Beckett’s contribution to Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature for his writing. He was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984. Samuel Beckett can deservedly be called the father of the Absurd as his play Waiting for Godot was to become the defining text of the theatre of the Absurd. He has inspired well-known Absurdist playwrights like and Harold Pinter who have created powerful texts of the form of the Absurd. Waiting for Godot changed the vocabulary of drama when it first appeared in the 1950s and since then continues to be read as a defining landmark in modern theatre. The most interesting aspect of Waiting for Godot is its plot. There is no story, unlike other plays, and there is no development or denouement whereby one can identify a plot. The plot has no single story, no tension and therefore no resolution. The essential situation remains the same: that on a given day, at a given place, Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for someone named Godot. The absence of a plot is symbolic of the meaninglessness of life itself. Because it is impossible to view and explain life in a linear manner, the plot is non- linear and random. The entry of characters on stage is abrupt and so is their exit. This is a reflection of modern life, one without a centre. 4.2.2 Central Theme of Waiting for Godot The important fact that every writer had to face in the first half of the 20th century was that the society in which he was living had lost its meaning and had simply ceased to make sense—previously held certainties had dissolved, the firmest foundations of hope and optimism had collapsed. Their works are essentially a product of the European predicament during and immediately after the World Wars. The world which they hold up to us is one in which all values have collapsed, all beliefs corroded, a world which can only generate despair and a feeling of meaninglessness. It is the picture of a world in which, as Yeats wrote:

92 Self-Instructional Material The blood-dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere Beckett and O’Neill The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. NOTES And suddenly, man sees himself faced with a universe that is both frightening and illogical, in a word, absurd. All assurance of hope, all explanation of ultimate meaning has suddenly been unmasked as nonsensical illusions. Even language has lost its communicative function and has been reduced to empty chatter whistling in the dark. Better even than the existentialist philosophers like Sartre, Beckett may be said to have incorporated all the features of the void which confronts man in his present compromise with the world. Beckett’s works clearly show that he is not a didactic author concerned with putting across a message in literary form. Such ‘truths’ as he does enunciate are the simple observations about the human condition that have been common since Job and Sophocles. Though he is obsessed by the loneliness of modern man, he has been able, like other great writers, to express his dominant theme in a series of works which surprise us by their variety. Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is the most apt dramatic image yet created of our situation in a world without God, deprived of the transcendent confidence that belief in the existence of God confers. For just as man cannot live by bread alone, he now realizes that he cannot continue to live by mere thinking or hanging on in vain for a salvation which does not exist. Waiting for Godot becomes, for those in need of uncertainty, a bible of pessimism. Waiting and not sure what you were waiting for—a deliverance, a disaster, or simply for something to happen—it was understood that the texture of contemporary experience was like that. Waiting for Godot is a dramatized metaphor for the most general existential experience of humanity, the experience of something which we feel ought to have meaning, ought to reveal its meaning, but which, from one day to another, always fails to produce that meaning. Waiting for Godot depicts a world without any divinity but a kind of malignant fate, a world in which man waits and hopes for something to give a meaning to his life, and relieve him of the absurdity of a death that irrevocably terminates all. But he waits in vain, and so our life is as meaningless as our death. There is little to choose between man’s life and a mayfly’s: hence Pozzo’s remark, ‘the light gleams an instant’, an instant only. It is, after all, a monstrous paradox that, for the individual, life is an eternity while it lasts, but that it is less than an instant in regard to cosmic time, just as a man’s six foot is nothing compared with the immense distances between the galaxies. Man is held in a two-dimensional prison: time. In this prison, only forward motion is possible but man deludes himself that he is progressing on his own free will to some sort of goal. As Beckett puts it: We are disappointed at the nullity of what we are pleased to call attainment. In Beckett’s best-known play, that nullity is named ‘Godot’. Birth, for him, is a ‘calamity’ because it launches us on our one dimensional way, from which the only release is death. Waiting for Godot is therefore, quite simply, a picture of the antics of man as he tries to distract himself until ‘Godot’ comes. But Godot is only death. He is not, however, seen as death because man flatters himself with groundless hopes; thus Godot becomes anything the expectation of which helps man to bear his existence. Or as Estragon puts it: We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist? Waiting for Godot presents the total condition of man. The play is, as Jacques Dubois remarks, a microcosm of the macrocosm which is our universe: ….one day we were born, one day we shall die, ……we have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries….. Self-Instructional Material 93 Beckett and O’Neill In the play, different characters enact Beckett’s intuition that nothing really ever happens in man’s existence. The play ends as it began, with two tramps waiting in vain for Godot. The dialogue continues on its doleful repetitive course, the ‘nothingness’ of everything becomes nauseating. There is nothing left for them but to try and hang themselves but alas, NOTES we know that they cannot even succeed in doing that. The idea of Godot as a play in which ‘nothing happens twice’ is understood by no one so sharply as by the tramps—Vladimir and Estragon—nothingness is what they are fighting against and why they talk. Vladimir and Estragon ask questions and they make statements. But they do so as though they expect to get answers or to establish facts. So all they ever do is pass time with their words. To get anywhere, they would have to make that quantum jump of realization that the words we have never really ‘mean’ only ever ‘say’. Granted every day the chance and the materials of a new start, Vladimir and Estragon cling doggedly to old patterns, old habits and old masters. Although Biblical images abound as the common currency of hope, prayers go unanswered and when characters pray, the effect is bitterly parodistic: Nothing doing! The Bastard! He doesn’t exist! So, life has no transcendental meaning. ‘We are alone’; and socially defined aspirations are no less illusory than religious justifications. On a universal scale, civilization is reduced to debris, while material circumstances are irrelevant to the human condition. Death is seen as an avenue of escape, a line leading away from the condition of nothingness. Birth and death are the defining facts of existence, diminishing the variables of individual experience to insignificance: The essential doesn’t change….Nothing to be done. For Pozzo, human existence is like the infinitely small fleeting instant: They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then its night once more. But Vladimir, who takes up the image, counters that life is long and infinitely large because there is too much time to grow old and suffer: Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave-digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old: The air is full of our cries. In Waiting for Godot, salvation or purpose, equalling thematic resolution as well as meaningful significance for the characters’ actions, is indefinitely postponed: promised for a tomorrow that can never be reached because the present is always today. Even the negative ending of suicide proves impossible; and its tragic connotations are deflated by the slapstick crudity of Estragon’s over-sized trousers falling round his ankles. As Vladimir says: In this immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come – What does Godot represent? What does the message contain? The same mystery but also a comparable hope of salvation. Godot is what his name implies: just another diminutive God like all the other little Gods—some divine, some political, some intellectual, some personal—for whom men wait, hopefully to solve their problems and bring point to their pointless lives, and for whose sake they sacrifice the only real gift they have, their free will. But alas! Godot continues to postpone his visit. The two tramps continue to believe the young messenger who appears each time to announce that Godot will come not that day but the next day. The image of man, always deceived in his dreams and ideals, nevertheless perseveres in his illusions and utopias. 94 Self-Instructional Material It is, therefore, not difficult to understand that Waiting for Godot is the fullest statement Beckett and O’Neill of the problem that has bedevilled Beckett, as it bedevils nearly everyone else: how do you get through life in which nothing really ever happens? His answer is simple and not encouraging: by force of habit, by going on despite boredom and pain, by talking, by not listening to the silence, absurdly and without hope. We can see quite clearly what Beckett wants to express: NOTES human beings waiting for the arrival of someone or something with whom they may or may not have an appointment. Are we not all born into this world without knowing what our purpose is, are we not all, now that we are here, assuming that perhaps we have a purpose and that the next day will bring the moment of revelation and then night falls and we are told to try again the next day and so on for ever after? Are we not all, whether we just hang around waiting like the two tramps Vladimir and Estragon, or rushing about madly like Pozzo, trying to give our life some purpose, trying to while away time in some fashion, knowing full well that without that final knowledge about what we are here for, all our activities are merely futile antics? Are we not all, like Pozzo and Lucky, subject to the most violent reversal of fortunes, hale and hearty one day, blind and helpless the next? Are not all our most clever attempts at thinking and theorizing, like Lucky’s ultimately reducible to an empty rust of meaningless words, and shall we not all end, like Lucky, be struck dumb? And are we not all, social beings, irrevocably tied to each other, however much we might loathe each other’s company, simply because one human being cannot live in isolation and yet all contact between human beings produces friction as between Vladimir and Estragon, or dominance and subjection as between Pozzo and Lucky? In Waiting for Godot, Beckett has employed intensely poetical, immensely expressive images, as most of the Absurdist’s do, to bring out the fragmented, meaningless and irrational character of the human condition in post-war Europe. Like the existentialists, he believes that the human condition does not fit into neatly packaged concepts. He does employ apparently unconnected expressionistic images and motifs as the surrealists do, but his work is far from being a nihilistic gospel of despair. But as Kay Boyle has observed, in Waiting for Godot, Beckett began the construction of a bridge across the abyss, offering through unremitting work, sometimes despairingly, sometimes with wry humour, a way back for man’s stricken, paralyzed will. Although Godot was in many ways—structurally, stylistically, thematically— a new development in Beckett’s writing, it expressed his basic concerns as faithfully and sincerely as his novels. If there had never been a play about waiting before, that was because no dramatist before Beckett ever thought of attempting such a thing. It is this that makes Waiting for Godot one of the seminal works of post-war European drama, setting a mode, a tone, a style that was echoed and imitated by younger dramatists like Pinter, Albee and Stoppard from the late fifties to the early seventies. 4.2.3 Use of Language in Waiting for Godot Hugh Kenner has called Beckett ‘the clearest, most limpid, most disciplined joiner of words in the English language’. Like music, his language is shaped into phrases, orchestrated and cunningly repeated. Beckett’s prose is never solemn and he has written some of the funniest lines in the English and French languages. Over the years, he has pared down plot, probed to the core of his characters and experimented with syntax, from the periodic sentences in his early stories to floating phrases, incantatory repetitions and simple questions or statements. Beckett is, as Dina Sherzer observes: ….a great manipulator of, exploiter of, and performer with the manifold resources and possibilities of language.

Self-Instructional Material 95 Beckett and O’Neill For, the use of banal, everyday conversations mixed with literary language, the slang, puns and modified clichés, the importance granted to talking (to make time pass), and the careful creation of rhythms and use of repetitions are all ways of demonstrating the exuberance of language and Beckett’s ability to play with it and to manipulate it, result in a new and NOTES powerful dramatic expressiveness. Beckett was writing in the post-World War years in which all values had collapsed, a world in which all assurances of hope, all explanation of ultimate meaning had suddenly been unmasked as nonsensical illusions. Even language had lost its communicative function and had been reduced to empty chatter whistling in the dark. In this world of absurdity, where meaning either vanishes or proliferates beyond understanding, language itself plays a double role. It is the only instrument with which the characters can hope to know or control the world outside them but it can offer no true knowledge at all. Whatever they say about the world makes no difference. Reality remains outside the grasp of the language they have learned. And yet they go on speaking, for words are all they have. Waiting for Godot, for instance, is a play in which literally nothing happens, a play designed to show that nothing can ever happen in human life. It is a play with very little action. Here we seem to have a maximum of words because nothing at all is going on except waiting. The characters talk to kill time, talking for talking’s sake. Vladimir knows the answers he wrings out of Godot’s boy are empty of meaning: ‘Words, words’. Yet after a pause, he adds: ‘Speak’. This is the paradox on which all Beckett’s work is built. Language is a poor, faulty instrument but there is nothing else to work with. Beckett’s genius is to turn words against themselves, making them show up their own emptiness. His characters’ misery comes from taking words at their face value. Vladimir and Estragon are reluctant to admit that the words are not so much their key to freedom as the stones of which their prison house is made. Vladimir and Estragon rely on language to see them through their daily life. Time and again, it comes to pieces in their hands. They try hard to use language as they should, with the precision and clarity which the academic tradition teaches. It is not pure desire for knowledge that drives them but need. Vladimir feels he needs certainty. He labels a tree a tree, not a bush or a shrub (and as an extra flourish names it a willow) because he needs to convince his partner and himself that their anonymous space is the particular place of appointment with Godot. Estragon needs to eat, and he distinguishes between a carrot and a turnip and a pink radish or a black one because not all, for him, are edible. Unlike Vladimir, he feels no need for extra flourishes. Vladimir’s solicitous ‘How’s the carrot?’ gets a laconic answer: ‘It’s a carrot’. Language that really works will satisfy authentic need and then fall silent. Vladimir has to go on spinning words because he is hoping to satisfy his need— Godot’s coming—which is only make-believe. It can never be satisfied, so he can never shut up. In the absence of anything else, trying to be precise is better than nothing. It fills in the silence, passes time and stops things from sliding into grey, undifferentiated chaos. Estragon puts it graphically: Everything oozes….It’s never the same pus from one second to the next. Words cannot fix meaning totally but they can at least be used to make some slight discrimination out of the ooze, so the tramps go on practicing: Our exercises….movements…elevations…relaxations….elongations. As the drama runs its second round, in Act II, the critical intellect is increasingly aware of the lie, the confidence trick that is language. So, as Estragon bustles towards a new diversion, delighted to have found something else ‘to give us the impression we exist’, Vladimir’s comment is ironic: ‘Yes, we’re magicians’. The language the pair have inherited is a vehicle

96 Self-Instructional Material of illusion. It is a collection of techniques not for telling the truth but for inventing and deceiving. Beckett and O’Neill When the conjurers are only second rate, or when the gap between lie and reality becomes too wide, language has to own up to its trickery: and this is what this drama sets out to make it do. If the characters could see through language, they could also see through all those power structures it props up. They, of course, don’t; but the audience, sitting at a distance, NOTES has a better chance. While the characters are only dimly aware of the dangers of language, the audience sees their plight with painful clarity. Much of the dramatic pleasure and unease that the play produces is in the feeling of the language—ground shifting underfoot, sudden estranging gulfs opening in the words and phrases that are the small change of everyday life. Mrs. Rooney draws attention to the same problem in Beckett’s radio play, All that Fall: Do you find anything…bizarre about my way of speaking? [Pause] I do not mean the voice. [Pause]. No, I mean the words. [Pause more to herself]. I use none but the simplest words, I hope, and yet I sometimes find my way of speaking very….bizarre. The language of Beckett’s characters is pruned down to the minimum and backed up only where necessary by equally pruned down and stylized mime. Simple phrases stand stark naked in all their triteness. Pauses and silences are rarely hesitations. As in poetry, they are carefully placed at sense points, to create more coherence, not less. Colloquial jerkiness is smoothed out into lyrical or dramatic rhythms by judicious placing of commas, or subtle repetitions and balances, or the addition or subtraction of ‘and’. For example, the sentence, ‘I would have stopped you from doing whatever it was you were doing’ could have been more roughly expressed as ‘I’d have stopped you doing whatever it was’; the lengthier version is better balanced and more symmetrical. Pozzo’s unintentionally comic account of twilight mixes the prosaic and the lyrical, the learned and the vulgar, elaborate rhetoric and simple onomatopoeia, building to the climax when night bursts on us too, ‘pop! Like that!’ Tricks of rhetoric embellish the most ludicrously inappropriate situations. Vladimir and Estragon mourn softly and sympathetically over the fit of Estragon’s boots, building up to the plangent ‘Perhaps you’ll have socks someday’. Estragon’s lyrical musing by the struggling heap of the fallen is rudely interrupted: ‘I’ve always wanted to wander in the Pyrennes – who farted?’ But the comic finds on the rubbish-dump of language can have a cutting edge. Rhetoric can be dangerous. Vladimir’s speech on the nobility of humane action holds up the action it urges. In Lucky’s speech, the display of the rotting fragments of cultural style turns everyone’s stomach and drives them to murderous rage. What self-consciousness the characters have about their language develops in Act II, where the initial focus is on the art and the use of conversation. Two different kinds of conversation are set against each other. The first is a demonstration of the emptiness of language, used not to probe a real problem but simply to fill the silence with elegantly structured sounds. Vladimir and Estragon are trying to talk ‘calmly’, to turn the panic of living and dying into manageable words, to ward off the fear of the silent, unspeakable unknown: It’s so we won’t think….it’s so we won’t hear. When they speak this way, what they summon up are ‘dead voices’, dry and sterile as sand and ashes, not communicating, only rustling like leaves in the wind. Such conversation brings more fear, insinuating the return of the insatiable dead. Possessed by that past that lives on through language, the conversation goes nowhere, turning round and round on itself, and has only one possible outcome: Estragon: What do we do now? Vladimir: Wait for Godot. Self-Instructional Material 97 Beckett and O’Neill When they try again, immediately, they do better. ‘That wasn’t such a bad little canter’, Estragon says complacently at the end. This time they don’t plan to be calm. They simply want to start and so, the future of their conversation is wide open: You can start from anything. NOTES No doubt, what you hear are still the ‘dead voices’ of corrupt language and corrupt experience, but this time they brush that obstacle aside. Instead of circling on the old, dead, known terrain, they move forward, establishing the conditions of conversing: Let’s contradict each other…let’s ask each other questions. to which in a later exchange they add interruptions and insults. Vladimir brings the subject matter back to the unavoidable topic of the traces of death that corrupt all life (‘A charnel house! A charnel house!), but this time Estragon manages politely to defeat him: You don’t have to look. In Waiting for Godot, the language veers between two characteristic extremes: soliloquy, and the form of dialogue normally used by Vladimir and Estragon, which is constantly in danger of drying up for the lack of any real communication between them, but is kept going by in-built repetitive patterns which substitute for logic and even, at times, for sense. This is the more or less neutral mode of waiting itself, dispassionate, avoiding extremes of pessimism and optimism, mainly concerned with passing time. As an audience, we are entertained by the characters’ rhetorical responses to the tragicomic dilemma of waiting: we are not involved in it as a personal experience. We appreciate the witty and elegant artificiality of the language, while half our attention is elsewhere—wondering what external resolution can be found to their perplexities, since it is increasingly self-evident that they cannot find one for themselves. Thus, we too are vicariously waiting for Godot. And it is within the frame of this act of waiting that the real subject of the play emerges: the unfolding of speech. Beckett transformed a stage where nothing happens into the fascinating place where the loneliness of language was revealed. Silence is an integral part of Beckett’s language and has a wide range of meanings of its own. Beckett uses silence in all the conventional ways. He illustrates, for example, the breakdown of speech with the mime Vladimir uses to get across his question about Lucky and his bags, or the frightened silence when the tramps confront the enigma of their relationship to Godot, or in Vladimir’s final lonely, despairing monologue over the sleeping Estragon. Beckett also offers a reinterpretation of the entire nature of silence. In Beckett’s writing, silence expresses the sheer unknowability of everything that is not ourselves, and our lack of power to pierce through to that unknown. Learning to discover and respect the meaning of this silence is an important part of the experience of watching any Beckett play. The language of Beckett’s Godot has a purity, a simplicity, a style which is a dimension away. In this theatre of style and language, Beckett approaches Eugene Ionesco. As the American dramatist, , has remarked: It certainly took tired Europe to make them, an Irishman and a Romanian in Paris. Ionesco is entirely unlike Beckett, but together they may be said to be the exponents of antitheater. And Waiting for Godot is, as says: …not…a tombstone but a landmark. If the form of the dialogue is derivative, there is freshness and originality in the application of that dialogue to these purposes. Behind the mordant flippancy of the clowns we are made to hear—if in the distance— another voice: Beckett’s own perhaps, or that of the lamentations of Jeremiah, desolate and dolorous, a voice of cosmic doom not untouched by human dignity.

