Her situation was dramatic in the ordinary sense of the word, very
much as Nora's situation is dramatic when she knows that Krogstad's
letter is in Helmer's hands. But in _Chains_ there is not even this
simple form of excitement and suspense. A city clerk, oppressed by the
deadly monotony and narrowness of his life, thinks of going to
Australia--and doesn't go: that is the sum and substance of the action.
Also, by way of underplot, a shopgirl, oppressed by the deadly monotony
and narrowness of her life, thinks of escaping from it by marrying a
middle-aged widower--and doesn't do it. If any one had told the late
Francisque Sarcey, or the late Clement Scott, that a play could be made
out of this slender material, which should hold an audience absorbed
through four acts, and stir them to real enthusiasm, these eminent
critics would have thought him a madman. Yet Miss Baker has achieved
this feat, by the simple process of supplementing competent observation
with a fair share of dramatic instinct.
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