" We shall probably not arrive at any
definition which can be applied as an infallible touchstone to
distinguish the dramatic from the undramatic. Perhaps, indeed, the
upshot may rather be to place the student on his guard against troubling
too much about the formal definitions of critical theorists.
The orthodox opinion of the present time is that which is generally
associated with the name of the late Ferdinand Brunetiere. "The theatre
in general," said that critic, "is nothing but the place for the
development of the human will, attacking the obstacles opposed to it by
destiny, fortune, or circumstances." And again: "Drama is a
representation of the will of man in conflict with the mysterious powers
or natural forces which limit and belittle us; it is one of us thrown
living upon the stage, there to struggle against fatality, against
social law, against one of his fellow-mortals, against himself, if need
be, against the ambitions, the interests, the prejudices, the folly, the
malevolence of those who surround him.
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