Dramatic
language is modelled on real-life conversations among people, and yet, when one
watches a play, one also has consider the differences between real talk and
drama talk. Dramatic language is ultimately always constructed or ‘made up’ and
it often serves several purposes. On the level of the story-world of a play,
language can of course assume all the pragmatic functions that can be found in
real-life conversations, too: e.g, to ensure mutual understanding and to convey
information, to persuade or influence someone, to relate one’s experiences or
signal emotions, etc. However dramatic language is often rhetorical and poetic,
i.e, it uses language in always which differ from standard usage in order to
draw attention to its artistic nature (see language in Literature ch 1 6) When
analysing dramatic texts, one ought to have a closer look at the various forms
of utterance available of drama.
A.
MONOLOGUE, DIALOGUE, SOLIOQUY
In
drama, in contrast to narrative, characters typically talk to one another and
the entire plot is carried by and conveyed through their verbal interactions.
Language in drama can generally be presented either as monologue or dialogue.
Monologue means that only one character speaks while dialogue always requires
two or more participants. A special form of monologue, where no other person is
present on stage beside the speaker, is called soliloquy. Soliloquies occur
frequently in Richard II for example, where Richard often remains alone on
stage and talks about hi secret plans. Soliloques are mainly used to present a
character in more detail and also on a more personal level. In other words:
Character are able to ‘speak their mind’ in soliloques. That character explain
their feelings, motivates, etc. On stage appear unnatural form a real-life
standpoint but this is necessary in plays because it would otherwise be very
difficult to convey thoughts, for narrative texts, by contrast, throughts can
be presented directly through techniques such as interior monologue or free
indirect discourse (see ch 2 7). Consider the famous soliloquy from Hamlet.
To
be or, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to
suffer. The slings and narrows of outrageous fortune. Or to take arms against a
sea of troubles. And by opposing end them. To die – to sleep. No more; and by a
sleep to say we and. The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh
is heir to: ‘tis a consummation. Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To
sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub: For in that sleep of death what
dreams may come. When we have shuffled off this mortal coil. Must give us
pause—there is the respect. That makes calmity of so life [...] Thus conscience
does make cowards of us all. And thus the native hue of resolution. Is sicklied
o’er with the pale cast of thought. And enterprises of great pitch and
movement. With this regard their currents turn awry. And lose the name of
action. Soft you now. The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons. Be all my sins
remember’d. (hamlet, III, 1: 56-88)
As
soon as Ophelia enters the stage (“Soft you now,/ The fair Ophelia”, line 86f),
Hamlet’s speech is technically no longer a solioquy. Critic often refer to it
simply as monologue, as this is the more general term. In case of a monologue,
other characters can be present on stage, either overhearing the speech of the
person talking or even being directly addressed by him or her. The main point
is that one person holds the floor for a lengthly period of time. Hamlet’s
soliloquy reveals his inner conflict to the audience. We learn that he wavers
between taking action and remaining passive. The fact that he contemplates the
miseries of life, death and the possiblity od suicide shows him as a
melancholic, almost depressed character. At the same time, his speech is
profound and philosophical, and thus Hamlet comes across as throughtful and
intelectual. This example illustrates one of the main functions of language in
drama, namely the indirect characterisation of figures.
B.
ASIDES
Another
special form of speech in drama is the so-called aside. Asides are spoken away
from other characters, and a character either speaks aside to himself,
secretively to (an)other character(s) or to the audience (ad spectatores). It
is conspicious that plays of the Elizabethan Age make significantly more use of
asides than modern plays, for example. One of the reasons certainly has to do
with the saphe of the stage. The apron stage, which was surrounded by the
audience is missing. Asides are important device because they channel extra
information past other charcters directly to the audience. Thus, spectators are
in a way taken into confidence and they often become ‘partners-in-crime’, so to
speak, because they ultimately know more than some of the figures on stage (see
Information Flow ch. 32)
SO
WHAT?
Dramatic
language is multi-faced and fulfils a number of functions within a play. As a
consequence it can have various effect on the audience. Consider, foe example,
the way asides are employed in Cyril Tourneur’s The Revenger’s Tragedy. After
the discovery of the Duke’s dead body, the various characters react differently
and express this asides
LOSSURIOSO
Behold, behold, my lords!. The Duke my father’s murdered by a vassal. That owes
this habit and here left disguised.’
[Enter
DUCHESS and SPURIO] DUCHESS My lord and husband! [FIRST NOBLE] Reverend
Majesty. [SECOND NOBLE] I have seen these clothes often attending on him.
VINDICE [aside] That nobleman has been i’th’country, for he does not lie.
