Ibsen's John Gabriel
Borkman is unseen until the second act, though (through his wife's ears)
we have already heard him pacing up and down his room like a wolf in his
cage. Dubedat, in _The Doctor's Dilemma_, is not revealed to us in the
flesh until the second act. But for this device to be successful, it is
essential that only one leading character[5] should remain unseen, on
whom the attention of the audience may, by that very fact, be riveted.
In _Waste_, for instance, all would have been well had it suited Mr.
Barker's purpose to leave Trebell invisible till the second act, while
all the characters in the first act, clearly presented to us, canvassed
him from their various points of view. Keen expectancy, in short, is the
most desirable frame of mind in which an audience can be placed, so long
as the expectancy be not ultimately disappointed. But there is no less
desirable mental attitude than that of straining after gleams of
guidance in an expository twilight.
The advantage of a staccato opening--or, to vary the metaphor, a brisk,
highly aerated introductory passage--is clearly exemplified in _A Doll's
House_.
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