In melodrama, the
curtain falls of its own accord, so to speak, when the handcuffs are
transferred from the hero's wrists to the villain's. In an
adventure-play, whether farcical or romantic, when the adventure is over
the play is done. The author's task is merely to keep the interest of
the adventure afoot until he is ready to drop his curtain. This is a
point of craftsmanship in which playwrights often fail; but it is a
point of craftsmanship only. In plays of a higher order, on the other
hand, the difficulty is often inherent in the theme, and not to be
overcome by any feat of craftsmanship. If the dramatist were to eschew
all crises that could not be made to resolve themselves with
specifically dramatic crispness and decisiveness, he would very
seriously limit the domain of his art. Many excellent themes would be
distorted and ruined by having an emphatic ending forced upon them. It
is surely much better that they should be brought to their natural
unemphatic ending, than that they should be either falsified or ignored.
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