The plot demands, observe, that the
villain shall not relent. We know quite well that he cannot, for if he
did the play would fall to pieces. Why, then, should we expect or demand
a sordid squabble which can lead to nothing? We--and by "we" I mean the
public which relishes such plays--cannot possibly have any keen appetite
for copious re-hashes of such very cold mutton as the appeals of the
penitent heroine to the recalcitrant villain. And the moral seems to be
that in this class of play--the drama, if one may call it so, of
foregone character--the _scene a faire_ is precisely the scene to
be omitted.
In plays of a more ambitious class, skill is often shown by the
indication, in place of the formal presentment, even of an important
scene which the audience may, or might, have expected to witness in
full. We have already noted such a case in _The Wild Duck_: Ibsen knew
that what we really required to witness was not the actual process of
Gregers's disclosure to Hialmar, but its effects.
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