Shakespeare the Dramatist by Ellis-Fermor Una; Muir Kenneth;

Author:Ellis-Fermor, Una; Muir, Kenneth;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1474505
Publisher: Routledge

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1 On the nature of the patterns defined by selection something has already been said in Chapter III.

1 The intimacy of the relationship between character and plot again becomes clear when we consider that the grouping of character may be regarded either as the structural aspect of character or the spatial aspect of plot. Upon the spatial aspect of plot, see G. Wilson Knight, The Wheel of Fire, Chap. I.

2 See Laokoon. Chaps. XV–XVIII. ‘Es bleibt dabei: die Zeitfolge ist das Gebiet des Dichters, so wie der Raum das Gebiet des Malers.’ (Chap. XVIII.)

3 The relations of these two levels of plot within the time continuum admit obviously of wide variety in kind and spacing.

1 See below, p. 143.

1 The nature of this kind of spatial structure becomes clearer still if we set beside it yet another play of Ibsen, The Pillars of the Community, whose character grouping might appear at first glance to resemble that of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The relations between the many strands of action and the direct links between the numerous characters reveal to a careful inspection the fact that the most seemingly detached of these strands are related to at least three or four others. But there is a palpable purpose behind this only less evident than that behind the statuesque grouping of the characters in Ghosts. Again, the characters are related to certain problems and responsible for revealing them. They are so placed not so much to imply a world of men as to contribute to a balance of forces. Through them all runs the dominant theme of Bernick's conversion, the progress of his soul through crime and punishment to redemption. Ibsen gathers up and puts into Bernick's hands all the threads of the plot and consequently all the responsibility. We assist throughout the play at an inevitable progress to a triumphant demonstration. But the function of the spatial aspect is to contribute to our understanding of the emergent theme, rather than to extend the implications of the play.

1 The same function of spatial relations may be traced in the work of that later poet who is, by discipline and devotion, chief heir to the Greek dramatic genius. In some seven at least of the plays of Racine the few characters extend the scope of the drama by drawing into the spatial plot a wide range of worlds or associations. This is perhaps most clearly seen in Andromaque and Bérénice, but it is at work also in Mithridate, Iphigénie, Phèdre, Esther, and Athalie.

1 This technique in painting is, of course, common and elementary knowledge. But even at the risk of offering a naïve comment, I should like to describe those aspects which appear relevant also to the study of drama. This footnote should obviously be passed over by those who know the elements of the technique of painting and, even more obviously, by those who paint.

The familiar ways of conveying the impression of distance are by the perspective of line and of colour;

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