98 Self-Instructional Material 4.2.4 Dramatic Technique in Waiting for Godot Beckett and O’Neill Modernism arrived in the British theatre with Beckett. In 1955, when Waiting for Godot reached the English stage, the standard drama of the time was Noel Coward and Terence Rattigan, or the later quasi-poetic comedies of T. S. Eliot. The common features of these NOTES plays were the naturalistic technique, drawing room dialogues, well-made plots and socially situated characters: a form of dramatic representation that had remained unchanged since the turn of the century. Beckett’s play heralded a revolution and the impact was immense. Barely a decade later, its principles had become an accepted part of theatre language and Godot was soon acknowledged as a classic. What makes Beckett one of the greatest dramatists, not only of our century but of all time, is that his contribution is fundamental and original in a way few others’ have been. Like Moliere in the 17th century and Ibsen in the 19th century, he perceived instinctively the way things were going and helped them along. Few critics and theatre people would, therefore, be surprised if Beckett is considered by posterity to rank in importance with the three masters—Shakespeare, Moliere and Ibsen. Beckett has done much to extend and modify the resources of the stage, to adapt its millennial arts to the expression of the concerns and anxieties of the age. Just as Shakespeare explored the political and moral dilemmas of the Renaissance, or Moliere adjusted the anarchic world of comedy to neo-classical and rationalistic norms, or Ibsen created and transformed patterns of naturalism to give perfect expression to the psychological ghosts that haunted the bourgeoisie in the age of imperialism and capitalism, so Beckett has found the means of setting out the metaphysical doubts that torment man in forms that, like all radical innovations, surprise at first and then in a short span of time begin to seem natural and inevitable. Beckett was one of the main exponents of the Absurd Drama. Hence, in his plays, he flouted the conventions of conventional drama and the concepts of the well-made play. A well-made play is expected to have a beginning, a middle and a neatly tied-up ending; Beckett’s plays often start at an arbitrary point and seem to end just as arbitrarily. By all the traditional standards of critical appreciation of drama, these plays are not only abominably bad, they do not even deserve the name of drama. But Beckett’s drama aims to hold up of the post-war world—a world devoid of all meaning, all spiritual coherence. The basis of the well-made play is the implicit assumption that the world does make sense, that reality is solid and secure, all outlines clear, all ends apparent. Beckett’s plays, on the other hand, express a sense of shock at the absence, the loss of any such clear and well-defined systems of beliefs or values. In Waiting for Godot there is no plot, in the sense of a narrative with a beginning, middle and end: exposition, twists and turns of intrigue, crisis and unravelling. Vladimir and Estragon do their best to invent a plot, ‘waiting for Godot’, but it hardly gets off the ground. There is simply a situation: Two men loitering with intent, under a tree. But Godot, for whom they are waiting, continues to postpone his visit. The play ends as it began with the two tramps waiting in vain for Godot. ‘Messy’ and ‘not well thought out’ is what Beckett impatiently said of his own play that is now considered a model of form. There is no structure, in the sense of a neat carving-up of the action into three or five Acts, with scenes advancing in logical sequence, entrances and exits motivated and the whole wrapped up at the end and ‘finished with a bow’. Ruby Cohn has, in fact, listed the incidence of doubling in Waiting for Godot. There are two acts, two days and two similar sets of incidents within them. There are two couples, one contrasting with the other. Within the Acts, within the couples, symmetries and oppositions

Self-Instructional Material 99 Beckett and O’Neill recur. A resume of either Act yields a parallel pattern. Two friends meet by a tree at twilight to wait for Godot. A burdened menial and his master arrive, dally a while and then leave. When the friends are alone again, a messenger arrives to inform them that Godot will not come that day but the next. The moon rises as the boy departs. Although the friends agree to NOTES go, they have not gone when the curtain falls. Waiting for Godot is a very carefully structured play though critics have assailed it as obscure and incoherent. Its fundamental mode is not revelation but repetition, or rather repetition-with-a-difference; asymmetry rather than symmetry. The play relies for its structural cohesion not on a forward movement but on the return of leitmotifs that weave in and out through the work. The most obvious of these is the phrase ‘We’re waiting for Godot’, which recurs in different guises a dozen times, but there are others like ‘Nothing to be done’. Apart from the leitmotifs, Beckett also relies on an elaborate system of counterpoint between the two Acts. Nearly everything in Act I has its echo or parallel somewhere in Act II. may not hear every note in a symphony, but there are so many of them that he will sense the unity of it before long. The dynamics between Beckett’s characters too help to give the play its underlying unity and its unique quality of equilibrium by which everything balances out. The characters interlock, in fact, with almost Racinian precision. At the extremes of the poised poles are Vladimir and Pozzo who are divided both by their name-lengths and their temperaments and the same applies to Estragon and Lucky, who even cause each other physical injury. Estragon’s fear of ‘being tied’ is reflected by Lucky’s being tied in real fact. This kind of balance is characteristic of the play. As Beckett once said, “It is the shape that matters”. He is an artist for whom the shape is all important, and the ‘shape’ of the relationships in Waiting for Godot between the four main characters is of more interest to him than the characters themselves. The most essential feature of Beckett’s technique in Waiting for Godot is his use of symbols. Perhaps the clearest of the symbols is the road. It offers a clear alternative to the characters’ condition. Hugh Kenner points out that the tree suggests not only crucifixion, but also the Tree of Life. There is a suggestion that because of its pronounced axial properties, it may also be related to the ‘World tree’ of Norse mythology. The tree likewise gives tentative evidence of chronological stability and, hence, links between one point in time and another. In Act II, the tree which was previously bare has produced leaves, a change which implies a refutation to the understood hypothesis of the play that ‘nothing happens’. The rope and the whip, with which Pozzo threatens, are symbols of authority, indispensable because custom, the normal bond of authority, seems to have broken down. The rope represents the symbiotic bond between Lucky and Pozzo. Hats and boots are two of the major symbols of the play. Vladimir, the ‘thinker’ of the two, is associated with the hat; the more prosaic Estragon is identified with the boots. The hat exchange is a shuttle and symbolically demonstrates one of the key considerations of the play, pointless activity and the ultimate negation of movement. The assumptions of the game ‘All Fall Down’ are both tragic and comic: Pozzo down epitomizes all fallen men (he answers to both Cain and Abel, and Estragon remarks that he is ‘all humanity’). The core in Beckett’s plays is emptiness, a nucleic area of dead space at its absolute centre. It is this encapsulated space which is the basis of the theatre images most often associated with Becket. In Waiting for Godot, it is seen in the recurring sequence of containers and circles—hats, boots, the low grave-like mound on which Estragon sits; in Lucky’s dance, ‘The Net’; and in the circular structure of the play itself. Echoing the thematic paradox of the play, the circle is simultaneously endless and constricting, infinity and a cage.

100 Self-Instructional Material The crucifixion imagery is deeply embedded within the play. The bodies of Pozzo and Beckett and O’Neill Lucky after their fall lie in the shape of a cross. There are several tableaux of Lucky and Pozzo supported between the two friends, recalling in Ruby Cohn’s words, ‘the many paintings of a crucified Christ between two thieves’. Estragon and Vladimir often stand on either side of the tree and Estragon, in particular, stretches out his arms—in John Donne’s words, ‘mine NOTES own cross to be’—even passing through the cross, as he takes up the yoga position of the tree. According to Peter Griffith, Waiting for Godot belongs to a unique category in that it not only uses discourse but is about discourse. He observes that: It explores a paradox at the heart of language: that this is something which generates meaning only through its abstract systematicity, but achieves thematic relevance through the strictly material means of printing or of acoustic events. He further goes on to add that much of the characters’ dialogic interchange and stage business is derived from the conventions of the music hall and their speech is carnivalesque. In fact, Waiting for Godot owes a great deal to the circus. Pozzo is a kind of ringmaster who cracks his whip and commands the show and Estragon’s dropping of his trousers is pure clowning. Other popular forms of entertainment, too, are affectionately alluded to in this play. The silent film comedy, which so delighted Beckett’s generation, has bequeathed its bowler hats to the actors: that Laurel and Hardy lie to some extent behind Vladimir and Estragon is certain. The stagecraft in Waiting for Godot enhances its position as a drama of technique. The setting must evoke a universe that offers very little. As Simpson says: In Waiting for Godot the objective of the producer should be to create the feeling that these four characters are isolated in Eternity…..The vast emptiness about their world serves to emphasize their dependence on one another and their isolation within the enormity of the universe. The characters’ costume is very important. Though their behaviour is clownish, they should not dress as clowns. Usually, Vladimir and Estragon appear as tramps in cast-off formal clothes. They are run-down versions of the conventional people who live at the centre of society, the same in kind, but tattered and living on the margins. The deceptive dignity of ordinary modern clothes leaves it to the play of words and action to disclose the man under the mask. To call Waiting for Godot obscure and unintelligible is to underestimate Beckett’s resources and unceasingly inventive technique which has enabled him to make art out of material that in the hands of someone less gifted would seem to have been wasted. Beckett’s theatre has always startled and impressed by its barrenness but the final impression that the plays leave is not bare but rich; they spark off such a host of associations, images, echoes that it seems one would never come to the end of them. Beckett works within his ‘modern’ tradition as a great original and it would be difficult to name a single important playwright of the younger generation—from Albee to Stoppard—be it in Britain, America, France or Germany, who has not been deeply affected by Beckett’s example or influenced by his practice. Whatever posterity’s verdict about his intrinsic worth and stature as a dramatist is, there is no doubt that it will concede, at the very least, that he is one of the most important innovators in the history of the modern stage. This is to some extent because his contribution came at precisely the right moment.

Self-Instructional Material 101 Beckett and O’Neill ‘Check Your Progress’ 1. Who are the two central characters in the play and what are their names? NOTES 2. What do the writings of early 20th century European authors reflect about the society they were living in? 3. Where does Beckett’s genius lie in the context of language? 4. What is the most essential feature of Beckett’s technique in Waiting for Godot?

4.3 EUGENE O’NEILL: MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA

Eugene O’Neill was the first American dramatist to regard the stage as a literary medium and the first US playwright to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Let us first read about his life and literary career. 4.3.1 Life and Literary Career of O’Neill Eugene Gladstone O’Neill was born on 16 October 1888. He was born in a room in a small hotel called the Barrette Hotel, which was situated on Broadway and 43rd Street in New York, the United States. The area was then called Longacre Square and is now known as Times Square. Eugene Gladstone O’Neill was the third son of Irish immigrant actors, James O’Neill and Mary Ellen Quinlan. Probably due to the fact that he was born in a hotel room with limited medical facilities, Mary Ellen Quinlan had a painful time in conceiving, and was prescribed morphine to alleviate the pain. James O’Neill was then addicted to alcohol. Mary Ellen Quinlan became addicted to morphine after the delivery. Probably because O’Neill’s parents were small time actors working with a travelling theatre company, he was admitted into a Catholic institution called St. Aloysius Academy for Boys, a boarding school located in the Riverdale area of the Bronx, when he was four years old. The fact that he was too young to be separated from his parents must obviously have caused the young O’Neill to feel neglected and isolated. Although for their part, his parents James O’Neill and his wife Mary Ellen Quinlan only wanted the best for their son; children seldom understand such things. However, this feeling of isolation was perhaps a blessing in disguise, because the young O’Neill soon developed a love for books and reading. He would spend his summer vacations at Monte Christo Cottage in New London. For a year or so, O’Neill attended the Belts Academy for Boys. After graduating from high school, O’Neill was admitted into Princeton University but he had to leave the university in just a year. The reason to leave the university could have been any: breaking rules, bunking classes, or may be throwing a beer bottle at the window of one of the faculty members—Professor Woodrow Wilson, who later became the President of the United States of America. O’Neill fell passionately in love with the sea and spent many years at sea as a sailor. This passionate love for the sea later became a recurring theme in many of his plays. Yet, while at sea, he suffered from severe depression and alcoholism. This depression and alcoholism may have partly been due to the extreme poor living conditions of the sailors and partly due to loneliness and a sense of isolation. Many of his plays were actually set against the backdrop of the ships he worked on. This suffering and poor living conditions led O’Neill to join the workers union on board ships called the Marine Transport Workers Union of the

102 Self-Instructional Material Industrial Workers of the World which was at the time fighting for quick and on the spot Beckett and O’Neill changes in the working and living conditions of marine workers. O’Neill was forced to spend 1912-13 at a sanatorium where he recuperated from . The events that led to his admission into the sanatorium later became the central theme of his play Long Day’s Journey into Night. It is rightly said that most writers NOTES and artists are depressed and prone to some sort of addiction. Perhaps, it is the inner turmoil, depression and a consistent feeling of isolation that actually allow and help them to be creative. The play mentioned above, Long Day’s Journey into Night, became a masterpiece. His parents, however, lived to see or enjoy their son’s success in theatre. Both of them, as well as his elder brother named James O’Neill, died within an interval of three years. James O’Neill Jr died of alcoholism. But before he actually gained success as a playwright, Eugene O’Neill worked for some time at the New London The Telegraph as a reporter. He was also assigned the task of writing poetry for the newspaper. It was perhaps this latent love for poetry that led to the almost lyrical titles of most of his plays. It was after he left the sanatorium that O’Neill decided to focus entirely on writing plays. Toward this end, at the end of 1914, O’Neill joined the Harvard University to attend a course on dramatic techniques. This was a course being conducted by Professor George Baker. However, once again he left after a year and did not complete the programme. Between 1910 and 1920, O’Neill became a regular member of the Greenwich Village Literary scene. It was here that Eugene O’Neill became friends with many left wing radicals, especially John Reed who was the founder of the Communist Labour Party of America. O’Neill also became briefly involved with John Reed’s wife Louise Bayant. In a 1981 film based on the life of John Reed, Jack Nicholson also portrayed the character of O’Neill. In spite of the fact that O’Neill did not complete the college program he had joined, his genius as a playwright can never be underestimated. In the summer of 1916, O’Neill visited Provincetown apparently ‘with a trunk full of plays’, thus beginning a long involvement with the Provincetown Players. O’Neill’s entry into the Provincetown Players was pretty remarkable. He visited Susan Glaspell and her husband George Cram Cook at their house on Commercial Street. In their living room, O’Neill extracted his play Bound East for Cardiff, handed it to Freddie Burt and retired to the dining room. After Freddie Burt read out the play to the rest of the group, O’Neill was not left alone in the dining room. O’Neill was obviously a prolific playwright. Many of his earlier plays were performed by the Provincetown Players in the theater both in Provincetown as well in Greenwich Village. Some of these plays were later performed on Broadway. O’Neill’s first published play Beyond the Horizon opened on Broadway in 1920, that won him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama the same year. It was a critically acclaimed and popular production. During the presidential debate the same year, a hot topic of debate was the US occupation of Haiti. This political situation inspired O’Neill to write his play The Emperor Jones which opened on Broadway and gained stupendous critical acclaim. The play was a subtle yet satirical commentary on the US occupation of Haiti and its aftermath. His most famous plays include Anna Christie which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1922, Desire Under the Elms which was first performed in 1924, and Strange Interlude which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1928. These were followed by his plays Mourning Becomes Electra which was first performed in 1931, and Ah, Wilderness! This was based on the imaginings of a young boy who wished to be in the wilderness. This play is probably the most remembered and best known comedy that O’Neill wrote.

