In other words, the
exposition is all drama, it _is_ the drama. The persons who are tearing
the veils from the past, and for whom the veils are being torn, are
intensely concerned in the process, which actually constitutes the
dramatic crisis. The discovery of this method, or its rediscovery in
modern drama,[12] was Ibsen's great technical achievement. In his best
work, the progress of the unveiling occasions a marked development, or
series of changes, in the actual and present relations of the
characters. The drama of the past and the drama of the present proceed,
so to speak, in interlacing rhythms, or, as I said before, in a rich,
complex harmony. In _Ghosts_ this harmony is not so rich as in some
later plays, because the drama of the present is disproportionately
meagre. None the less, or all the more, is it a conspicuous example of
Ibsen's method of raising his curtain, not at the beginning of the
crisis, but rather at the beginning of the catastrophe.
In _An Enemy of the People_, as already stated, he momentarily deserted
that method, and gave us an action which begins, develops, and ends
entirely within the frame of the picture.
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