The same convention survives to this day in certain
forms of drama. Even Ibsen, in his earlier work, had not shaken it off;
witness the sudden ennoblement of Bernick in _Pillars of Society_. But
it can scarcely be that sort of "development" which the critics consider
indispensable. What is it, then, that they have in mind?
By "development" of character, I think they mean, not change, but rather
unveiling, disclosure. They hold, not unreasonably, that a dramatic
crisis ought to disclose latent qualities in the persons chiefly
concerned in it, and involve, not, indeed, a change, but, as it were, an
exhaustive manifestation of character. The interest of the highest order
of drama should consist in the reaction of character to a series of
crucial experiences. We should, at the end of a play, know more of the
protagonist's character than he himself, or his most intimate friend,
could know at the beginning; for the action should have been such as to
put it to some novel and searching test.
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