Self-Instructional Material 103 Beckett and O’Neill The year 1936 proved to be an extremely memorable one for O’Neill. He was conferred the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was also nominated to the Swedish Academy by Henrik Schtick. While many playwrights loved writing full length plays and many similarly loved writing NOTES one act plays, for O’Neill’s part, he loved writing full length plays. The reason for this could be that O’Neill had an imagination that was panoramic and his creations were never confined by space or time. His full length plays included Bread and Butter written in 1914, and Servitude also written in 1914. The play titled The Personal Equation was written in 1915, and in the following year he wrote the play titled How I Ask You. O’Neill wrote two plays in 1919: The Straw and Chris Christopherson. The play titled Gold was written in 1920, as was the play titled Anna Christie, which latter won him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1922. The Emperor Jones was also written in 1920. The play titled Diff’ rent was written in 1921, followed by two plays titled The First Man and The Hairy Ape, which was written in 1922. The play titled The Fountain was written in 1923. O’Neill worked on the play Marco Millions between 1923 and 1925. Yet he produced two other plays through the year 1924: Welded and Desire Under the Elms. The play titled Lazarus Laughed was written between 1925 and 1926. The list of plays written by O’Neill is very extensive. It is amazing to observe how dedicated and prolific he was. This is in marked contrast to the manner in which O’Neill used to pursue college programmes and never actually completed any of them. Perhaps, this had something to do with his childhood and parentage. A child’s character is shaped by role models around him or her. Both O’Neill’s parents had been subject to addiction, James O’Neill to alcoholism and Mary Ellen Quinlan to morphine. This addiction obviously had its impact on both their careers as actors. It is not known how renowned they had been or whether they had won many awards. Their elder son, James O’Neill, had also succumbed to alcoholism and had died due to this addiction. O’Neill had obviously been a lonely and isolated person, yet his passion for the sea and his passion for imagining and creating plays appear to have been too huge and deep for him to have given in to alcoholism. Sadly his parents did not live to witness or enjoy their son’s success or the awards he won through his lifetime. O’Neill was married to Kathleen Jenkins from 1909 to 1912. They had one son named after his father, Eugene O’Neill Jr. O’Neill then met Agnes Boulton who was a successful writer of commercial fiction. They were married from 1918 to 1929. During these years the couple lived in both Bermuda as well as in Connecticut. They had two children named Shane and Oona. It is said that O’Neill abandoned his wife and children when he met the actress Carlotta Monterey and the couple married within a month after receiving an official divorce from Agnes Boulton. The couple had a dog named Blemie. It is significant that Eugene loved that dog so much that he wrote the play The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog in 1940 when Blemie was about to die. Perhaps, the play was also intended to give solace to Carlotta Monterey. Looking at the long and almost endless list of plays written by O’Neill, it does not appear that either his personal relationships or their failure or success had much of an impact on his creativity. There are many writers and artists whose index of work output could be linked to their personal relationships. This gives us an idea as to how deep rooted and intense was O’Neill’s passion and love for his work. He was able to separate his work and creativity from his personal life. It is also amazing to notice how he never allowed the events unfolding in his private and personal space impact his creativity and work output. Or perhaps he was just one of those geniuses whose inner turmoil or upheavals allowed him to create more prolifically. 104 Self-Instructional Material Some of his other plays included The Great God Brown which was published in Beckett and O’Neill 1926, Strange Interlude which was written in 1928, Dynamo which was written in 1929, and Mourning Becomes Electra came in 1931. O’Neill wrote two plays in 1933: Ah, Wilderness! and Days Without End. O’Neill wrote his play titled The Iceman Cometh in 1939, had it published in the year 1940, while it was first performed in 1946. Written in the NOTES year 1941, the play Long Day’s Journey into Night was first performed in 1946 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1957. The play A Moon for the Misbegotten was written between 1941 and 1943 and was first performed in 1947. O’Neill completed his play A Touch for the Past in 1942, while it was first performed in 1948. The second draft of the play More Stately Mansions was discovered in O’Neill’s papers after his death and was first performed in 1967. His play The Calms of Capricorn was published posthumously in 1983. O’Neill suffered from multiple heart problems for several years and finally had a severe attack of tremors which resembled Parkinson’s disease in both his hands, incapacitating him and preventing him from writing during the last 10 years of his life. On 27 November 1953, O’Neill died at the age of 65 in Room 401 of the Sheraton Hotel in Boston. His last words as he died were ‘… I knew it. I knew it… Born in a hotel room, died in a hotel room…’ 4.3.2 Historical Background of Mourning Becomes Electra The play Mourning Becomes Electra is a reinvention of the ancient Greek play titled Oresteia by Aeschylus. The characters in Mourning Becomes Electra as created by the playwright Eugene O’Neill may be compared to the characters of the ancient Greek play. For instance, the character of Brigadier General Ezra Mannon in Mourning Becomes Electra could be based on Agamemnon from the Oresteia. The character of Clytemnestra has been portrayed as Christine Mannon and the character of Orestes is portrayed as Orin Mannon. The character of Lavinia Mannon has obviously been drawn from the character of Electram which should also explain the title of the play under study Mourning Becomes Electra by the playwright Eugene O’Neill. The character of Aegisthus finds reflection in the character of Adam Brant. These would account for the major characters or protagonists of the play Mourning Becomes Electra. Yet the playwright O’Neill has been inspired and found reference from more than just the characters. The relationship between the mother Christine Mannon and her son Orin Mannon has obviously been inspired by the Greek reference to the ‘Oedipus complex’. This is revealed by the almost palpable and yet unspoken undercurrent of sizzling sexual context of their physical proximity, their embraces and the declaration by the son Orin on repeated occasions that he has always dreamed of taking his mother alone on a trip to the South Seas. Although this relation has been more openly described and expressed by O’Neill, the more open reference he has made is in reference to Lavinia Mannon as Electra in Mourning Becomes Electra. The Electra complex depicts the sexual relationship between a father and a daughter in ancient Greek mythology. Both the Oedipus complex as well as the Electra complex have been the focus of much modern day debate and also formed the basis for plenty of modern day literature, not just in English but also in many other global languages. The play Mourning Becomes Electra by the American playwright Eugene O’Neill is set against the Civil War that had taken place in the American State of New England. The characters of Brigadier General Ezra Mannon, the head of the Mannon family, and his son Orin Mannon, are shown to be members of the American military and hence had been to New England to fight for their country against the rebels. Self-Instructional Material 105 Beckett and O’Neill The playwright O’Neill has managed to hold his audience’s attention through the entire narrative. The play Mourning Becomes Electra may or may not have been inspired by an ancient Greek tragedy. What is immediately obvious is that the play Mourning Becomes Electra is by itself a tragedy and a parody of human relations within a so called high class NOTES family in America of the early 20th century. 4.3.3 Synopsis and Theme of Mourning Becomes Electra The play Mourning Becomes Electra is basically set against the backdrop of the Civil War in New England and for the most part is set on the large and stately estate belonging to the Mannon family. The main male protagonist is the head of the family, Brigadier General Ezra Mannon. As is obvious from the title of the play, the main female protagonist of the play is named Lavinia referred to as Electra. Christine Mannon is the wife of Brigadier General Ezra Mannon who is shown to be involved in an extramarital liaison with Captain Adam Brant who is the captain of a clipper ship, Flying Traders. The elder son of the Mannon couple Ezra and Christine—Orin Mannon—is also in the army. Orin has a friend from the US Artillery named Captain Peter Niles who has a sister named Hazel Niles. The estate has an old faithful gardener named Seth Beckwith. The character of the gardener turns out to be a significant one in the larger scheme of things. It is said that the working class employed by rich families are faithful and rarely speaking eloquently. Instead, they observe everything and everyone quietly, never speaking about what they see or hear. The main play has been divided into a trilogy of three plays: ‘The Homecoming’, ‘The Hunted’ and ‘The Haunted’. As the play opens, Lavinia is shown talking to the old gardener, Seth Beckwith. At the end of that conversation, she discovers many secrets, or rather skeletons in the cupboard of the Mannon family. Lavinia is described by the playwright as a thin and cold young lady. As the play progresses, the audience realizes that Lavinia actually has plenty of emotions. She is shown to like Captain Adam Brant, who she assumes reciprocates her feelings. In any case, he is known to visit the Mannon estate fairly regularly. As the young lady speaks with the old gardener, she is unable to stop counting the skeletons that suddenly start tumbling out of the family closet. Because the play has been divided into three shorter plays, almost like a triangle, it would be difficult to describe the central theme of any one or all of the three parts, either in isolation and singularly or in relation to the others. On the contrary, it becomes essential to look at the central theme as a thread that intertwines the three plays together, binding them together and strengthening the whole. The playwright O’Neill is said to have been inspired to write the play Mourning Becomes Electra from the ancient Greek play titled Oresteia by Aeschylus. This is perhaps because the characters of the current play under discussion find reflection in specific characters from the Greek play. It is a known fact that ancient mythology or literature have always inspired modern day writers, poets, playwrights and artists. The central thread that the playwright Eugene O’Neill has used to intertwine the three parts of the whole together is that of revenge. It is during the first part of the play, ‘The Homecoming’, that this central plot is revealed not just to Lavinia but also to the audience. It appears that the character of Adam Brant is actually not who he claims to be and he has been liaising himself with both mother and daughter out of an act of revenge. Upon being confronted by Lavinia, Adam Brant admits that he does not love her, but loves her mother.

106 Self-Instructional Material But Lavinia realizes that Adam Brant is actually an evil person and does not love Christine Beckett and O’Neill Mannon either. Lavinia, who next confronts her mother Christine about her liaison with Adam Brant, is perhaps unable to tell her mother the exact reason for Adam Brant’s interest in her. Instead, she extracts a promise from the mother that she will end the liaison. It is revealed to NOTES the audience that Christine does not love her daughter Lavinia, yet promises her daughter. Lavinia now realizes that her father Ezra Mannon’s life could be in danger. Lavinia loves her father deeply and decides to protect him when he returns. The day she had so eagerly been waiting for was the homecoming of her dear father Ezra and her brother Orin. The question is whether that event would actually be their homecoming and a day for rejoicing? The playwright O’Neill has made reference to the Greek character Electra when describing the character of Lavinia, obviously drawing reference from the Electra complex. Lavinia is shown by the playwright to reject the marriage proposals of her brother’s friend Peter Niles because she loves her father and wants to make sure he will be taken care of on his return from the war. She then suddenly realizes that her father’s life would be in greater danger in his own house than it was on the battlefield. Revenge is a powerful motive for most crimes that take place in the world from time immemorial. It has also formed the central theme of many creative works, both written as well as visual. On the face of it, the character of Adam Brant would appear to be that of a young man who is more besotted by the mother and her beauty than he is by the daughter, who to most observers would appear to be cold and stern. Yet her off the sleeve conversation with the old gardener Seth turns a young girl’s romantic perspective of her beau or rather so-called beau, turns the world of Lavinia Mannon upside down, and changes her perspective of her family entirely. This is perhaps the reason why when the play opens, O’Neill has described the protagonist as a crazy person. Apparently, she has been depicted, as the play opens, to be acting strangely, displaying an overwhelming joy at the news of her father’s homecoming. It is as though she is unable to contain the joy she feels and will go completely mad. Yet, is it actually pure and uninhibited joy or the feeling of impending disaster that is causing Lavinia to behave in a crazy manner? O’Neill has perhaps drawn on the Electra complex for the play to portray the complicated character of Lavinia in an effort to show the audience that the daughter, in this case Lavinia, rejects the marriage proposal of a young man, Peter Niles, in order to always be with her father almost like a shadow after his homecoming from the Civil War in New England, so that she can protect him from the impending danger in his life. The Electra complex is another version of the Oedipus complex which is almost romantic affection between a mother and son. Both the Oedipus complex as well as the Electra complex are explained and portrayed in and mythology and have been drawn on and referred to by various writers, poets, playwrights and artists down the centuries. Theme On the face of it, as the play opens, it would appear to the audiences that the central theme of the play is the romantic love, adulation and passion that Lavinia Mannon experiences for her father. No doubt the playwright has depicted the main protagonist as per the title of the play Mourning Becomes Electra, and has made reference to it in both the title and the crazy manner in which she begins to behave when she is told that her father is coming home after the Civil War that he had just fought in New England.

Self-Instructional Material 107 Beckett and O’Neill Yet, within few moments of the opening scene, it becomes apparent as to what is central to the trilogy that form the complete play, is not actually the relationship between the father and daughter, but the desire for revenge. It is another character called Adam Brant who wants revenge. This is revealed to both Lavinia as well as the audience by the old and NOTES supposedly faithful gardener Seth that Adam Brant is actually not who he claims to be, but a close relative of the Mannon family. The old gardener Seth tells Lavinia that Adam Brant has been coming to the house to court both her and her mother Christine in order to extract his revenge on the Mannon family. Seth reveals that the real and more sinister purpose of Adam Brant is not to court either of them but to extract his revenge on the Mannon family. The questions that arise here are: So, how is this character of Adam Brant connected to the Mannon family? And why would he want to take revenge on the Mannon family? Will the homecoming of the Brigadier General Ezra Mannon remain a homecoming? Or will it actually mark his departure from it, this time forever? Does Adam Brant succeed in taking his revenge on the Mannon family? The central thread of the plot that intertwines the three parts is that of revenge and it not just intertwines the three parts but also strengthens the connection between the three parts, making the entire play a complete and amazing whole. The Brigadier General Ezra Mannon gets killed some time after his return from the battlefield and obviously neither Lavinia nor her brother Orin is able to save his life. So what happens after his murder? The central theme of the second part of the play titled ‘The Hunted’ is the manner in which Adam Brant and Christine Mannon plot the murder of Brigadier General Ezra Mannon. The playwright has chosen the term ‘The Hunted’ to show how the old army officer begins to feel hunted in his own house and realizes that his life is in danger. He becomes aware of his wife Christine Mannon’s ongoing liaison with Adam Brant and that Adam Brant has been plotting to murder him because he wants the old Mannon estate. He realizes that his house is no longer his. He realizes that his wife Christine Mannon is not just cheating on him but is betraying him on many levels. He understands that only his daughter Lavinia loves him unconditionally and is desperately trying to protect him. Towards the end of the second part of the play Mourning Becomes Electra, the audience witnesses the murder of Brigadier General Ezra Mannon. Orin Mannon repeatedly tells his mother Christine Mannon that he had missed her when he had been away from her and had always dreamed that he would take her across the Seven Seas. Although Lavinia repeatedly tells him that their mother is involved with Adam Brant, he does not believe her. On couple of occasions that he confronts his mother with liaison, Christine Mannon manages to convince him that Adam Brant has been coming to the house to woo Lavinia. A sense of hatred begins to develop between the brother and sister. During the third part of the play titled ‘The Haunted’, Lavinia manages to convince her brother to keep an eye on the movements of their mother Christine. Finally, the clipper ship being captained comes back to port and Christine decides to sneak out of the house to meet Adam. The brother and sister follow her. After the meeting, during which Orin and Lavinia overhear the conversation, Orin waits for his mother to leave and shoots Adam Brant after her departure. The plotting for revenge on the part of Adam Brant is so deep rooted and sinister that he has planned to not just murder the Brigadier General Ezta Mannon and take away his house, but other plans too at various levels in order to destroy the entire family. In spite of the fact that Orin manages to kill Adam Brant after the funeral of Brigadier General Ezra Mannon,

108 Self-Instructional Material as the play progresses, the audience realizes that Orin is consumed by guilt and grief and Beckett and O’Neill looks old and decrepit. In sharp contrast, Lavinia appears to blossom and actually look beautiful towards the end of the play. This is precisely why the playwright apparently named the play Mourning Becomes Electra. Although her character appeared to be the only one to have actually NOTES loved Brigadier General Ezra Mannon, towards the final scenes, she is depicted as a beautiful and warm young woman, completely changed from her earlier portrayal as a cold and stern young woman. 4.3.4 Critical Appreciation of Mourning Becomes Electra The play Mourning Becomes Electra was written by the renowned American playwright Eugene Gladstone O’Neill in 1931. It is a play that is divided into three significant parts: ‘The Homecoming’, ‘The Hunted’ and ‘The Haunted’. The central thread of the plot revealed to the audience as being the desire for revenge is so sinister that as the play progresses, it becomes obvious that the events unfolding before them are bound to impact the audience at various levels as well. The three parts have been titled differently from one another. On the face of it, the titles do not appear to indicate that there could be any connection between them at all. It would appear that they are three separate parts interlinked only by one common thread—its theme—but randomly put together events to make up the three parts. However, as the play progresses, the genius of the playwright is revealed to the audience. The central theme, which is the deep rooted desire for revenge on the part of the character of Adam Brant, comes across as completely sinister that it is revealed to the audience that the plotting for revenge has taken place at multiple levels through the entire play. The play has been divided into three parts and each part has been further divided into four to five acts. The timeframe of the entire play is shown to extend over a long period of time, of perhaps about two years. The play has been set against the backdrop of the magnificent Mannon estate. The house is huge with a beautiful garden surrounding it. The main protagonist is shown to be involved in a conversation with the gardener Seth who tells her some family secrets that will change her life forever. Adam Brant, captain of a clipper ship had been coming regularly to court her whenever his ship had berthed at the local port. However, she now learns that he had actually been involved in a love affair with her mother Christine Mannon too. But a more devastating revelation that the old gardener makes to Lavinia is that Adam Brant is not who he pretends and claims to be. He is the son of David Mannon who was the son of Abe, Ezra’s brother. Abe Mannon had been sick and ailing and had a nurse to take care of his needs. David Mannon was involved with Marie, the French nurse of his father Abe. On being discovered, the family was furious and banished both of them from the Mannon family estate. Adam Brant was actually the son of David Mannon and Marie. He had now come to the Mannon estate in order to seek revenge on behalf his parents David Mannon and Marie. Let us now look at each of the three parts individually and also try to draw parallels from the old Greek play and the present play under study. The Greek play that had inspired the playwright to write his masterpiece Mourning Becomes Electra was Oresteia by Aeschylus, from the fifth century BC, which had been a trilogy portraying the various and complicated relationships within the house of Atreus. In

Self-Instructional Material 109 Beckett and O’Neill the first play, after Troy had been invaded, Clytemnestra murders her husband, the victorious Agamemnon. In the second, their son Orestes, with his sister Electra, murders his mother and her lover Aegisthus. In the third, Orestes is hounded by the Furies for murdering his mother but is finally released and acquitted of the crime. In his play Mourning Becomes NOTES Electra, O’Neill has obviously reshaped and reinvented major parts of the original narrative. It is obvious that O’Neill also referred to Electra by Sophocles and Euripides, which focused on the daughter, a young woman, consumed and haunted by both love and hate and never at peace. (i) The Homecoming This is the first part of the play Mourning Becomes Electra. A short analysis is given below. Act I The play opens on the gardens of the Mannon house. The season is depicted to be sometime in late spring. The family is preparing to welcome back the head of the household, Brigadier General Ezra Mannon, and his son, Orin Mannon, who will be back from fighting in the Civil War. Lavinia Mannon is shown to be a stiff and stern young lady. Apparently, both Lavinia Mannon and her mother Christine Mannon, have both just returned from taking separate trips. The old family gardener Seth calls Lavinia to one side, to warn her against the intentions of Adam Brant, who had been coming to the house regularly to court her. At this point, however, Peter Niles and his sister Hazel Niles make an appearance. Lavinia Mannon does not like Peter Niles. He was a friend of her brother Orin Mannon and had been proposing to her regularly. She did not want to marry anyone because she believed her father needed her more. She urges the gardener Seth to continue with his narrative. Lavinia Mannon continues her conversation with the old gardener. Seth urges her to look for physical resemblance between Adam Brant and her own family members. Seth tells her that David had had an affair with Abe’s nurse, Marie, and they had both been banished from the Mannon house in order to save the family from disgrace. The old gardener tells her he suspects Adam Brant is their son. Just at that point, Adam Brant makes an appearance through the gates of the estate. Lavinia Mannon sees him and begins to taunt the character of Marie. On hearing the name, Adam Brant erupts in anger and confirms that he is actually the son of David Mannon and Marie. Act II During the second act, Lavinia enters her father’s study and calls her mother there to talk to her. Here, the playwright has depicted the intricate and devious nature of women scorned and women in love. Lavinia tells her mother that she had followed her, Christine, on her trip to New York and witnessed her kissing Adam Brant. At this, Christine laughs in disgust and tells her daughter that she had hated Ezra for a long time and actually Lavinia was the result of not love for her husband but out of disgust for Ezra Mannon. On the other hand, Christine tells Lavinia that she loved her son Orin dearly because she was convinced that he would always belong solely to her and no one else. Lavinia wants her mother to end her liaison with Adam Brant. Although Christine in turn accuses her daughter Lavinia of always wanting the same things her mother did and that Lavinia actually wanted Adam Brant for herself. She agrees to stop seeing the man again. The playwright has tried to explore the complex and unhealthy relationships between a mother and son as well as a father and daughter. Lavinia is shown to love her father Ezra

110 Self-Instructional Material with a passion and intensity which is rarely witnessed between a father and daughter. Similarly, Beckett and O’Neill the kind of closeness shared between Christine and her son Orin is also explored and discussed at length.

