It looks to me very much like one of those "blind alley"
themes of which mention has been made. There is matter, indeed, for most
painful drama in the relations of the husband and wife, both before and
after the trial; but, from the psychological point of view, one can see
nothing in the case but a distressing and inexplicable anomaly.[4] At
the same time, the bare fact of the sudden and tremendous peripety is
irresistibly dramatic; and Mr. Henry Arthur Jones has admitted that it
suggested to him the great scene of the unmasking of Felicia Hindemarsh
in _Mrs. Dane's Defence._
It is instructive to note the delicate adjustment which Mr. Jones found
necessary in order to adapt the theme to dramatic uses. In the first
place, not wishing to plunge into the depths of tragedy, he left the
heroine unmarried, though on the point of marriage. In the second place,
he made the blot on her past, not a theft followed by an attempt to
shift the guilt on to other shoulders, but an error of conduct, due to
youth and inexperience, serious in itself, but rendered disastrous by
tragic consequences over which she, Felicia, had no control.
Pages:
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368