In
fact, if we come to think of it, the removal of the fourth wall is
scarcely to be classed as a convention; for in real life, as we do not
happen to have eyes in the back of our heads, we are never visually
conscious of all four walls of a room at once. If, then, in a room that
is absolutely real, we see a man who (in all other respects) strives to
be equally real, suddenly begin to expound himself aloud, in good, set
terms, his own emotions, motives, or purposes, we instantly plump down
from one plane of convention to another, and receive a disagreeable jar
to our sense of reality. Up to that moment, all the efforts of author,
producer, and actor have centred in begetting in us a particular order
of illusion; and lo! the effort is suddenly abandoned, and the illusion
shattered by a crying unreality. In modern serious drama, therefore, the
soliloquy can only be regarded as a disturbing anachronism.[5]
The physical conditions which tended to banish it from the stage were
reinforced by the growing perception of its artistic slovenliness.
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