SUPERVACUO [aside] Learn of our mother, let’s dissemble too. I am gland he’s
vanished; so I hope are you. AMBITIOSO[aside]Ay, you may take my word for’t
SPURIO[aside] Old dad dead? I, one of his cast sins, will send the fates. Most
hearty commendations by his own son; I’ll tug in the new stream till strength
be done. [...]
HIPPOLITO[aside]
Brother, how happy is our vengeance! VINDICE[aside] Why, it hits. Past the
apprehension of indifferent wits. LUSSURIOSO Meet me? I’m not at leisure my
good lord. I’ve many griefs to di patcj out o’the’way. [Aside]Welcome, sweet
title. – Talk to me, my lords, Of sepulchres and mighty emperors’ bones; That’s
thought for me. VINCE[aside] So, one may see by this. How foreign markets go:
Courtires have feet o’th’nines, and tongues o’th’twelves, They flatter dukes
flatter themselves. (The Revenger’s Tragedy, V, 1: 105-148)
Asides
are used to such an extent here that they make the entrie plot with the
characters’ secrets and hidden thoughts almost farcial. The acides in this
excerpt are spoken both to other characters as when Ambitioso and Supervacuo
talk to one another aside from the others (lines 111-113), and to oneself, e.g,
when Lussurioso express his secret joy about the duke’s death because that
means he will accede to the thorne (line 143), The acides provide further
information, e.g, concerning Surio’s plan to kill the new duke Duke (lines
144-117), but mostly they are used here to reveal the different characters’
double standards and hidden agendas. None of the Duke’s sons is really sad
about his death, which is finally commented on by Vindice in another aside
(lines 145-148).
Furthermore,
the acides also clarify groups of characters who share their respective
secrets. Supervacuo and Ambitioso and Vindice and Hippolito. Vindice’s and
Hippolito’s acides are often ironic because they actually commited the crime
and now revel in their sucess. This example shows that a linguistic device such
as an acide can serve various purposes and needs to be analysed in context.
When
acides are used in an extraordinarily extensive way, as is the case in the
Revenger’s Tragedy, one may also ask why this is done. Although the acide was a
common technique in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, its application is
undoubledly exagerated in Tourneur’s tragedy. Occasionally, one form the
impression that the characters speak: nearly as much aside as they speak openly
to other characters. As a result, the acide as an artifical threatical device
is hilighted and brought to the viewer’s attention, which in turn potentially
ridicules contemporary conversations. The audience not only become aware of the
characters’ secret thoughts but it is also fully conscious the fact that what
is watches is simply a play that has been ‘constructed’ following traditional
conventions. In a sense, the play thus pokes fun at itself and adds an
unexpected layer of humour to a genre which originally was not meant to be
humorous at all (revenge tragedy)
C.
TURN ALLOCATION, STICHOMYTHIA, REPARTEE
In
comparison to monologues and acudes, dialogues is by far the most frequently
used type of speech in drama. In analysing dialogue, one can look at
turn-taking and the allocation of turns to different speakers, e.g, how many
line is each characters’s turn? Do some characters have longer turns than
others and, if so why? One can also analyse how often the character gets the
chance to speak through the entrie play and whether he or she is interrupted by
other or not. For example consider the excerpt from Gjhon Osborne’s Look Back
in Anger in the So What section below.
A
special type of turn allocation occurs when speaker’s alternating turns are of
one line each. This is called stichomythia and is often, albeit not
exclusively, used in contexts where characters compete or disagree with one
another. In the following excerpt from Richard III, Richard tries to persuade
Elizabeth to woo her daughter on his behalf:
KING
RICHARD Infer fair England’s peace by this alliance. ELIZABETH Which she shall
purchase with still-lasting war.
KING
RICHARD Tell her the King, that may command, entreats. ELIZABETH That, at her
hands, which the King’s King forbids.
KING
RICHARD Say she shall be high and mighty queen. ELIZABETH To vail the title, as
her mother doth.
KING
RICHARD Say I will love her everlastingly. ELIZABETH But how long shall that
title ‘ever’ last?
KING RICHARD As long as heaven and nature lengthens it. ELIZABETH As long as hell and Richard likes of it.
KING RICHARD As long as heaven and nature lengthens it. ELIZABETH As long as hell and Richard likes of it.
KING
RICHARD Say I, her soveregin, am her subject low ELIZABETH But she, your
subject, loathes such sovereignty
KING
RICHARD Be eloquent in my behalf to her ELIZABETH An honest tale speeds best
being plainly told
KING
RICHARD Then plainly to her tell my loving tale ELIZABETH Plain and not honest
is too harsh a style
KING
RICHARD Your reasons are too shallow and too quick [...] (Richard III, IV, 4:
343-361)
This dialogue is marked by repeatees, i.e, quick responses given in order to top remarks of another speaker or to use them to one’s own advantage. The repeatees in this example express Elizabeth’s doubts and counter-arguments. The fact that stichomythia is used here underlines the argumentative character of this conversation. In a sense, Richard and Elizabeth compete rhetorically. Richard’s persuasive devices, Through the quick turn-taking mekanism, the dialogue also appears livelier and in itself represent past action.