Act III NOTES During the third act, the playwright shows Christine and her daughter Lavinia standing at the top of the front stairs overlooking the driveway. Ezra enters through the gates and stands stiffly at the foot of the stairs. On seeing her father, Lavinia is shown to rush down the stairs and embrace him. Ezra greets his wife with a kiss on her hand. She assures him there is nothing to worry and suspect about Adam Brant. For his part, the war appears to have convinced the old Brigadier General that he and his wife need to work at breaking down the wall they had erected between them years ago. He embraces and kisses his wife. Act IV The fourth act opens in the bedroom of the master of the house, Ezra Mannon. It is almost dawn, and he and his wife have apparently made passionate love earlier that night. Christine is shown to creep stealthily out of bed, believing her husband Ezra to be asleep. But he wakes up. He is now actually aware of the true situation prevailing in his house and knows that nothing in his house can be called his own any more. Ezra then accuses his wife that he is aware of her extra marital liaison. Christine admits that she has indeed become the mistress of Adam Brant. Ezra tries to rush at her, but instead collapses clutching his heart. He is a heart patient and is unable to find his pills. He asks Christine to get the pills for him. Seizing the opportunity, Christine hands him over the poison pills she had been saving for such an opportunity. On taking the pills, however, Ezra realizes that his wife has managed to poison him and calls out to his daughter Lavinia. Lavinia rushes into the bedroom and embraces her father, but it is too late, for the poison had spread in his blood. The playwright has portrayed the intricate and almost unhealthy relationships between different members of a family, which to the outside world may appear to be normal and acceptable. This is where the first part of the play, ‘The Homecoming’, draws to a close. Let us now proceed to the second part. (ii) The Hunted This is the second part of the play Mourning Becomes Electra. A short analysis is given below. Act I As the first act opens, the audience sees Peter Niles, Orin Mannon and Lavinia Mannon on stage. It turns out that Lavinia has written to her brother Orin in detail about the ongoing affair between their mother and Adam Brant. Hence, when Orin makes an appearance, he appears to be jealous and demands an explanation from his sister Lavinia. Before Lavinia can actually give any explanation, however, their mother Christine also makes a sudden appearance and rebukes Peter Niles for leaving his friend Orin along. Mother and son are now shown to embrace warmly. The closeness of their embrace may appear to the audience as unhealthy and inappropriate. Act II As the second act opens, Orin is shown talking to his mother and telling her that he had missed her dearly through the war and had always been consumed with dreams of sailing Self-Instructional Material 111 Beckett and O’Neill across the South Seas with his mother. Once again, their proximity appears to be inappropriate to the audience. Certainly, Lavinia appears to be uncomfortable at their open and passionate embrace as well as the context of their conversation. The playwright has obviously left it to his audience to draw their own conclusions regarding the true nature of the relationships NOTES between the father Ezra and his daughter Lavinia, as well as between the mother Christine and her son Orin. In any case, Lavinia draws her brother aside and takes him to see their father’s body. Act III The third act opens to a scene in the study where the brother and sister are together. Orin tells his sister that their mother Christine has told him of her secret involvement with Adam Brant. Lavinia realizing the lies her mother has been feeding Orin informs her brother that they should follow their mother Christine when she leaves the house to sneak out stealthily when the ship being captained by Adam Brant docked at the port. Orin agrees to keep an eye on their mother. Act IV In the fourth act of the second part of the play Mourning Becomes Electra, the scene opens on the night after the funeral of Brigadier General Ezra Mannon has taken place. The brother and sister are seen hiding in the dark as Christine sneaks out of the house. The brother and sister follow her silently. Orin has apparently armed himself with his army pistol. Christine reaches the ship and meets Adam Brant on the deck. The couple embrace and kiss and go below the deck to Adam’s cabin. After some time, Christine is shown to come out from the deck below and leave the ship. At this point, Adam Brant is shown to be alone on the deck. After a while he returns to his cabin. Orin and Lavinia emerge from the darkness and follow the man below the deck. Orin confronts Adam, who admits almost leeringly of his affair with their mother. Orin shoots him, killing him on the spot. Lavinia and Orin make the room look as though someone had actually tried to steal, been caught, and shot Adam Brant in self-defense. Act V The fifth act opens with Christine pacing impatiently in front of the house. Orin and Lavinia make an entry. Orin informs his mother that they have just returned after killing Adam Brant. Christine is shown to collapse on the driveway. Orin goes to her side, consoling her and soothes her with promises of sailing across the South Seas. He tells his mother Christine that they would go alone and leave Lavinia alone at the house while they travelled. At this point, Lavinia commands her brother to go indoors. He obeys her without a word. At this, Christine perhaps with a sense of foreboding, glares at her daughter Lavinia with an almost savage hatred, appearing to want to throttle her with her bare hands. Her hatred for her daughter is almost palpable. Christine too enters the house, obviously intent on going to join her son Orin. Lavinia is seen to stand with quiet determination at the foot of the stairs, almost like she is a standing guard. A short while later, a gunshot is heard from within the house. Orin has killed his mother Christine. Hearing the shot, Lavinia is seen to relax her stiff posture, muttering, ‘It is justice!’ Once again the playwright appears to have left it to his audience to decide as to why Orin decided to kill his mother. Orin had appeared to have loved his mother Christine with a passion and intensity that would have appeared inappropriate and unhealthy to the audience.

112 Self-Instructional Material He had consistently refused to believe his sister Lavinia who had revealed the true state of Beckett and O’Neill affairs to him. Should it not have satisfied him to have killed Adam Brant, his mother’s lover? Orin could have just left the area with Christine as he just promised her and tried to make her happy as he had promised her. Had he killed Christine because she had repeatedly lied to NOTES him although she claimed to love him so intensely? Or had he killed Christine because he was unable to accept the fact that she had actually loved another man passionately and intensely while claiming to have loved him as deeply? So was the nature of the love between Christine and her son Orin? At this point, the second part of the play comes to an end, and the third part named ‘The Haunted’ begins. (iii) The Haunted This is the third part of the play Mourning Becomes Electra. A short analysis is given below. Act I As the scene opens, the audience can see Orin Mannon and Lavinia make an entry. It is apparently a year after the previous one in the previous part. Their personalities appear to have undergone complete changes. Lavinia who had earlier always appeared to be stiff and stern, now appears to have blossomed, appearing beautiful and sensuous like her mother had always been. In sharp contrast, Orin appears to have become stiff, appearing to have visibly aged, looking like his father Ezra Mannon. Orin missing his mother and feeling guilty at having killed her accuses his sister Lavinia of having stolen their mother Christine’s soul. He remarks that their mother’s death appears to have released the prison in which Lavinia had been living all these years. At this point, Peter Niles makes an entry. Stunned at the sudden change in Lavinia, whom he had loved for years, he first imagines he had seen a ghost of Christine. Act II The second act opens to a scene to show Orin working hard at writing something. Lavinia enters and pretends to be interested and caring, asks him what he is doing. He informs her that he is trying to make amends for having killed their mother Christine. Orin informs his sister that as the last male Mannon alive, he is writing a history of the crimes committed by the Mannon family. Orin mentions that according to him the character of Lavinia would appear to onlookers as the most interesting. He tells her that although she had been unattractive and stiff earlier, she had transformed entirely during the time she had spent on the Islands. Perhaps, it had transpired because the natives there had always been staring at her with desire. The playwright has obviously tried to make the character of Orin a complicated one, consumed by guilt, especially at having killed his mother whom he had loved almost inappropriately. To look at his sister Lavinia appear more like Christine with the passing of each day must have filled him with regret, remorse and strange jealousy. This is precisely why the playwright named his play Mourning Becomes Electra. This accusation from Orin obviously angers Lavinia, who begins to taunt him in her mother’s voice. Hearing that voice, Orin is obviously startled and consumed with rage and guilt. He rushes at his sister Lavinia, grasping her throat, intent on choking her to death. In

Self-Instructional Material 113 Beckett and O’Neill that instant, Orin appears to Lavinia like their father Ezra. It would actually seem as if the son has become the father and the daughter has become the mother. Act III NOTES The third act opens to a scene in the sitting room of the Mannon house. Orin is shown to be alone with Hazel Niles. He gives Hazel a sealed envelope and tells her to keep it in a safe place where Lavinia will not be able to get it. He informs Hazel Niles that she should open and read the contents of that envelope only if something untoward should happen to him. Once again, the playwright has tried to ask the audience to foresee the future. Had he tried to portray Orin to be afraid of his own hatred and anger? Had he tried to portray Orin to have become so accustomed to killing by that time that he was afraid that he would give in to temptation and kill his sister Lavinia at her continued taunts? Is the character of Orin afraid that he will not be able to control his urges to kill? Act IV The fourth act opens to the sitting room of the old Mannon house. Lavinia is alone and Hazel Niles enters. Orin has died, either he committed suicide or killed by his sister. She is seen to be in black, apparently mourning for the deaths in her family. Hazel Niles appears with the envelope and tells Lavinia that she cannot allow her to marry Peter. Hazel tells Lavinia that she is sharing the contents of the envelope Orin had given her for safe keeping. At this point, Peter too makes an appearance. Peter and Lavinia promise to always love one another. However, Peter’s voice is bitter. This saddens and surprises Lavinia. She approaches Peter with the words, ‘Take me, Adam! Again!’ Hearing her own voice, Lavinia suddenly becomes horrified and disgusted. She orders the Niles brother and sister to leave the house, declaring that because there were no other Mannon family members left to punish her, she would have to live with their ghosts instead and punish herself until her death. Lavinia then calls the old gardener Seth and asks him to close all the windows of the house so that no sunlight could ever enter the house again. She then enters the house alone, determined to live in the dark and remain haunted forever. This is how Adam Brant has taken his revenge even after his death. The entire narrative is so eerie and sinister almost for the most part that the playwright perhaps wanted his audience to leave and return home haunted by what they had seen and heard. 4.3.5 Issues and Analysis in Mourning Becomes Electra Let us begin with an analysis of each of the main characters. Lavinia Mannon The main protagonist, Lavinia Mannon, is the daughter of Brigadier General Ezra Mannon and his wife Christine Mannon. The playwright Eugene Gladstone O’Neill has portrayed her as a stern looking and stiff young lady, extremely unattractive except for her beautiful hair. Perhaps she is so, or has made herself to be so, because she feels she must not marry any man but stay at her parents’ house so that she can always be there for her father. She is also portrayed to have passionate love only for her father. This is perhaps the reason the playwright Eugene Gladstone O’Neill has named his play Mourning Becomes Electra, perhaps taking reference from Electra complex, where the father and daughter share an unhealthy and inappropriate love for one another. Yet through the entire play, except for the scene where she embraces her father upon his return from the battlefield, the playwright has not shown 114 Self-Instructional Material any scene where the father and daughter come into close proximity with one another. Of Beckett and O’Neill course, Lavinia is shown to be jealous the night her father returns home from the battlefield when he retires for the night with his wife Christine. But of course that sudden stiffness of demeanor could have been because she was aware that her mother did not love her father and instead was involved in an extra marital affair with Adam Brant. NOTES Another reason why the playwright chose to name his play Mourning Becomes Electra could have been the fact that after most of the characters have died, she and her brother Orin leave on a trip to the Islands, where according to references made by Orin Adam had lived before his death. On their return home from the Islands, Lavinia is portrayed to have blossomed, lost her stiffness and become as beautiful and desirable as her mother had been before her death. As Orin crudely points out to his sister, this change came about not just in her looks but also in her personality because while they were in the Islands, the natives had constantly stared at her with desire. To the audience, it may seem strange because when they had left for the Islands, Orin had been a handsome young man and Lavinia had been a stiff and stern looking young woman who had been extremely unattractive. Moreover, to all intents and purposes, both the brother Orin as well as his sister Lavinia had been in mourning when they had left for the Islands. At the end of the play, the playwright implies that Lavinia has managed murder her brother Orin. When she is confronted by their neighbour Peter and Hazel Niles, once again the audience is able to witness another physical transformation in the character of Lavinia. Apparently, Orin had had a foreboding of his impending murder and had given an envelope to Hazel for safekeeping until something should happen to him. Thus, it transpires that after his death, Hazel shares the contents of the envelope with her brother Peter. This is what she tells Lavinia. The audience were aware that Peter had always been attracted to Lavinia or been in love with her. He had proposed marriage to Lavinia repeatedly and been rejected each time. This could have been due to one of the two reasons. The first reason could have been that Lavinia had been in love with Adam Brant. The other reason could have been that Lavinia believed that her father needed her more and she could never marry any other man. Now when Lavinia is confronted by the Niles siblings, Peter and she once again promise to love one another. However, she is stunned and surprised to see a change in the attitude and tone of Peter. This change is because of what he has read from the letter left behind by Orin. At this precise moment, Lavinia rushes towards Peter saying, ‘Take me, Adam! Again!’ This reveals that the only person she really loved was perhaps Adam Brant who she had believed had reciprocated to her feelings. Instead, she had discovered that Adam Brant had been involved in an extra marital liaison with her mother. This self-discovery obviously shocks and horrifies her. She suddenly decides that she will henceforth live alone in the darkened house with its windows barred and boarded, to be forever haunted by the ghosts of the dead members of her family. Christine Mannon Christine Mannon is shown to be extremely attractive. She also admits to her daughter that for years she had felt nothing but disgust for her husband Ezra Mannon. At this point, she was involved in a passionate extra marital affair with Adam Brant. She believes he returns her love, but that is another element to this play. The only other person she appears to have a similar passionate love for is her son Orin. Their proximity would appear to the audience as entirely inappropriate and unhealthy.

Self-Instructional Material 115 Beckett and O’Neill The playwright Eugene O’Neill has managed to convey to his audience that human relationships are never what they appear on the surface and are too complicated and at times bizarre to be understood by mere mortals. After her son Orin murders Adam Brant and gives his mother this news, Christine NOTES collapses. Orin at first appears to placate her and promises to live with her and give her all the happiness and love she deserves. Instead, moments later, he shoots and kills his mother Christine as well. Orin Mannon Orin, the son of Brigadier General Ezra Mannon and Christine Mannon, is portrayed as a handsome man. His neighbour Hazel Niles is in love with him and he too is in love with her. Yet his attraction and devotion to his mother are obvious to the audience, leaving them to wonder at his true intentions. The first person he kills is Adam Brant when he discovers his mother Christine has been having an affair with him. The next person he kills, within moments or hours of the first murder, is his mother. Perhaps both these murders happened because he was jealous of the fact that his mother Christine had been having an affair with another man, making him feel inadequate and of no consequence in the large scheme of things. The character of Orin is also shown to have perhaps become accustomed to murdering people. After his return home from a trip to the Islands with his sister Lavinia, he is once again shown to try to strangle her to death. It is in that instance, as the playwright puts it, that the son puts on the mantle of his father Ezra, while his sister Lavinia puts on the mantle of her mother Christine. Brigadier General Ezra Mannon The most uncomplicated in the Mannon family seems to be Brigadier General Ezra Mannon. He is shown to be aware of the fact that his wife had never loved him for years and that a wall had been built between them. On his return from the battlefield, Ezra feels remorse, perhaps, and as the playwright puts it, decides to break down the wall between him and his wife Christine. After a night of intimacy between the husband and wife, he is disturbed to see his wife leave the room. He confronts her and she admits readily and almost gloatingly that she is in a relationship with Adam Brant. Ezra is now convinced that the house is no longer his, as his wife is no longer his. As he tries to rush at his wife, he feels a severe pain in his heart and cannot find his pills. Seizing the moment, Christine hands him some pills that she pretends are his medicines. But she replaces his medicine with poison. After taking the pills, Ezra Mannon realizes that he has been given poison. This is perhaps the only time he actually calls out to his daughter Lavinia, who rushes in to his side. But she is unable to save her father and he dies. Adam Brant The most sinister of the entire cast is Adam Brant. He first appears to be interested in the daughter and although he does not end his relationship with her openly or directly, becomes involved with her mother as well. His real intentions are hidden from the audience. The playwright has woven his character into the plot so skilfully that one is left to marvel at his sheer genius. The only person who happens to see through his intentions is the old gardener Seth.

116 Self-Instructional Material It is revealed to the audience that Adam Brant is the son of David Mannon and Beckett and O’Neill Marie who had been the French nurse of Abe Mannon. On being discovered, the couple apparently had been banished from the Mannon house and estate in disgrace. Their child, Adam Brant, now makes an appearance in the play and his intentions were to seek revenge from the Mannon family. NOTES How successful he is in extracting his revenge is revealed to the audience as the play proceeds. Adam Brant does not just win over the two women in the family, Christine and Lavinia, he even manages to conspire the murder of Ezra Mannon, the senior male Mannon. Later, Orin Mannon kills his mother Christine Mannon. Finally, Lavinia is implied to have killed her brother Orin too. Although Orin is shown by the playwright to kill Adam Brant shortly after the funeral of his father, the web spun by Adam Brant around the Mannon family is so invisible yet strong that even in death, he is shown to have succeeded in completely destroying and annihilating the Mannon family. Such hatred and determination for revenge is evil and frightening. The audience is left to wonder what exactly the consequences of being banished from the Mannon family and home had been on David Mannon and his lover Marie Brant. Each of the three parts of the play, ‘The Homecoming’, ‘The Hunted’, and ‘The Haunted’ are intricately woven and linked together by a single central theme. That central theme is revenge. It is not just Adam Brant who is shown to the audience to be seeking revenge. Orin is also shown to kill Adam as well as his mother Christine out of revenge. After he tries to kill his sister Lavinia, the playwright implies that Lavinia kills her brother Orin out of revenge. This is perhaps to indicate that most crimes in the world are born out of a desire for revenge. Another negative emotion that the playwright appears to have explored in his play Mourning Becomes Electra is that of jealousy. Lavinia is a young woman. She is described everywhere repeatedly as being cold, stiff and unattractive. Although she appears to have had some feelings for Adam Brant, enough at least to have slept with him once, she is depicted as being unemotional and cold. She is portrayed as being fiercely jealous of her mother. Her mother is obviously much older than her, yet is obviously more attractive and beautiful than her, to an extent that the man she herself desires—Adam Brant—shows an open preference for her mother. This jealousy is obviously deep rooted and instinctive. When her brother Orin kills their mother Christine, Lavinia is shown to relax her stiffness of posture for the first time, muttering that it was justice. But more than feeling it was justice, she obviously felt an intense and heartwarming relief and satisfaction that the object and cause of her jealousy had at last been eliminated from her life. On a more psychological level, it was perhaps this feeling of relief and peace that resulted in the complete transformation not just in her personality but also in her appearance after her mother’s death. Perhaps, she herself had been unable to describe or express the relief and peace she felt after her mother’s death. It could also have been because Christine had never loved her daughter, instead loathed her openly. She had told her daughter too that she hated her because Lavinia was born out of disgust for her husband Ezra Mannon. The bond between a mother and daughter is precious and sensitive, strengthened by years of nurturing, caring and sense of belonging. The playwright has instead revealed that the mother in this regard had openly shown loathing and disgust at the sight and thought of her daughter Lavinia. How tragic this must have been for a daughter.

Self-Instructional Material 117 Beckett and O’Neill It was perhaps this feeling of intense relief and peace at the thought that she would now never have to deal with her mother or compete with her for a man’s attention, affection and love that finally resulted in the complete transformation in both personality and appearance of the daughter, justifying the title of the play Mourning Becomes Electra. NOTES The transformation had been so remarkable and almost inevitable that both Orin as well as Peter Niles were forced to concede that Lavinia now looked completely like her mother Christine. To the extent that even her voice appears to have undergone a change, leaving the audience as well as the cast imagine if it was Christine talking instead of Lavinia. Perhaps, Orin had felt a desire for his mother that had remained unexpressed openly and he had been unable to identify or share with anyone. Perhaps his guilt at having killed the woman he had secretly desired had caused the change in his own appearance, making him look old and haggard, almost like his father Ezra Mannon. This mixture of turbulent emotions had perhaps caused him to try to strangle his sister Lavinia when she had taunted him in her mother’s voice. How complicated, intricate and sordid human relations are. Do relations such as these actually exist or has the playwright Eugene Gladstone O’Neill revealed his genius, skill and his craft so intricately? In any case, the play reveals why Eugene Gladstone O’Neill won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama four times and a Nobel Laureate in Literature.

‘Check Your Progress’ 5. Name the first American dramatist to regard the stage as a literary medium and the first US playwright to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. 6. What became the central theme O’Neill’s play Long Day’s Journey into Night? 7. Name the play from which O’Neill got inspiration to write his play Mourning Becomes Electra. 8. What is the central thread of the plot that intertwines the three parts of the play Mourning Becomes Electra?

