University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Modern Languages and Literatures, Department French Language and Literature Papers of October 1975 Dramatic structure and philosophy in Brutus, Alzire and Mahomet Thomas M. Carr Jr. University of Nebraska - Lincoln,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/modlangfrench Part of the Modern Languages Commons Carr, Thomas M. Jr., "Dramatic structure and philosophy in Brutus, Alzire and Mahomet" (1975). French Language and Literature Papers. 34. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/modlangfrench/34 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Modern Languages and Literatures, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in French Language and Literature Papers by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Published in Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, edited by Theodore Besterman, Volume CXLIII. The Voltaire Foundation, Thorpe Mandeville House, Banbury, Oxfordshire, 1975. Pages 7–48. Copyright © 1975 Theodore Besterman. Dramatic structure and philosophy in Brutus, Alzire and Mahomet by Thomas M. Carr, jr. An impressive amount of recent critical work has dealt with the philosophic element in Voltaire's tragedies. His plays have been labelled a theatre of involvement and a theatre of ideas; they have been examined from the standpoint of propaganda and as tragedyl. However,the focus of such studies has been primarily on Voltaire's message or on the meaning ofthe plays, rather than on the dramatic structure he created to convey his philosophic concerns. Today, of course, Voltaire does not rank high either as an original thinker or as a dramatist.