This
reinforced by a number of word plays and rhetorical figures which use the
repetition of words and sounds and thus demonstrate how thightly connected the
individual turns are and that each turn immediately responds to the previous
one: “everlastingly” – “ever last” (349f); figura etymologica: “sweetly” –
“sweet” (351f), “fair” – “fairly” (351f), “sovereign” – “sovereignty” 9356f);
parallelism: “As long as../ As long as...” (353f); assonance: “low”, “loathes”
(356f); chiasmus: “An honest tale speeds best being plainly told. / Then
plainly to her tell my loving tale” (358f).
SO
WHAT?
The
distribution and amount of turns speakers are allocated in plays is an
important features to investigate in drama. Let us look at the following
excerpt from John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger, where Jimmy starts to rage
after Alison has told him she wants to go to chruch with her friend, Helena:
JIMMY:
You are doing what? [Silence] Have you gone out for your mind or something? (To
Helena). You’re determined to win her, aren’t you? So it’s come to this now!
How feeble can you get? (His rage mounting within.) When I think of what I did,
what I endured, to get you out –
ALISON:
(recognising an onslought on the way, starts to panic). Oh yes, ew all know
what you did for me! You rescued me from the wicked cluthes of my family, and
all my friends! I’d still be rotting away at home, if you hadn’t ridden up on
your charger, and carried me off! (The wild note in her voice has re-assured
him. His anger cools and hardens. His voice is quite calm when he speaks.
JIMMY:
The funny thing is, you know, I really did have to rid up on a white charger –
off white, really.
Mummy locked her up in their eight bedroomed castle, didn’t
she? There is no limit to what the middle-aged mummy will do in the holy
crusade against ruffians like me. Mummy and I took one quick look at each
other, and, from then on, the age of chivalry was dead. I knew that, to protect
her innocent, young, she wouldn’t hesitate to cheat, lie, bully, and blackmail.
Threatened with me, a young man without money, background or even looks, she’d
below like a rhinoceros in labour – enough to make every male rhino for miles
turn white, and pledge himself to celibacy. But event I under-estimated
herstrength. Mummy may look over-fed and a bit flabby on the outside, but don’t
let that well-bred guzzler fool you. Underneath all that, she’s armour plated –
[...]
All
so that I shan’t carry off her daughter on that poor old charger of mine, all
tricked out and caparisoned in discredited passions and ideas! The old grey
mare that actually once led the charge against the old order – well, she
certainly ain’t what she used to be. It was all she could do to carry me, but
your wight (to Alison) was too much for her. She just dropped dead on the way.
CLIFF:
(quietly) Don’t let’s brawl, boyo. It won’t do any doog [...] (Look Back in
Anger, III, 1)
Alison,
anticipating Jimmy’s criticism, at first interrupt him. This is typical of
arguments, especially when people are emotional in that situation, Then,
however, Jimmy takes over again and his turn is significantly longer than
anyone else’s in this scene (although it is even abbreviated here!). One the
one hand, this indicates Jimmy’s open and unrestrained rage, and on the other
hand it signals to the audience that he is the dominant character in this
scene. In fact, Jimmy is allocated most turns in the play and his turns are the
longest on average, which dewmonstrates even on a linguistic level that he
domineers not only over his wife but also his friends.
At
the same time, one can recognise a discrepancy between jimmy’s talk and his
actions. While he shouts all the time and criticises everyone, he does not
really manage to change anything in his own life. Verbally more than active, he
remains disappointingly passive as far as his personal circumstances are
concerned and thus involuntarily conveys a sence of failure of the audience.
The imaginari he uses in his speech underlines this discrepancy. With a touch
of selft-irony, Jimmy draws upon the sematic field of chivalry and romance,
thereby implicity claiming for himself the role of a hero who had to ‘rescue’
Alison from her overpowering mother: “carry off her daughter”. The motorbike is
affectionately likened to an “olf grey mare”, which had “led the charge against
the old order”. Jimmy’s ‘fight” against the establishment is evoked in this
image, and Alison is indirectly blamed for the fact that all this “heroism” is
over now: “but your weight [...] was too much for her”. Alison’s mother is
downgraded references to her physical appearance: “to protect her innocent
young”, “she’d bellow like a rhinoceros in labour”, “over-fed”, “flabby”,
“well-bred guzzler”.