4.4 SUMMARY

 In the early 1950s, a number of dramatists came forward whose works can be put within the theoretical structure of what has been termed as the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’.  The Theatre of the Absurd was never a formal movement and remained confined to post-war France mainly but with the arrival of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, it soared to international acclaim. Martin Esslin’s main ‘absurdities’ are Beckett, Adamov, Ionesco and Genet with less attention to Albee and Pinter.  Historically speaking, Waiting for Godot accomplished what had not been accomplished for many decades, what even T. S. Eliot’s impassioned dedication did not accomplish: it gave the theatre a new point of beginning.  Waiting for Godot opened new avenues in the history of 20th century drama. It was performed in Paris in 1953 and inspired a great variety of interpretative criticism, much of it centred on the character of the cryptic Godot.  The two principal characters in the play are Vladimir and Estragon, two tramps who are waiting endlessly for a Mr. Godot, though they do not know who he is or why they are waiting for him or when and where they will meet him.

118 Self-Instructional Material  The important fact that every writer had to face in the first half of the 20th century Beckett and O’Neill was that the society in which he was living had lost its meaning.  Waiting for Godot is a dramatized metaphor for the most general existential experience of humanity, the experience of something which we feel ought to have meaning, ought to reveal its meaning, but which, from one day to another, always fails NOTES to produce that meaning.  In Waiting for Godot, salvation or purpose, equalling thematic resolution as well as meaningful significance for the characters’ actions, is indefinitely postponed: promised for a tomorrow that can never be reached because the present is always today.  In the play, Beckett has employed intensely poetical, immensely expressive images, as most of the Absurdists do, to bring out the fragmented, meaningless and irrational character of the human condition in post-war Europe.  Beckett’s prose is never solemn and he has written some of the funniest lines in the English and French languages.  The language of Beckett’s characters is pruned down to the minimum and backed up only where necessary by equally pruned down and stylized mime.  In Waiting for Godot, the language veers between two characteristic extremes: soliloquy, and the form of dialogue normally used by Vladimir and Estragon, which is constantly in danger of drying up for the lack of any real communication between them.  Modernism arrived in the British theatre with Beckett. In 1955, when Waiting for Godot reached the English stage, the standard drama of the time was Noel Coward and Terence Rattigan, or the later quasi-poetic comedies of T. S. Eliot.  In Waiting for Godot there is no plot, in the sense of a narrative with a beginning, middle and end: exposition, twists and turns of intrigue, crisis and unravelling  To call Waiting for Godot obscure and unintelligible is to underestimate Beckett’s resources and unceasingly inventive technique which has enabled him to make art out of material that in the hands of someone less gifted would seem to have been wasted.  Eugene O’Neill was the first American dramatist to regard the stage as a literary medium and the first US playwright to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.  Eugene Gladstone O’Neill was born on 16 October 1888. He was born in a room in a small hotel called the Barrette Hotel, which was situated on Broadway and 43rd Street in New York, the United States.  O’Neill fell passionately in love with the sea and spent many years at sea as a sailor. This passionate love for the sea later became a recurring theme in many of his plays.  The play Mourning Becomes Electra is a reinvention of the ancient Greek play titled Oresteia by Aeschylus.  The play Mourning Becomes Electra is basically set against the backdrop of the Civil War in New England and for the most part is set on the large and stately estate belonging to the Mannon family.  The main play has been divided into a trilogy of three plays: ‘The Homecoming’, ‘The Hunted’ and ‘The Haunted’.  The central thread that the playwright Eugene O’Neill has used to intertwine the three parts of the whole together is that of revenge.

Self-Instructional Material 119 Beckett and O’Neill 4.5 KEY TERMS

 Absurd: The term ‘Absurd’ is applied to theatre and literature that depicts life in all NOTES its absurdity. It was first used by Martin Esslin in his book titled Theatre of the Absurd.  Puns: These are the epitome of wordplay. A pun may be based on different meanings of the same word (as in ‘noting’) or on different words pronounced the same (‘whys’ and ‘wise’; ‘Londonderry Air’ and ‘London derriere’).  Naturalistic technique: In naturalistic technique, the settings are kept close to life so that the stage becomes a replica of any real life location and the narrative is linear.  Rhetoric: It is an art of using language in an effective and persuasive manner.  Oedipus complex: It is a term used by Sigmund Freud in his theory of psychosexual stages of development to describe a child’s feelings of desire for his or her opposite- sex parent and jealousy and anger toward his or her same-sex parent.  Electra complex: In Neo-Freudian psychology, the Electra complex, as proposed by Carl Jung, is a girl’s psychosexual competition with her mother for possession of her father.

4.6 ANSWERS TO ‘CHECK YOUR PROGRESS’

1. The two principal characters in the play are Vladimir and Estragon, two tramps who are waiting endlessly for a Mr. Godot, though they do not know who he is or why they are waiting for him or when and where they will meet him. 2. The important fact that every writer had to face in the first half of the 20th century was that the society in which he was living had lost its meaning and had simply ceased to make sense – previously held certainties had dissolved, the firmest foundations of hope and optimism had collapsed. Their works are essentially a product of the European predicament during and immediately after the World Wars. The world which they hold up to us is one in which all values have collapsed, all beliefs corroded, a world which can only generate despair and a feeling of meaninglessness. 3. Beckett’s genius is to turn words against themselves, making them show up their own emptiness. His characters’ misery comes from taking words at their face value. Vladimir and Estragon are reluctant to admit that the words are not so much their key to freedom as the stones of which their prison house is made. 4. The most essential feature of Beckett’s technique in Waiting for Godot is his use of symbols. Perhaps the clearest of the symbols is the road. It offers a clear alternative to the characters’ condition. 5. Eugene O’Neill was the first American dramatist to regard the stage as a literary medium and the first US playwright to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. 6. O’Neill was forced to spend 1912-13 at a sanatorium where he recuperated from tuberculosis. The events that led to his admission into the sanatorium later became the central theme of his play Long Day’s Journey into Night. 7. The play Mourning Becomes Electra is a reinvention of the ancient Greek play titled Oresteia by Aeschylus.

120 Self-Instructional Material 8. The central thread of the plot that intertwines the three parts is that of revenge and it Beckett and O’Neill not just intertwines the three parts but also strengthens the connection between the three parts, making the entire play a complete and amazing whole.

4.7 QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES NOTES

Short-Answer Questions 1. How does Lucky’s speech help in understanding Beckett’s view on language? 2. Write a brief note on the two central characters in the play, Vladimir and Estragon, the two tramps who wait endlessly for a Mr. Godot. 3. How has death as a theme been dealt with in Waiting for Godot? 4. Why did Eugene O’Neill during his childhood have a feeling of isolation? 5. Name some of O’Neill’s plays. 6. What is the theme of O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra? 7. Write a short note on the character of Adam Brant. Long-Answer Questions 1. Write in detail about the Theatre of the Absurd with special reference to Samuel Beckett. 2. Discuss the appropriateness of the title Waiting for Godot. 3. Discuss Beckett’s dramatic technique in Waiting for Godot. 4. Describe the life and literary career of Eugene O’Neill. 5. Critically analyse the play O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra. 6. Discuss the main events of the three parts of the play Mourning Becomes Electra.

4.8 FURTHER READING

Graver, Lawrence. 2004. Waiting for Godot: A Student Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,. Gale. 2016. A Study Guide for Eugene O’Neill’s ‘Mourning Becomes Electra’. Cengage Learning. Tonk, Moritz. 2011. The Oedipal Triangular Structure and Its Significance for Mourning Becomes Electra. Grin Verlag. Barringer, H. Douglas. 1976. Catharsis in Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra. College of William and Mary.

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Miller and Soyinka UNIT 5 MILLER AND SOYINKA

Structure NOTES 5.0 Introduction 5.1 Unit Objectives 5.2 Arthur Miller: All My Sons 5.2.1 Life and Literary Career of Miller 5.2.2 Plot and Dramatic Techniques in All My Sons 5.2.3 Characters in All My Sons 5.2.4 Themes in All My Sons 5.3 Wole Soyinka: A Dance of the Forests 5.3.1 Life and Literary Career of Soyinka 5.3.2 Historical Background of A Dance of the Forests 5.3.3 Synopsis and Theme of A Dance of the Forests 5.3.4 Critical Appreciation of A Dance of the Forests 5.3.5 Issues and Analysis in A Dance of the Forests 5.4 Summary 5.5 Key Terms 5.6 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 5.7 Questions and Exercises 5.8 Further Reading

5.0 INTRODUCTION

This unit discusses two of the most appreciated dramatists and their plays—Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and Wole Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forests. All My Sons is Arthur Miller’s first commercially successful play, in which Miller has examined the morality of a man who places his responsibility to his immediate family above his duty to the men who depend on the integrity of his work. In this play, Miller demonstrated the strong influence of both Henrik Ibsen and Greek tragedy. Miller started writing the play in 1945, taking inspiration from the Second World War and the true-life story of a woman who warned authorities about her father’s wrong-doing during wartime. The play features the ideas of social responsibility and uses symbolism throughout to express the idea of finality and death. Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, poet and essayist. Playwright Wole Soyinka was commissioned to write A Dance of the Forests as part of the celebration of Nigeria’s independence. The unit describes the role played by the ancestors and Gods in African literature.

5.1 UNIT OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you will be able to:  Describe the life and literary career of Arthur Miller  Assess the central theme of Miller’s All My Sons  Describe the life and literary career of Wole Soyinka

Self-Instructional Material 123 Miller and Soyinka  Critically analyse the theme and the title of Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forests  Assess the role played by the ancestors and Gods in African literature

NOTES 5.2 ARTHUR MILLER: ALL MY SONS

Arthur Miller was an inspiring modern American playwright, best known for his powerful play that commented on the contemporary political witch hunting during the Cold War period, using the historical backdrop of the Salem witch trials of the 17th century. All My Sons is a play about truth, commitment and guilt. The story is about the Keller family and their neighbours Deevers who end up paying for the mistake of Joe Keller. It is about Joe Keller, his fatal decision and his lies. The story is powerful and raises questions concerning individual ethics, social commitment and the nature of truth. Arthur Miller wrote All My Sons after his first play The Man Who Had All the Luck which had been a complete failure on Broadway lasting only four performances. Miller wrote the play as a final attempt at writing a commercially successful play. If the play failed to find an audience, Miller had vowed to ‘find some other line of work’. All My Sons is based on a true story, which was pointed out by Arthur Miller’s then mother-in-law in an Ohio newspaper. The story depicted how a woman informed on her father who had sold faulty parts to the US military during the Second World War. Miller was influenced by Henrik Ibsen’s play The Wild Duck, where Miller took the idea of two partners in a business in which one is compelled to take moral and legal responsibility for the other. This is mirrored in All My Sons. He also borrowed the idea of a character’s idealism being the source of a problem. The criticism of the American Dream, which is a central theme of All My Sons, was one reason why Arthur Miller was called to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during the 1950s, when America was gripped by anti-communist hysteria. Miller sent a copy of the play to Elia Kazan who directed the original stage version of All My Sons. Kazan was a former member of the Communist Party who shared Miller’s left-wing views. However, their relationship was severed when Kazan gave names of suspected Communists to the HUAC during the Red Scare. Arthur Miller’s writing in All My Sons often portrays great respect for the great Grecian tragedies of the likes of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. In these plays, the tragic hero or protagonist will commit an offence, often unknowingly, which will return to haunt him, sometimes many years later. The play summarizes all the consequences from the offense into a twenty-four hour time span. During that day, the protagonist must learn his fault and suffer as a result, and perhaps even die. In this way, the gods are shown to be just and moral order is restored. In All My Sons, these elements are all present; it takes place within a twenty-four hour period, has a protagonist suffering from a previous offense and punishment for that offense. Moreover, it explores the father-son relationship, also a common theme in Grecian tragedies. Ann Deever could also be seen to parallel a messenger as her letter is of Larry’s death. In Joe Keller, Arthur Miller creates just a representative type. Joe is portrayed as a very ordinary man, decent, hard-working and charitable, a man no-one could dislike. However, like the protagonist of the ancient drama, he has a flaw or weakness. This, in turn, causes him to act in a wrong manner. He is forced to accept responsibility. His suicide is necessary to restore the moral order of the universe, and allows his son, Chris, to live free from guilt

124 Self-Instructional Material and persecution. Arthur Miller later uses the everyman in a criticism of the American Dream Miller and Soyinka in Death of a Salesman, which is in many ways similar to All My Sons. The important characters in the play are:  Joe Keller, a sixty-year old NOTES  Kate Keller  Chris Keller, thirty-two year old  Ann Deever, twenty-six year old  George Deever, thirty-one year old  Frank Lubey, thirty-two year old  Lydia Lubey, twenty-seven year old  Jim Bayliss, a successful doctor  Sue Bayliss, Jim’s wife  Bert Unseen characters  Larry Keller  Steve Deever 5.2.1 Life and Literary Career of Miller Arthur Asher Miller was born on 17 October 1915 in to Isidore and Augusta Miller, who were Polish-Jewish immigrants. His father was an illiterate but wealthy owner of women’s clothing store. In the famous Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Miller family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. In a struggling young life, Arthur, as a teenager delivered bread every morning before school to help the family make ends meet. He graduated in 1932 from Abraham Lincoln High School, following which he worked at several menial jobs to pay for his college tuition. At the University of Michigan, Miller took his degree in journalism first and worked as a reporter and night editor for the student paper, the Michigan Daily. During this time, he wrote his first work, No Villain. Miller switched his major to English, and consequently received the Avery Hopwood Award for No Villain. Professor Kenneth Rowe was his mentor, who instructed him in his early forays into playwriting. Miller retained strong ties to his alma mater throughout the rest of his life, establishing the University’s Arthur Miller Award in 1985 and Arthur Miller Award for Dramatic Writing in 1999, and lending his name to the Arthur Miller Theatre in 2000. Miller wrote Honors at Dawn in 1937, which also received the Avery Hopwood Award. Miller graduated with a BA in English in 1938, following which he joined the , a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theatre. He gave up the offer to work as a scriptwriter for 20th Century Fox and chose his calling in theatre. However, during that time, the Congress was worried about possible Communist infiltration, and decided to close the project in 1939. Miller started working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard while continuing to write radio plays, some of which were broadcast on CBS. On 5 August 1940, he married his college love, Mary Slattery, who was the Catholic daughter of an insurance salesman. The couple had two children, Jane and Robert. During the Second World War, Miller was exempted from military service because of a high-school

Self-Instructional Material 125 Miller and Soyinka football injury to his left kneecap. Robert, a writer and film director, produced the 1996 movie version of The Crucible. Miller wrote The Man Who Had All the Luck in 1940; it was produced in New Jersey the same year and won the ’s National Award. However, the play NOTES closed after four performances and devastating reviews. In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald surmises that Miller was ‘a member of a writer’s unit of the Communist Party around 1946’, using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and edited a drama column in the magazine The New Masses. All My Sons came out in 1946, which was the result of continuous thought put by Miller in his writing since 1941. It was a success on Broadway and also contributed to Miller’s literary career by earning him his first Tony Award for Best Author. In 1948, Miller built a small studio in Roxbury, Connecticut where he wrote Act I of Death of a Salesman, one of the classics of modern world theatre, in less than a day. He completed the rest of the play within six weeks. Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on 10 February 1949 at the , directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, Mildred Dunnock as Linda, Arthur Kennedy as Biff and Cameron Mitchell as Happy. The play was commercially successful and critically acclaimed. It won Miller a Tony Award for best author again, the New York Drama Circle Critics’ Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards. The play was performed as many as 742 times. In 1952, Kazan appeared before the HUAC; fearful of being blacklisted from , Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, Joe Bromberg and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. After a discussion with Kazan about his testimony, Miller travelled to Salem, Massachusetts to research the witch trials of 1692. Miller’s play The Crucible was a result of this conversation and subsequent research, in which he compared the situation with the HUAC to the witch hunt in Salem. On 22 January 1953, this play opened at the Beck Theatre on Broadway. Though widely considered, it was only somewhat successful at the time of its initial release. However, today The Crucible is Miller’s most frequently produced work throughout the world and was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1962. Miller and Kazan remained close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but the friendship came to an end after Kazan’s testimony to the HUAC, and they did not speak to each other for the next ten years. The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after The Crucible opened, and denied him a passport to attend the play’s London opening in 1954. Kazan defended his own actions through his film On the Waterfront, in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller’s experience with the HUAC was to affect him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he was very much interested in the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case, in which Gibbons’ son Peter Reilly was convicted of his mother’s murder. Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly’s defence and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly’s plight) because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-in with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he strongly believed to be innocent and to have been coerced by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case. In June 1956, a one-act version of Miller’s verse drama, A View from the Bridge, opened on Broadway in a joint bill with one of Miller’s lesser-known plays, A Memory of Two Mondays. In 1957, Miller returned to A View from the Bridge, revising it into a two-act prose version, which Peter Brook produced in London.

126 Self-Instructional Material In June 1956, Miller divorced from his first wife Mary Slattery, and in the same year Miller and Soyinka on 25 June, he married the popular and beautiful actress Marilyn Monroe. Miller and Monroe had first met in April 1951, when they had a brief affair, and had remained in touch with each other since then. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the HUAC used NOTES this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller requested the committee not to ask him to pronounce names, to which the chairman gave his concern. Monroe accompanied Miller to attend the hearing, risking her own career. Miller gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Despite Miller’s request, the committee asked Miller to reveal the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to mention the names, saying ‘I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him’. Accordingly, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was fined $500, sentenced to thirty days in prison, blacklisted and disallowed a US passport. In 1958, his conviction was turned over by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC. After his conviction was overturned, Miller started working on his next play titled The Misfits, starring his wife. Miller said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life, and shortly before the film’s premiere in 1961, the pair divorced. Miller married photographer Inge Morath on 17 February 1962 and they had two children. The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born in September 1962, while their son Daniel was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. At Arthur’s insistence, Daniel was consequently institutionalized and excluded from the Millers’ personal life. Until Inge’s death in 2002, the couple remained together. It is learnt that Arthur Miller’s son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis used to visit Daniel frequently, and also persuaded Arthur Miller to reunite with his adult son. In 1964, Miller’s next play After the Fall was produced. The play is a deeply personal view of Miller’s experiences of marriage with Monroe. It reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan: they collaborated on both the script and the direction. After the Fall opened on 23 January 1964 at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid an indignation outbreak of publicity and outrage for placing a Monroe-like character, called Maggie, on stage. In 1964, Miller produced another play called Incident at Vichy. In 1965, Miller was elected as the first American president of International PEN, a position which he held for four years. During this period, Miller scripted the play The Price, which was produced in 1968. Since Death of a Salesman, this play became Miller’s most successful play. In 1969, Miller’s works were banned in the after he campaigned for the freedom of nonconformist writers. Throughout the 1970s, Miller spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as Fame and The Reason Why, and travelling with his wife, producing In the Country and Chinese Encounters with her. Both his 1972 comedy The Creation of the World and Other Business and its musical adaptation, Up from Paradise, were critical and commercial failures. In 1983, Miller travelled to the People’s Republic of China to produce and direct Death of a Salesman at the People’s Art Theatre in Beijing, China, where the play was a success. In 1984, Salesman in Beijing, a book about Miller’s experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, Death of a Salesman was made into a TV movie, starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. In late 1987, Miller’s autobiographical work, Timebends, was published, in which Miller discusses about his experiences with Monroe in detail. During the early 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Self-Instructional Material 127 Miller and Soyinka Last Yankee (1992) and Broken Glass (1994). In 1996, a film of The Crucible opened, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay to the film. In 1998, Mr. Peters’ Connections was staged off-Broadway, and Death of a Salesman was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. NOTES Once again, the play was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play. In 1993, Miller won the National Medal of Arts. In 2001, Miller was selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for the Jefferson Lecture, the US federal government’s highest honour for achievement in the humanities. Miller’s lecture was entitled ‘On Politics and the Art of Acting’. Miller’s lecture analyzed political events (including the recent US presidential election of 2000) in terms of the ‘arts of performance’. The lecture was termed ‘a disgrace’ by the conservative Jay Nordlinger, while George Will argued that Miller was not legitimately a ‘scholar’. In 1999, Miller won the and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to ‘a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life’. On 1 May 2002, Miller won Spain’s Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as ‘the undisputed master of modern drama’. Later in 2002, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of seventy-eight. The following year Miller was awarded the Jerusalem Prize. In December 2004, the eighty-nine-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with thirty-four-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they were looking forward to marry. In the fall of 2004, Miller’s final play, Finishing the Picture, was performed at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, with one character said to be based on Barley. Miller said that the work was based on the experience of filming The Misfits. When interviewed by BBC Four for The Atheism Tapes, he stated that he had been an atheist since his teens. Miller died at the age of eighty-nine on the evening of 10 February 2005 due to heart failure after fighting against cancer, pneumonia and congestive heart disease at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been taken care of at his sister’s apartment in New York since his release from hospital. Moreover, 10 February 2005 was also the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman. Complete plays of Arthur Miller:  No Villain (1936)  They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)  Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)  The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)  The Great Disobedience (1938)  Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)  The Golden Years (1940)  The Man Who Had All the Luck (1940)  The Half-Bridge (1943)  All My Sons (1947)  Death of a Salesman (1949)

128 Self-Instructional Material  An Enemy of the People (1950, based on Henrik Ibsen’s play An Enemy of the Miller and Soyinka People)  The Crucible (1953)  A View from the Bridge (1955) NOTES  A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)  After the Fall (1964)  Incident at Vichy (1964)  The Price (1968)  Fame (television play, 1970)  The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)  The Archbishop’s Ceiling (1977)  The American Clock (1980)  Playing for Time (television play, 1980)  Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)  Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)  I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)  Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)  I Can’t Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)  Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)  The Last Yankee (1991)  The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)  Broken Glass (1994)  Mr Peter’s Connections (1998)  Resurrection Blues (2002)  Finishing the Picture (2004) 5.2.2 Plot and Dramatic Techniques in All My Sons The play is divided into three Acts. Every act ends at a point of dramatic tension and leaves hints for the development of action in the next act. The narrative is linear with heightened points of dramatic tension in between. The end of the play is tragic with Joe Keller shooting himself, unable to bear the guilt of his action. The opening of the play is with the theme of death, and the ending is literally with death. The suspense that is created regarding Larry’s death is cleared in the end when his letter is read by all. The plot concerns a neighbourhood of an American town in the early part of the 20th century and is set in the time of war. The family of Kellers and their neighbours are the central characters in the play. The plot is linear with action developing in a causal manner. The central theme of the plot is betrayal, and as the plot unfolds, truth unfolds. Joe Keller turns out to be guilty of betraying his friend and partner Deever who suffers in prison due to him. The third Act of the play is the site where tension is developed to lead the audience to the truth. Finally, Chris discovers the truth of his father’s involvement in the crashing of airplanes, and thereby the death of twenty-one pilots. The truth also reveals the involvement of Joe in the death of his son Larry who is overcome with guilt to lead to his own death.

Self-Instructional Material 129 Miller and Soyinka Dramatic Techniques The various techniques used are as follows: (i) Realism: Miller’s play is realistically set with convincing stage setting and simple NOTES dialogues. The action takes place mostly in and around the Keller house. The language is simplistic and real-like. The setting is life-like, ordinary and easy to relate to. These features in the play make it possible for the audience to identify and analyze the larger issues of morality and truth as brought out in the play. (ii) Symbolism: Symbolism is also employed by the playwright, for instance, with the mention of Larry’s tree. From the opening of the play, dramatic tension is built around this tree and later around Larry’s letter. The tree and the letter are constant reminders of Larry’s absence on stage and symbolize finality and death. 5.2.3 Characters in All My Sons The various characters in the play All My Sons are given below: (i) Joe Keller: Joe Keller comes across as the most stable character in the play. Till the end, Joe seems to be the man of the house who is devoted to his wife and son, and is also easy going about Chris’ relationship with Ann. Joe is presented from the opening of the play as a likeable man in the neighbourhood with Dr Jim Bayliss and Frank visiting him on a Sunday morning. It is also mentioned by Ann how people are fond of him as they come over to play cards with him. Joe’s character is revealed to be complex and pitiable in the end, when the truth of his involvement in the war mishaps is revealed. It turns out that he is also responsible in an indirect way for his son’s death, who is overcome with a sense of remorse and guilt in learning the truth about his father and goes to his own death. Joe describes his situation to his family who are unable to empathize with him. He shows himself to be a man who is torn between a sense of responsibility for his family and a moral responsibility for the life of many soldiers at war. He takes the fatal decision of passing a consignment of faulty cylinder which when used in aircrafts lead to deaths of twenty-one pilots. However, it is difficult to identify Joe as a culprit because as he admits he was intent on revealing the truth to authorities but could not do it in time. He wanted to do well for the sake of his family, and therefore lies to his partner on whom the blame is eventually fixed. He lives with the weight of guilt on his shoulders and tries to keep things in balance. Joe’s problems increase when George Deever visits them having learnt the truth from his father. Joe tries to make up to his partner by offering to place him on his release but as Larry’s letter is discovered, Joe is betrayed as the one responsible for the calamity. Therefore, Chris labels him a murderer for being responsible for the death not just of his own son, but many other sons. Joe, unable to bear all, shoots himself in the end. Joe’s problems are not uncommon; they are representative of the problems of all middle class men who have the challenge of running their family and taking care of all. Joe tries to fulfil the roles of a good husband and a good father who sets up a thriving business for his son. Joe’s moral dilemma cannot be called to judgement easily as he tries to balance his personal and social responsibility in life. However, an error of judgement and bad timing lead to irreparable consequences for him and his family. (ii) Kate Keller: Kate Keller or Mother as she is referred to in the play is the nervous and depressed mother of Chris and Larry. She is introduced to the audience through a conversation between Frank and Joe regarding her desire to interpret Larry’s

130 Self-Instructional Material horoscope and the falling of the tree planted in the memory of Larry till her actual Miller and Soyinka appearance onstage. Kate is referred to as ‘Mother’ by the playwright, probably in order to assert the theme of the play derived from its title. It is a play about ‘all their sons’ as Joe admits to in the end: Joe: ‘…Sure he was my son. But I think to him they were all my sons. And I guess NOTES they were, I guess they were….’ Kate is a loving and sensitive woman, as her love for George and concern for him reveals. However, as far as her other son Chris is concerned, she harbours a compulsive obsession about Larry’s return and thereby suffers from a sense of guilt concerning Chris’ moving on in life. When she learns of his desire to wed Ann, who was betrothed to Larry when he was alive, she blames Chris and questions Ann regarding her devotion to Larry. The development of dramatic tension in the play owes much to the character of Kate. (iii) Chris Keller: Chris is the son of Joe and Kate and the brother of Larry. He is a morally upright character, who has a keen sense of right and wrong. Ann says of Chris: I think it’s mostly that whenever I need somebody to tell me the truth I’ve always thought of Chris. When he tells you something you know it’s so. Sue mentions the same qualities of Chris but in a negative manner. To her, it is the sense of moral certitude that upsets her about Chris and that unsettles people like her husband. Chris is a devoted son who loves his parents, and at the same time, a dependable partner who believes in commitment to Ann. He is a family-oriented man, and therefore stays on with his parents despite his mother’s hectoring. He comes across as an independent man when he asserts his desire to marry the woman of his choice who he is certain his mother would not approve of. Chris resembles his brother in his moral aspects as the reaction of both of them is extreme when they learn of the truth about their father. While Larry flies himself to his death, Chris decides to punish his father. For them, the fact that their life has advanced on money that has been stained with blood is unbearable. For Chris, as Joe mentions, all the other men on the plane were their sons. He insists on Joe respecting his duty of social commitment and the need to owe up to the death of twenty-one young men who were soldiers like him and Larry, and sons like them too. (iv) Ann Deever: Ann’s character is important in the play as she brings together the dramatic tension that has been suggested from the beginning of the play. She was Larry’s sweetheart who has now become his brother Chris’ woman. The plot centres on her relationship with Chris and the strands of stories that it unties. Ann is a devoted woman whose love for Larry is as true as it is for Chris. The letter in her possession becomes the instrument of revelation of the real truth in the end of the play. It not only confirms Larry’s death but also brings clarity to the perceived involvement of Joe in the mishap for which her father suffers punishment. However, Ann does not react violently like Chris but accepts the truth with a will to move on in life. She is not vindictive like her brother but appears forgiving and practical. As a young woman, she is independent minded and wilful. These are her qualities apart from her beauty that make her character charming amongst the people of the neighbourhood. (v) George Deever: George Deever is Ann’s brother whose entry onstage is at the point of heightened dramatic tension. He learns of the truth regarding Joe directly

Self-Instructional Material 131 Miller and Soyinka from his father, and Joe and Kate are shown to be apprehensive about the same even before his arrival. George is a man who has faced hardships of life owing to his father’s arrest, and turns out to become a vindictive young man. He quarrels with Chris regarding Joe’s truth and it is established in the end that George had been right NOTES throughout. He is opposed to his sister’s relationship with the son of the man who is responsible for his father’s incarceration. George appears onstage in fury and exits in the same state of mind. His character is essential to the development of the plot. 5.2.4 Themes in All My Sons The various themes in the play are: (i) Ethics: An essential theme of the play is ethics or morality. Arthur Miller has explored the social and personal aspects of morality through the reactions of different characters to the truth as it is learnt in the end. Joe Keller’s sense of social ethics does not interfere with his personal ethics of providing for his family. He takes an unfortunate decision that results in the deaths of a score and one soldiers, and also to the suicide of his son. However, Joe is overcome with the instinct of self-preservation that makes him prevaricate in the court and transfer the blame onto his partner, Deever. However, it is this decision of Joe that triggers guilt in his two sons, one of whom commits suicide and the other decides to sever ties with him. For them, both soldiers at war, every individual owes much to one’s society, and therefore Joe’s careless decision that cost so many lives is unpardonable. For Chris, social commitment is essential to every citizen as his involvement in the building of modern civil society can be seen as direct through protecting the civilians by going to war. George sees Joe as a criminal and his father as innocent in clear black and white terms. The women in the play, Kate and Ann, seem more concerned about personal ethics, than that of commitment and loyalty. For Kate, loyalty to her son through constant mourning is more important than anything and she leads her life in the blind faith of his return. Ann is a modern woman who is lonely and is looking for a companion that she finds in Chris. Even after learning the truth, she is keen on her relationship with Chris to whom she has expressed her love and devotion. Commitment and responsibility are therefore themes that are understood by different characters in different ways in the play. (ii) Fate: The theme of fate is highlighted through the character of Frank who is interested in horoscopes and believes in fate. Kate believes in the same along with him and wants to reiterate her hope for Larry through this. Frank discovers that the date that is stipulated as Larry’s death day was a favourable day for him and a man could not die on his favourable day. However, as it turns out, that was the day when Larry died, not a natural but a willing death. The concept of fate is linked to circumstances in the play. At the opening of the play, Larry’s ex-beloved arrives and his symbolic tree collapses. For Kate, this is a sign that Larry is still alive. However, as it turns out, Ann’s arrival proves to be tragic in other ways. It leads to the discovery of truth and ultimately to Joe’s death. From hope to guilt, the story covers all aspects of fate.

‘Check Your Progress’ 1. List any four important plays by Arthur Miller. 2. Who are the unseen characters in the play All My Sons? 3. In the play All My Sons, what does the letter reveal in the end?

132 Self-Instructional Material Miller and Soyinka 5.3 WOLE SOYINKA: A DANCE OF THE FORESTS

Wole Soyinka is a renowned playwright, poet and author. He wrote drama, poetry and novels. More importantly, Wole Soyinka is a scholar and thinker. NOTES 5.3.1 Life and Literary Career of Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934 in the Nigerian city of Abeokuta. This part of Nigeria is now a part of the state of Ogun. Wole Soyinka has studied and taught Comparative Literature. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. One of the plays written by Wole Soyinka that found a special mention at the Nobel Prize celebration and citation was his play A Dance of the Forests written in 1960 to celebrate the independence of Nigeria from the oppressive colonial rule of Great Britain. Wole Soyinka is the first African to have received the Novel Prize in Literature. In 2009, Wole Soyinka also received the Golden Plate Award from the Academy of Achievement. Wole Soyinka was born into a Yoruba tribal family living in the city of Abeokuta. Wole Soyinka’s father, Samuel Soyinka, was a minister of the Anglican Church in Abeokuta. He was also the principal of St. Peter’s School located in Abeokuta. Wole Soyinka also attended this school. Wole Soyinka’s mother, Grace Soyinka, was the daughter of a minister as well and ran a small business at the local market. But more importantly, Grace Soyinka was a political activist and an important figure in her community. She motivated the women of her community to be politically aware, understand their human rights and personal spaces as well as their rights to freedom of expression and speech. It is rightly said that when a man is educated, the only one to gain knowledge and skills from that education is he himself. But when a woman is educated, her entire family as well as members of her community benefit from her new knowledge and skills. To that extent, Grace Soyinka became and remained a force to reckon with and a role model for her son Wole Soyinka. Wole Soyinka became politically aware at an early age and began to actively participate in political activism. After completing his education at both the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and the University of Leeds, he continued living in England. He had started writing his plays at an early age and by the time he completed his studies at the University of Leeds, members of the had started recognizing his talent and genius. He then began working as a reader of plays at the Royal Court Theatre. By this time, his plays had started being performed across theatres in both Nigeria as well as in England. In 1959, the University of Ibadan offered him a research project to work on the traditional forms of African theatre, their folklore, rituals and mythologies. Wole Soyinka took this opportunity and returned to Nigeria to work on this research project. The material he gleaned and collected through this research programme became the basis and theme for his play A Dance of the Forests. Wole Soyinka had grown up in Nigeria that had been oppressed and dominated by Great Britain. Wole Soyinka was then actively involved in the politics of his country, participating in protests whenever possible. In 1956, Wole Soyinka seized and took control of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service Studio, using its services to make an impassioned plea to cancel the upcoming Western Nigeria Regional Elections. After Wole Soyinka returned to Nigeria in 1959 to work on the aforementioned research project, the University College in 1960 commissioned him in the capacity of a playwright to write the play A Dance of the Forests as a celebration to mark the independence of Nigeria from the oppressive colonial rule of Great Britain. Self-Instructional Material 133 Miller and Soyinka However, even after Nigeria gained its independence from Great Britain and its colonial oppression, the country witnessed years of torture under successive military regimes as well as political tyrants. For people like Wole Soyinka, this must have appeared a continuing tragedy. Perhaps, military regimes and political tyrants believed that if the people of Nigeria NOTES had kept quiet and seemed to accept the oppression and violence of a foreign power like Great Britain, they could be oppressed and treated violently by someone as powerful within their own country as well. In 1967, Civil War broke out in the country and Wole Soyinka, like many others, was arrested and imprisoned by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and placed under solitary confinement for a period of two years. During the period of imprisonment, Wole Soyinka was denied access to paper and pen, the basic material required by writers and poets. In spite of this, Wole Soyinka managed to write many poems during his imprisonment based on and depicting his imprisonment. Despite this experience of imprisonment, Wole Soyinka has always remained a strong critic of successive military regimes in his country. As a matter of fact, Wole Soyinka has consistently criticized such oppressive governments not just in his own country Nigeria, but in other African countries as well such as Zimbabwe. Wole Soyinka has written consistently, to quote him, on ‘the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it’. This has always been tragic for countries that had been ruled by colonial powers and gained their independence after great and long struggles, only to be forced to go through the same violence and oppression under military and political tyrants within their own countries. During the years when General Sani Abacha ruled Nigeria, Wole Soyinka fled from Nigeria on a motorcycle using the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) route to leave the country. He lived in exile between 1993 and 1998. Before his escape and exile, Wole Soyinka had been teaching as a professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Ibadan. It was not until 1999 that Wole Soyinka contemplated on returning to Nigeria after the civilian rule had finally been restored. During his years spent in exile, General Sani had issued a death warrant against Wole Soyinka ‘in absentia’. This was probably because Wole Soyinka was one of the writers to write openly and consistently criticizing and condemning the military rule and its oppressive violence. When Wole Soyinka finally returned to Nigeria after the restoration of civilian rule in the 1998, he returned to teaching Comparative Literature at the University of Ibadan. But now in honour of his consistent stand and fight for democracy and civilian rule, the college named him Professor Emeritus. Between 1988 and 1991, Wole Soyinka changed his name to Goldwin Smith and taught as a professor of African Studies and Theatre Arts at the Cornell University in the United States of America. Later, in 1996, he was appointed as Robert W. Woodruff, professor of Arts at the Emory University, also in the United States of America. Wole Soyinka had spent an illustrious number of years teaching at various universities and colleges across the United States of America. For instance, he had been a professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. He had also worked as a scholar in residence at the Institute of African American Affairs at the New York University, and at the Loyola Marymount University situated in Los Angeles in California in the United States of America. He had also been a professor at the University of Yale, the University of Harvard and the University of Oxford. His subject has mainly been Comparative Literature. In December 2017, Soyinka received the Europe Theatre Prize in the Special Prize category. This prize under this specific category is apparently usually given to someone who 134 Self-Instructional Material has ‘contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the Miller and Soyinka exchange of knowledge between people’. As a child growing up in the Soyinka family home in Abeokuta, Soyinka was of the opinion that the environment was too claustrophobic. The environment was extremely religious and Soyinka had to sing in the church choir every Sunday. It was perhaps this strict atmosphere NOTES that shaped the future beliefs of Soyinka. As an adult, Soyinka became an atheist. In spite of the fact that many of his plays were performed first at the Royal Court Theatre in London where members had first recognized his talent and genius, Soyinka always looked upon the colonial rule in his country with disdain. This is the reason why he always believed firmly that Nigeria needed to be independent from the colonial rule. However, he was equally critical of the successive military rulers as well as political tyrants who seized power and used the same violence and oppressive tactics to govern their own country. In 1981, Soyinka wrote a memoir of his childhood years spent within the Soyinka family home at Abeokuta named Ake: The Years of Childhood. Soyinka has shown sparks of his creative talent from an early age. After he completed primary school at St. Peter’s School, he enrolled at the Abeokuta Grammar School for the next level of schooling. It was here that the young Soyinka won multiple awards and prizes for his literary essays and compositions. In 1946, Soyinka was admitted into the Government College at Ibadan, which was at the time known as an elitist and premier educational institution in Nigeria. Between 1952 and 1954, Soyinka studied at the University of Ibadan, which was then affiliated to the . His subjects of study at this institution were western history, Greek and English Literature. Among his many teachers was Molly Mahood who was then a renowned English literary scholar. While still at the University, Soyinka began writing a short radio play titled Kefi’s Birthday Treat, which was performed for the Nigeria Broadcasting Service Studio in July 1954. It was also around the same time that Soyinka joined six of his friends to form the Pyrates Confraternity. This was probably the first such organization formed in Nigeria to fight corruption and seek justice at the student level. Towards the end of 1954, Soyinka shifted to England in order to continue his studies in English Literature at the University of Leeds under the mentorship and tutelage of Wilson Knight. Soyinka remained at the University of Leeds. It was here that he met many talented members of the younger generation of scholars of English Literature in England. While still studying at the University of Leeds, Soyinka began to publish his plays and worked as an editor at The Eagle, a satirical magazine. As an editor at The Eagle, Soyinka wrote columns describing life as a university student and criticizing many of his contemporaries. Having completed his Bachelors, he continued to live in the city, with the intention of pursuing a Master’s degree in English Literature. During this time, he began to publish numerous plays, which combined his Yoruba cultural heritage with European traditional theatre forms. Although he published many new plays, his first major play The Swamp Dwellers was published in 1958. This was followed by another big hit, in 1959, by a play titled The Lion and the Jewel. This was a comedy and gained immediate recognition and acceptance by the members of the Royal Court Theatre in London. The interest and appreciation of his published work encouraged Soyinka to shift to London, where he began to work at the Royal Court Theatre as a reader of plays. The Royal Court Theatre also began producing many of his plays. The Royal Court Theatre began with The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel. Both plays were basically based on the uneasy and unspoken conflict in the relationship and connect between tradition and progress among the people in Nigeria. In 1957, Soyinka wrote the play The Invention, which actually became the first play written by him to be

Self-Instructional Material 135 Miller and Soyinka performed at the Royal Court Theatre. During this period, Wole Soyinka began publishing poems in a magazine called Black Orpheus in Nigeria, which published his poems titled My Next Door Neighbour and The Immigrant. The magazine Black Orpheus was started by a German scholar and professor Ulli Beier. Beier had been teaching at the University of NOTES Ibadan since the year 1950. In 1959, Soyinka received the Rockefeller Research Scholarship from the University of Ibadan to work on a research project exploring traditional theatre forms, ritualistic practices, social values, and cultural and mythology in Nigeria. Grabbing the opportunity, Soyinka returned to his beloved homeland Nigeria in 1959. The material Soyinka collected during this research project became the creative theme and basis for his play A Dance of the Forests. After returning to Nigeria and still working on his research project, Soyinka joined the Black Orpheus as a co-editor of the literary column. His play The Trials of Brother Jero was published and first performed around this time. His play A Dance of the Forests won a contest and was chosen to be the official play to be performed on Nigerian Independence Day which was celebrated on 1 October 1960. The play deals with the human tendency to hold on to the past, ignoring the present, or appreciating the present good fortune and refusing to look ahead. The playwright has used Yoruba rituals, traditions, heritage and culture to create a play which is steeped in the rich folklore and culture of the Yoruba tribal community. The traditional God of the Yoruba tribal community—Ogun—has been mentioned by the playwright in many of his plays, and in this current play A Dance of the Forests, Ogun too has found reference. A Dance of the Forests also makes reference of the Nigerian belief that ancestors continue to live in their living descendants, creating a constant conflict between the past and the present. This conflict can apparently be solved only by offering the ancestors traditional sacrifices and rituals performed to the accompaniment of music and dance. The Nigerian people also believe that they should live in the trees, rocks, rivers, streams and oceans that form part of the natural beauty of the forest cover. The play also makes reference apparently to the manner in which foreign entities such as the World Bank and the World Trade Organization offer to give charity and aid to the people of Nigeria after they gain independence because they are not yet economically stable. The playwright has expressed his disgust and disdain for such aid and charity, believing that these are just other hidden forms of subjugation of his people. The people living in a tiny village called Togo in the interiors of the forest are portrayed as a proud group, refusing to accept any forms of charity or aid, and insisting on using their traditional forms of agriculture to become self-sufficient and self-reliant. At the most, the men and women are shown to be willing to use a few modern tools to blend in with their traditional forms of farming. Instead of accepting all such help, the people believe that it is more important to be grateful for their independence and try to find ways to alleviate their poverty and economic underdevelopment. Wole Soyinka set up an amateur theatre company called the Nineteen Sixty Masks and began spending time and effort at this group. His play My Father’s Burden became the first full length play to be produced for Nigerian television. He had bought a Land Rover as part of the research grant and travelled across his country as a research scholar of the English Department at the University of Ibadan. In December 1962, Soyinka began to teach English Language at the Department of English Language at the University of Ife. His essay titled ‘Towards a True Theatre’ was also published at the same time. Soyinka has been an active proponent of theatre in his country and helped set up the Drama Association of Nigeria. His body of works as a playwright is prolific and immense, sometimes writing multiple plays in one year.

136 Self-Instructional Material The playwright Soyinka has been married three times and divorced twice. He also Miller and Soyinka has children from all three marriages. Soyinka met his first wife, Barbara Dixon, while studying at the University of Leeds. Barbara Dixon was a renowned writer. They had a son named Oleokun. In 1963, Soyinka met and married Olaide Idowu, a Nigerian librarian. The couple had three children, two daughters and a son. Soyinka married Folake Doherty in NOTES 1989. Soyinka wrote his first play Kefi’s Birthday Treat in 1954. The play The Invention was written in 1957, and the play The Swamp Dwellers was written in 1958. The following year, in 1959, Soyinka wrote A Quality of Violence. Also the same year, in 1959, Soyinka wrote his play titled The Lion and the Jewel. In 1960, Soyinka wrote two plays, A Dance of the Forests and The Trials of Brother Jero. Also the same year, in 1960, Soyinka wrote My Father’s Burden for Nigerian radio. In 1964, Soyinka wrote two plays, The Strong Bread and Before the Blackout. Also the same year, in 1964, Soyinka wrote the play Kongi’s Harvest. The following year, in 1965, he wrote The Road. After a long gap, in 1970, he wrote the play Madmen and Specialists. He wrote the play titled The Bacchae of Euripides in 1973. The same year, in 1973, he wrote two more plays, Camwood on the Leaves and Jero’s Metamorphosis. The play titled Death and the King’s Horsemen was written by Soyinka in 1975. He wrote his play titled Opera Wonyosi in 1977. He wrote the play titled Requiem for a Futurologist in 1983 followed by Sixty Six, a compilation of 66 short skits in 1984. The same year, in 1984, he wrote the play A Play of Giants. Three years later, in 1987, Soyinka wrote the play Childe Internationale. The play From Zia, with Love was written in 1992. Around this time, he wrote two radio plays: A Scourge of Hyacinths and The Detainee. Soyinka wrote the play The Beatification of Area Boy in 1996 and the radio play Documents of Identity in 1999. He wrote the play King Baabu in 2001. In 2011, he came with two plays Etike Revo Wetin and Alapata Apata. Many of Soyinka’s plays are about Nigerian culture, rituals, folklore and social values. They are obviously targeted at Nigerian audiences because the audiences who watch the plays would need to understand the Nigerian heritage, culture, and folklore. 5.3.2 Historical Background of A Dance of the Forests It was while the playwright Wole Soyinka was studying at the University of Leeds in England that he also began working as a reader of plays at the Royal Court Theatre. By this time, Soyinka had been in England for almost four years and already many of his plays had begun to be performed both in London at the Royal Court Theatre as well as in theatres in Ibadan, Nigeria. Around four years after he had first moved to England, Soyinka was offered an opportunity to work on a research project by the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, Soyinka thus returned to Nigeria in 1959. The project was to carry out research on the traditional theatre forms and folklore of Nigeria. As with other playwrights, the material that Soyinka collected during the research, began to form the basis of many plays he wrote during this period as a playwright. During his research into the folklore of the Yoruba tribal community and its folklore, rituals and mythology formed the central theme of the play A Dance of the Forests. Written in 1960, the play A Dance of the Forests, was perhaps written by Soyinka to create a sort of symbolic message that the Nigerian people could identify with, connect with, and more importantly realize and understand their present good fortune at gaining independence from British sovereignty.

Self-Instructional Material 137 Miller and Soyinka Soyinka, by then an established playwright, had been commissioned to write the play A Dance of the Forests specifically as part of the celebrations marking the newly gained independence of Nigeria from the British Empire. Perhaps the time of the play and the year of its writing and first performance has more significance for the narrative of the play. Apart NOTES from talking about spirits of dead relatives and their squabbling and fighting descendants of the present times, the play A Dance of the Forests also makes reference to the different ways in which various global institutions such as the World Bank and the WTO offer to give aid and charity to the people of Nigeria. This charity and aid was rejected by the people of Nigeria because it would have meant being subjugated yet again to some form of foreign power. Instead, the play also makes reference to a tiny village in the interiors of Nigeria and its inhabitants who prefer to use their traditional forms of agriculture and use selective modern tools with which to improve and increase their agricultural produce. The playwright has used the play to demonstrate how the people of Nigeria would need to focus on more pressing issues such as economic development and eradication of poverty, women’s rights and equality, and learning to become self-reliant and self-sufficient. Therefore, the play is an amalgamation of both the traditional and the modern. It was written to celebrate the country’s independence and freedom from the oppression and violence of a foreign power and was intended to make the people of Nigeria aware of their responsibilities on gaining independence towards building their country’s economy independently and with dignity. On a different level, the play A Dance of the Forests and its narrative, has been used by the playwright to bring home to the people of Nigeria the important lesson that fighting among themselves will only lead to self-destruction and ruin. This could be explained by a deeper look at the narrative of the play and an understanding of the folklore and ritualistic celebrations of the members of the Yoruba tribal community. Wole Soyinka shows, how according to the Yoruba folklore, the trees of the forest and the other natural phenomena are filled with spirits of their dead ancestors. It is possible that many of these souls were of people who had been abused or treated violently by their relatives within the community. The Yoruba tribe also believes that their ancestors live on in the living. Hence, obviously the living and the dead will always be at loggerheads, fighting with each other. The soul of the dead ancestors would therefore need to be appeased constantly with ritualistic sacrifices and celebrations using their traditional forms of music and dance. During one such ritualistic celebration at a gathering of the spirits, the members of the Yoruba tribal community understand and learn that the souls of the dead that now reside in the trees and water sources of the forest are not quite as great as they had thought them to be. The souls belonged to people who had been as flawed and mortal as they themselves were given to fighting and arguments. The playwright Wole Soyinka was perhaps using the narrative of the play to tell the people of Nigeria that independence from colonial rule would bring them their fair share of problems not least of which were poverty, unemployment and a sense of isolation. Although they were sure to feel euphoric and ecstatic at gaining independence, they should prevent themselves from slipping into apathy and uncaring acceptance of these problems. It was also important that the people of Nigeria should not try to look at their past, the past that had been invaded by Great Britain, and then their gaining independence through some sort of colourful kaleidoscope. Instead, the people of Nigeria would need to learn to accept their present and connect it with both their past as well as their future as the absolute reality.

138 Self-Instructional Material The playwright received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 for his contribution to Miller and Soyinka the world of English Literature. He was hailed as one of the Nigerian writers and playwrights to write in English. His play A Dance of the Forests also found a special mention and place of honour in the literary works created by Wole Soyinka during his lifetime. NOTES 5.3.3 Synopsis and Theme of A Dance of the Forests For centuries Africa has been referred to, by the rest of the world, as the Dark Continent. Africa is a continent comprising many countries and each of these countries has on the contrary produced great scholars, artists, writers, poets and playwrights. Nigeria is one such country and it has produced some great playwrights and authors such as Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Wole Soyinka, Helon Habila, etc. Soyinka belonged to a religious family with his father Samuel Soyinka being a parish priest of the Anglican order as well as a principal of St. Peter’s School. Soyinka besides studying in this school and at the University of Ibadan also went on to complete his studies from the University of Leeds in Great Britain. For centuries, the people of Africa including those communities living in Nigeria, have been thought to be primitive and uncivilized. The play A Dance of the Forests written by the Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka talks about the resilience and pride of the men and women of a small village named Togo in the interiors of a forest. The villagers living in the village of Togo are used to the traditional methods of agriculture and are not averse to using specific modern techniques of farming. Although the men and women prefer to use their traditional forms of agriculture for the most part, they decide to blend these with specific modern tools and techniques. The playwright has tried to depict how the people of the village use their traditional methods of farming to remain close to nature and maintain the ecological balance as well. Usually, people living in forests are always considered by the civilized and Western world as being uncivilized and uncouth and required intervention from the so called Western world. The playwright has tried to portray a clan of people who are determined to remain self-reliant and self-sufficient and survive without any help from the Western and civilized world. Although they are fighting against poverty and are neglected by the outside world, they are aware of their personal space and personal freedom to express and speak out. The people of Togo are portrayed by the playwright to be aware of women’s rights and their contribution toward the development of their communities. It has been rightly said that when a man receives education he is the only one to benefit from the knowledge and skills gained through that education. But when a woman is educated, her entire family as well as the members of her community benefit from the knowledge and skills she acquires through that education. Within the context of the play A Dance of the Forests, the playwright has tried to portray how global institutes such as the World Bank and WTO try to help the African people with aid and loans, the people of Togo insist on remaining self-reliant and self-sufficient refusing to accept any such loans or aid. Instead, the playwright has tried to portray his people as being proud, dignified and determined to progress and alleviate their poverty on their own terms. Wole Soyinka has made reference of the Yoruba tribe to which he belonged and their traditional God Ogun. Although Soyinka and his family were themselves Anglican by faith, the Soyinka family belonged to the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria. The God of the Yoruba people Ogun depicts and represents humanness, kindness, yet rigid elements of war, metal and carving as well. According to Soyinka, his people, the Yoruba community, worship Ogun, their God with their traditional forms of dance and music. Self-Instructional Material 139 Miller and Soyinka Perhaps, the Yoruba people believe that worshipping their God Ogun will help them maintain the ecological balance and help them remain close to nature, in harmony with nature, and therefore their God Ogun expects his people to care for and protect the very nature that nurtures and cares for them. NOTES Although Great Britain has been a great and positive influence over the rest of the world in many ways; they have colonized most parts of the world. Great Britain had colonized many countries in the African continent as well, including Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Apart from this the southern states of the United States of America had enslaved many African countries and forced the African people to work on their cotton plantations as slaves. When the Western world first entered Africa, they had the Bible and the native Africans had their lands. At the end of it, the African people had the Bible, and the Western world had practically everything else that had once belonged to the natives. Great Britain was one power that had developed educational and health care institutions in all the countries they had ruled. Nigeria was also once such country. This is perhaps how Samuel Soyinka had become a parish priest of the Anglican order in his city and the principal of a school. Although Wole Soyinka had grown up in a strictly religious and Anglican home environment, in his adult life, he had become an atheist. Perhaps, the decision to renounce all religious beliefs came from a deep disdain for what the Western world did to his people in the name of religion. Soyinka has portrayed the people of the tiny village called Togo as being proud and dignified, determined to overcome poverty and neglect by perhaps empowering their women as much as their men. Soyinka has shown the people as worshipping their traditional God Ogun through their Yoruba traditions of music and dance, in an effort to appease him and maintain the ecological balance in the rainforests that is the backdrop of the play A Dance of the Forests. The Yoruba tribe and their traditional and mythological God Ogun therefore forms the backdrop and the central theme of the play A Dance of the Forests. The forests being referred to in the play are beautiful, lush and nurturing to the people who are living within its sanctuaries. The Yoruba tribe is only one such tribal community living within this sanctuary. The global institutions such as the World Bank and the WTO are shown to use their tactics of aid and loans to help the people of the tiny village overcome their poverty and sense of isolation. It is apparent that Wole Soyinka himself in his personal space held all such offers of help and charity in complete disdain and contempt. This disdain and contempt manage to find a reflection in many of his plays and poems. In the present play under study A Dance of the Forests, he speaks of the people of the tiny village of Togo working hard to fight against their poverty and overcome their poverty and sense of isolation through their hard work and with dignity. Within their private space, institutions such as the World Bank and the WTO make an entry and offer them charity and loans. It is obvious that the influence of his own mother Grace Soyinka through his childhood years and later on left a lasting impression on the playwright. Grace Soyinka was a strong force to reckon with within the Yoruba tribe and especially the women within her community. Grace Soyinka was also a strong political activist, motivating and leading the women within her community. It is not surprising therefore to notice that in the play A Dance of the Forests, the people of the village Togo around which the play revolves are more concerned with empowering women and treating them equally than it is to accept charity and aid from global institutions such as the World Bank and the WTO.

140 Self-Instructional Material Theme Miller and Soyinka The central theme of the play A Dance of the Forests written by the Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka is the traditional use of music and dance that the members of the Yoruba community use to worship their traditional and native God Ogun. The playwright has targeted NOTES the Nigerian people as being the main audience of the play A Dance of the Forests. Soyinka had written the play keeping his own community members in mind and so it is no wonder that the play was first performed at Ibadan in 1960. Yet most of the plays written by Soyinka were performed both in Nigeria as well as in London. They were in fact not just performed but appreciated and highly acclaimed critically and within literary circles. Therefore, in order to understand the play A Dance of the Forests, the audience as well as the critics would first of all need to understand the milieu and the context in which the play itself has been set. Although Soyinka completed his higher education at the University of Leeds and worked as a reader of plays at the Royal Court Theatre in London, his heart always remained in Nigeria and with the Nigerian people, especially the Yoruba tribe to which he belonged. Soyinka was also intensely politically aware. He was fiercely opposed to all forms of foreign power ruling his country and oppressing his people. This may seem strange to many mute witnesses to the way his career shaped itself. Considering that he began his career as a playwright at the Royal Court Theatre, he never lost an opportunity to protest the British oppression of his country. He had on one occasion seized control of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service Studio, the local government radio station, using the opportunity to make an impassioned plea for cancellation of the upcoming elections that would once again elect a puppet of the British Empire. Wole Soyinka was an extremely creative person and many of his plays and poems were based on the political scenario prevailing in his country at the time. The central theme of the play A Dance of the Forests is about the proud and resilient men and women living in a tiny village called Togo cradled deep in the forests. Most of the people are living in abject poverty, depending entirely on the produce of the forests for their sustenance and survival. Many of the poems and plays written by the playwright also mention the traditional God Ogun who is worshipped by the members of the Yoruba tribal community. It is interesting to note that although Soyinka was accepted and acclaimed by the members of the Royal Court Theatre, leading to his being employed with the theatre as a reader of plays, he chose to return to Nigeria. Although this was ostensibly to work on a research project, it was more because he was connected to his roots and he always felt that Nigeria was the only play he actually belonged. Many of his plays also refer to the traditional God Ogun worshipped by the members of his Yoruba tribal community. In the play under study titled A Dance of the Forests, the playwright has actually referred to more than just the traditional God Ogun. Wole Soyinka has described in detail the forests, lush and beautiful, that sustain the people who regard the forests to be a sanctuary. Soyinka has also described in detail the traditional methods of agriculture being practised by the members of the Yoruba tribal community and all the other tribal communities that live in such forests in the interiors of the African continent. Soyinka has also described in detail the traditional forms of music and dance that the members of the Yoruba tribal community use to celebrate their different events and festivals

Self-Instructional Material 141 Miller and Soyinka and to worship their God Ogun. Ogun stands for human kindness and compassion as well as rigid elements of carvings and metal. Perhaps because of this, the people living in the Togo village decide to use modern techniques to blend in with their traditional methods of agriculture in their fight against poverty, rather than accepting charity from global entities such as the NOTES World Bank and the WTO. Perhaps at the initial stage, the playwright was intending to use the traditional Yoruba music and dance to create an impact or illusion of cathartic Yoruba tribal rituals. As the play progresses, however, it becomes obvious that at no point or level does the Yoruba ritualistic dance and myth take the audience towards the so called godlike elements, which is probably implied to be calming and soothing. Instead, the audience is just plunged deep into the vortex, the seething and boiling waters in the cauldron of strong willpower, thought process, and psyche of the people of the dark world. This level may be somewhere between death and the being or existence. It is also quite possible that the playwright himself believes that the ancestor lives within the living. Which also means that the great divide between the living and the dead or the living and the ancestors needs to be bridged through constant effort, through constant practice of ceremonial sacrifices and by traditional ritualistic practices. Wole Soyinka may also have drawn upon other religious or ritualistic beliefs of the people of Western Africa, including the members of the Yoruba tribal community that human souls actually live on in inanimate objects or natural phenomena such as rocks, oceans, streams and rivers, and trees, like all would have human souls living in them. Thus, the play A Dance of the Forests could be said to be alive and teaming with human souls, ancestral presence, and the forest filled with souls of both the dead and the living. In order that the audience understands and not just understands but identifies with the central theme of the play A Dance of the Forests, it is obvious that they would need to be either from Nigeria or living in Nigeria in the midst of the Yoruba tribal community or at least have studied the heritage and history of the Nigerian people and the various tribal communities living in the country. 5.3.4 Critical Appreciation of A Dance of the Forests The playwright Wole Soyinka has written a number of essays that help the audience appreciate the narrative of the play A Dance of the Forests and understand its connection with their reality and their present. In his essay ‘Myth, Literature and the African World’, the playwright has attempted to draw a distinction and explain the difference between Western literature as the world perceives it and African literature. Both forms of literature are referred to as experiences. This distinction is drawn because the playwright had lived in England in the late 1950s while studying at the University of Leeds and working at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Soyinka speaks of the Western experience as being more surrealistic, conceptual, abstract, naturalistic, and allegorical. On the other hand, according to Soyinka, African literature and experiences are not just based on ideological concepts but are focused more directly on learning and understanding the universal truth. According to Soyinka, his experience of Western literature was more about having an objective existence. On the other hand, his experience of African literature taught him that literature in Africa is more about mythology, social structures and norms, ritualistic activities and connecting the past with the present. In that sense, maybe African literature is more humane, filled with human values and experiences and therefore more subjective than objective. The African literary experience is also more of a collective endeavour. According to Soyinka, it is ‘far more preoccupied with a visionary

142 Self-Instructional Material projection of society than with speculative projections of the nature of literature, or with any Miller and Soyinka other medium of expression’. The playwright obviously used the term social vision to indicate and describe social realities that are not just visible to the discerning eye but also beyond the immediate and visible and tangible societal boundaries. Perhaps, Soyinka also meant that he was more NOTES concerned with liberating the African society from its historic presumptions and replace them with his own concepts of logical and rational human experiences. It is obvious that as a playwright Soyinka is equally concerned about when or how African rituals or traditions can be converted into actual works of art, or when African folklore, religious beliefs and mythology can be transformed into drama that can be performed on stage in front of an audience or need to use other media of expression. According to Soyinka, it is important that both the actors performing on stage as well as their audience must be able to recall and relive their experiences of the ritualistic and mythological. Both the audiences and the actors must also be able to connect to the dramatic narrative on stage. Let us now look at some parts of the play A Dance of the Forests. The play basically describes the traditional beliefs of the Yoruba tribal community that their ancestors live on in their descendants, causing a constant conflict between the dead and the living. The Yoruba tribal community, like most other African tribal communities, also believes that the souls of their dead live in nature, in the trees, the rocks, the streams and rivers, the oceans, and such like. These traditional beliefs have been incorporated into the play A Dance of the Forests by the playwright. The play describes how the people of a tribe are arranging to celebrate a feast to appease the souls of some great and famous members of their ancestors who are now dead. They believe that they need to be celebrated and revered with a feast and traditional celebrations. However, the forest chief intervenes at this point. The forest chief approaches their God Akoni and asks him to intervene and then asks the living mortals to invite instead the souls of the dead man and the dead woman. The dead man used to be the captain of the army of an ancient emperor of the tribe. The dead woman was the wife of that captain. It appears that the souls of the dead man and the dead woman are restless and forever disturbed because they had been treated violently and abused by four of the then living people. Here, therefore, are the characters of the four people who had been living but are now dead and still wandering around the forest cover. The character of Eshuoro is now shown to the audience to seek revenge for the death of another character called Oremole, who had been a disciple of Oro and apprentice to the carver Demoke. Somoke had killed Oremole by pushing him off the araba tree that they were carving together. Ogun, the traditional god of carvers, defends Demoke. Ogun (the god of iron, war, and craftsmanship of the Yoruba) and Oro (the Yoruba god of punishment and death) represent antithetical forces who fight against each other until their synthesis, through which the living are implied to become self-aware and self-understanding. When the play A Dance of the Forests opens, the dead man and the dead woman covered in centuries of grime, are seen at a distance by the audience and by the character of Orefuse who is there to hear their story and decide their case. While the living pretend and wear masks to hide their unattractive backgrounds, the Dead Woman remarks that the mortals appear to be more influenced by the past piling up the dead: ‘The world is big but the dead are bigger. We’ve been dying since the beginning.’ Her implication is that the mortals

Self-Instructional Material 143 Miller and Soyinka cannot be placed in a position where they can be selective about their past lives and which part of their past lives that they should deal with first. The ceremony intended for the self-discovery of the four living souls comprises three parts. The first part deals with the reliving of the ancient model of their present crimes. The NOTES second part deals with the questioning of the Dead Man and the Dead Woman and hearing their case. The third part deals with the welcoming dance performed for the Dead Man and the Dead Woman. The four living souls, speaking of their past crimes, reveal that they were filled with negative thoughts, and are still not free from the same negative thinking. The playwright has shown his audience that it is not important to harbour negative thoughts about specific incidents or people for so long over many lives. Instead, it is important that people learn to forgive and move on, towards progress and development, trying to overcome poverty and isolation. 5.3.5 Issues and Analysis in A Dance of the Forests The playwright has written the play A Dance of the Forests against the backdrop of the forest cover in West Africa. Nigeria, as with other African countries, is inhabited by people who live close to nature, depending on their natural habitat for their sustenance and survival. Most people live within tribal communities. The playwright belongs to the Yoruba tribal community. After the British Empire invaded and colonized Africa, they built educational as well as medical care institutions across the continent. It has been famously said that when the Western people first entered the continent of Africa, they had the Bible and the African people had their rich and beautiful land. At the end of it, by the time the people of Africa managed to gain their independence and send the White people back to their own countries, the African people had the Bible and much of their other possessions had been taken over by the invaders. Wole Soyinka’s father Samuel Soyinka had been born into the Yoruba tribal community, but his family like many others had been converted to Christianity. Samuel Soyinka had grown up to become a parish priest of the Anglican order. Wole Soyinka was the son of a parish priest as well. So basically the environment within the Soyinka house had been extremely religious and as a child Soyinka had been a member of the choir in his church. It was perhaps this strict religious upbringing that forced Soyinka to reject his religious upbringing and become an atheist when he grew up. Perhaps, he began to look upon the Christian religion as a reminder of the deep and humiliating oppression of the African people by a foreign power. In any case, Soyinka appears to have been influenced more by his native African culture and heritage than the Anglican faith, especially when it came to writing his plays and poems. Another great influence in his literary work was the oppressive foreign power, the struggle of the African people for independence and the aftermath of the foreign occupancy. Soyinka had taken part actively in the politics of Nigeria and during the Civil War had been imprisoned for 22 months. Ever much later, during one of the military regimes, he had been arrested and placed under solitary confinement for two years. On both occasions, he had not been given access to basic materials such as paper and pen, yet he managed to write many poems on the topic of his imprisonment and the political situation in his country. For centuries, the Western nations have perceived Africa as a Dark Continent. Most writers and artists of Africa have strived to draw the curtains aside and show their nation in its true glory, true natural colours and flavours to the world beyond. 144 Self-Instructional Material The playwright has used his Yoruba heritage as the theme for many of his plays. The Miller and Soyinka play is rich with nuances and elements from the myths, rituals and beliefs of the members of the Yoruba tribal community. Considering the years the playwright spent in England at the University of Leeds, besides working at the Royal Court Theatre as a reader of plays, it is worth noting that NOTES instead of allowing Western culture to influence his writings, the playwright chose the heritage as a member of the Yoruba tribal community to impact his work. The Yoruba tribal community believes, like many other West African tribal communities, that the souls of human beings reside in various objects such as rocks, rivers, streams, oceans, trees and leaves. Soyinka has also mentioned the belief of his people that ancestors always reside in the living people of each generation. Hence, there is always a conflict between the dead ancestors and the living descendants. Therefore, the dead ancestors have to be constantly appeased by constant ritualistic sacrifices and various rituals. This is another Yoruba tribal belief that has found its place in the play A Dance of the Forests. On another level, the playwright speaks of the men and women living in the tiny village of Togo set deep within the forests of Nigeria. In spite of the constant efforts of the Western world to develop the countries of Africa, through charity and aid in various forms, the tribal communities remain fiercely self-reliant and determined to fight poverty and the sense of isolation on their own terms. The Yoruba tribal community, like most other tribal communities of Africa, live in forests that offer them sanctuary and a means of sustenance and survival. They are also accustomed to using their traditional forms of agriculture in spite of repeated and consistent efforts by the Western civilized world to teach the people of Africa modern methods of agriculture and the use of modern technology tools, tribal communities such as the Yoruba tribal community insist on continuing to use their traditional forms and methods of agriculture. The only concession they do happen to make is the use of specific modern tools that they have blended into their traditional forms of agriculture. These traditional forms of agriculture appear to have helped the people maintain the ecological balance. The Yoruba tribal community, like most other communities in the African continent, live close to nature and in harmony with nature and their natural habitat and environment. Of course one reason for this proximity to nature could be the fact that they believe human souls live in nature and natural phenomena such as rocks, rivers, oceans, streams, trees, and such like. They learn to revere and treat these phenomena with respect and care. As mentioned earlier, the ancestors live on in the living and need to be constantly appeased with spiritual sacrifices. So in that context, the living are shown to invite two of their mighty ancestors to a feast at the Gathering of the Tribes. Their god, however, intervenes and tells them that the forest head has told him to choose instead two restless souls living in the forest. These two are a Dead Man who was a captain and his wife, a Dead Woman. The captain had worked in the army of an ancient emperor called Mati Kharibu. While they were living, the captain and his wife had been abused and treated violently by four people. So the forest head now chose this Dead Man and Dead Woman to appease them with a feast and celebration. The play A Dance of the Forests is based on the Yoruba belief that the souls of human beings live on in the natural phenomena found in the forests and their belief that their ancestors live on in the living. The ancestors obviously are from another generation and

Self-Instructional Material 145 Miller and Soyinka many of them might have met with violent ends. Therefore, now in this generation they expect to be appeased by the living with spiritual sacrifices and other traditional rituals. The basic theme of the play A Dance of the Forests is a beautiful concept and perhaps many other communities in other Asian countries also practice the same beliefs. NOTES The concept of the dead needing to be appeased by the living in order to find peace is one that finds echoes within the Hindu communities of India as well.

‘Check Your Progress’ 4. When was Wole Soyinka awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature? 5. Why did Soyinka return to Nigeria after staying in England for his education? 6. Why was the play A Dance of the Forests written by Soyinka?

5.4 SUMMARY

 Arthur Miller was an inspiring modern American playwright, best known for his powerful play The Crucible that commented on the contemporary political witch hunting during the Cold War period, using the historical backdrop of the Salem witch trials of 17th century.  Arthur Asher Miller was born on 17 October 1915, in New York City, to Isidore and Augusta Miller, who were Polish-Jewish immigrants. His father was an illiterate but wealthy owner of women’s clothing store. In the famous Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Miller family lost almost everything and moved to Gravesend, Brooklyn. In a struggling young life, Arthur, as a teenager delivered bread every morning before school to help the family make ends meet.  Miller graduated with a BA in English in 1938, following which he joined the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal agency established to provide jobs in the theatre.  All My Sons is Arthur Miller’s first commercially successful play, in which Miller has examined the morality of a man who places his responsibility to his immediate family above his duty to the men who depend on the integrity of his work.  Miller’s All My Sons is a play about truth, commitment and guilt. The story is about the Keller family and their neighbours Deevers who end up paying for the fatal decision and lies of Joe Keller.  The story is powerful and raises questions concerning individual ethics, social commitment and the nature of truth.  The play is based on a true story, which depicted how a woman informed on her father who had sold faulty parts to the US military during World War II.  Miller also took inspiration from Henrik Ibson’s play The Wild Duck and Greek tragedy. Moreover, the central theme of the play is the criticism of the American Dream.  The criticism of the American Dream, which is a central theme of All My Sons, was one reason why Arthur Miller was called to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during the 1950s, when America was gripped by anti- communist hysteria.

146 Self-Instructional Material  Arthur Miller’s writing in All My Sons often portrays great respect for the great Miller and Soyinka Grecian tragedies of the likes of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. In these plays, the tragic hero or protagonist will commit an offence, often unknowingly, which will return to haunt him, sometimes many years later. The play summarizes all the consequences from the offense into a twenty-four hour time span. NOTES  The play is divided into three Acts, each of which ends at a point of dramatic tension and leaves hints for the development of action in the next act.  The opening of the play is with the theme of death, and the ending is literally with death. The play is realistically set with convincing stage setting and simple dialogues.  Symbolism is also employed by the playwright, for instance, the tree and the letter, which are constant reminders of Larry’s absence on stage and symbolize finality and death.  Wole Soyinka is a renowned playwright, poet and author. Wole Soyinka wrote drama, poetry and novels. More importantly, Wole Soyinka is a scholar and thinker.  Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934 in the Nigerian city of Abeokuta.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. One of the plays written by Wole Soyinka that found a special mention at the Nobel Prize celebration and citation was his play A Dance of the Forests written in 1960 to celebrate the independence of Nigeria from the oppressive colonial rule of Great Britain.  Wole Soyinka became politically aware at an early age and began to actively participate in political activism. After completing his education at both the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and the University of Leeds, he continued living in England. He had started writing his plays at an early age and by the time he completed his studies at the University of Leeds, members of the Royal Court Theatre had started recognizing his talent and genius.  As a child growing up in the Soyinka family home in Abeokuta, Soyinka was of the opinion that the environment was too claustrophobic. The environment was extremely religious and Soyinka had to sing in the church choir every Sunday. It was perhaps this strict atmosphere that shaped the future beliefs of Soyinka.  In 1959, Soyinka received the Rockefeller Research Scholarship from the University of Ibadan to work on a research project exploring traditional theatre forms, ritualistic practices, social values, and cultural and mythology in Nigeria.  His play A Dance of the Forests won a contest and was chosen to be the official play to be performed on Nigerian Independence Day which was celebrated on 1 October 1960. The play deals with the human tendency to hold on to the past, ignoring the present, or appreciating the present good fortune and refusing to look ahead.  A Dance of the Forests also makes reference of the Nigerian belief that ancestors continue to live in their living descendants, creating a constant conflict between the past and the present. This conflict can apparently be solved only by offering the ancestors traditional sacrifices and rituals performed to the accompaniment of music and dance.  The playwright has tried to portray a clan of people who are determined to remain self-reliant and self-sufficient and survive without any help from the Western and

Self-Instructional Material 147 Miller and Soyinka civilized world. Although they are fighting against poverty and are neglected by the outside world, they are aware of their personal space and personal freedom to express and speak out.  The central theme of the play A Dance of the Forests written by the Nigerian NOTES playwright Wole Soyinka is the traditional use of music and dance that the members of the Yoruba community use to worship their traditional and native God Ogun.

5.5 KEY TERMS

 American Dream: It is the ideal by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved.  Ogun/Ogun Onire: It is the god of war and iron of the Yoruba people of West Africa.

5.6 ANSWERS TO ‘CHECK YOUR PROGRESS’

1. The four important plays by Arthur Miller are: o No Villain (1936) o The Man Who Had All the Luck (1940) o Death of a Salesman (1949) o The Crucible (1953) 2. The unseen characters in the play All My Sons are: o Larry Keller o Steve Deever 3. In the play All My Sons, the letter reveals the truth in the end, which had built the suspense throughput the play. Chris discovers the truth of his father’s involvement in the crashing of airplanes, and thereby the death of twenty-one pilots. The truth also reveals the involvement of Joe in the death of his son Larry who is overcome with guilt to lead to his own death. 4. Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. 5. In 1959, the University of Ibadan offered him a research project to work on the traditional forms of African theatre, their folklore, rituals and mythologies. Wole Soyinka took this opportunity and returned to Nigeria to work on this research project. 6. Written in 1960, the play A Dance of the Forests, was perhaps written by Soyinka to create a sort of symbolic message that the Nigerian people could identify with, connect with, and more importantly realize and understand their present good fortune at gaining independence from British sovereignty.

5.7 QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

Short-Answer Questions 1. What has Miller examined in his play All My Sons? 2. What was Miller’s experience with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)? 148 Self-Instructional Material 3. What are the dramatic techniques used by Miller in All My Sons? Miller and Soyinka 4. Why was Soyinka’s family environment very religious and why did he become an atheist later on? 5. Provide the historical background of Soyinka’s play A Dance of the Forests. NOTES 6. Write a short note on the beliefs of the Yoruba community to which Soyinka belonged. Long-Answer Questions 1. Describe the life and literary career of Arthur Miller. 2. What is the central theme of Miller’s All My Sons? How does Miller portray it through his various characters? 3. Discuss the themes of Miller’s All My Sons. 4. Describe the life and literary career of Wole Soyinka. 5. Critically analyse the theme and the title of Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forests. 6. Assess the role played by the ancestors and Gods in African literature.

5.8 FURTHER READING

Keilbach, Andreas. 2007. Guilt and Responsibility in Arthur Miller’s Plays. Norderstedt, Germany: GRIN Verlag. Gale. 2000. A Study Guide for Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. Gale Group and Design. Nkanga, Mbala. 1990. Structure of Time and Space in Wole Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forests. Indiana University. Msiska, Mpalive-Hangson. 2007. Postcolonial Identity in Wole Soyinka. New York: Rodopi.

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