Jimmy’s
rage finds an outlet in lengthly speeches whose main purposes is to insult and
provoke people. While his seemingly confident way of speaking conveys an
illusion of being in the right, the audience soon realises that all this anger
probably covers a felling of vulnerability in Jimmy and a sense of
dissatisfaction with himselft. From an objective, outside point of view,
Jimmy’s life can be considered failure. He has no achieved any of his lofty
aims.
Occasionally,
even the lack of language can be significant. Silence, which can sometimes
hardly be borne in real-life conversations, appears as particulary marked in
plays, especially when it lasts for a lengthy time. In the final scene of
Edward Bond’s saved, the characters move and act but do not say a word
The
living room. PAM sits in the couch. She reads the Radio Times. Mary takes
things from the table and goes out. Pause, She comes back. She goes to the
table. She collects the plates. She goes out. Pause the door opens. HARRY comes
in. He goes to the table and opens the drawer: He searches in it. PAM turns a
page. MARY comes in, She goes to the table and picks up the last things on it.
She goes out. HARRY’S jacket is droped on the back of the chair by the table.
He researches on the pockets. PAM turns a page: There is a loud bang (off)
silence. HARRY turns to the table and research in the drawer: MARRY comes in.
She wipes the table top with a damp cloth. There is a loud bang (off) MARRY
goes out [....] (Saved,13)
The
scene continues like this right until the end without the characters talking to
one another. This final scene is culmination point of a play in which lack of
communication and education as well as emotional poverty constitute central
temes. In a way, the silence is indicative characters’ lack of a real
relationship, and ultimately of the senselessness of their lives. This is best
brough home to the audience by means of a lasting silence, which seems
oppresive and yet inevitable.
At
the same time, life is shown to continue, no matter what happens. Even the
outregeous and incredibility violent murder of Pam’s baby by means of stoning
has not really had significant impact on their Pam’s or her family’s life. The
message one gets is that nothing can be done or changed. Languge better, the
lack of language, thus becomes symbolic and has wider implication of our
understanding of a society where cultural and emotional deprivation engenders
violence.
In
Edward Bond’s own words, the ending can even be considered optimistic since at
least one person, Len, does seem to care: “The play ends in a silent social
stalemate, but if the spectator thinks this is pessimistic that is because he
has no learned to clutch at straws. [...] The gesture of turning the other
check is often the gesture of refusing to look fact in the face – but this is
not true of Len. He lives with people at their worst and most hopeless (that is
the point of the final scene) and does not turn away from them. I cannot
imagine an optimism more tenacious, disciplined or honest than his” (Saved,
Author’s Note). In fact, it is Len who continuously break the silence of the
final scene by banging on the chair in order to fix it and, significantly
enough, he is given the only line in the entire scene when when he instructs
Pam to fetch his hammer. The attempt to fix the chair can be interpreted as a
final attempt at ‘fixing’ these people’s family life.
D.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WORDPLAY IN DRAMA
The
play with language entertains spectators and at the same time attracts and
sustains theit attention. Consider the way Polonius introduces to the King and
Queen his Explanation for Hamlet’s ‘madness’:
Madam,
I swear I use no art at all. That he is mad ‘tis true;’ ‘tis true ‘tis pity;
And pity ‘tis ‘tis true. A foolish figure- But farewell it, for I will use no
art. Mad let us grant him then. And now remains. That we find out the cause of
this defect. For this effect detective comes by cause. Thus it remains; and the
rimainder thus: [....] (Hamlet, II, 2:96-104)
Bu
constanly juxtaposing and repeating words, Polonius attempts to display his
‘cleverness’ because he believes to have found out the cause for Hamlet’s
madness, namely Hamlet’s interest in Ophelia, Pholonius’ daughter. This play
with scun patterns and words catches the audience’s attention because it
deviates from normal uses of language. At the same time, it is entertaining,
especially since the audience knows that Polonius’ assumption is wrong and
Ophelia is not the reason for Hamlet’s madness. Thus, rather than appearing as
clever, Polonius comes across as a fool who even uses a fool’s language
(although real fools were traditionally considered wise men who indirectly told
the truth and held up a mirror to society through their playful language).
A
special type of wordplay is the so-called pun, where words are used which are the
same or at least similar in sound and spelling (homonyms) differ in meaning.
Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest, for example, centres on the
pun on the name Ernest and the adjective ‘earnest’, which denotes the character
trait of being sincere and serious.
Puns
were also very common in Elizabethan plays and they where used both for comical
and serious effects. Consider, for example, Hamlet’s advice to Polonius
concerning his daughter Ophelia:
Let
her not walk i’th’sun Conception is a blessing. But as your daughter may
conceive – friend, look To’t [....] (Hamlet, II, 2:184-186)
When
Hamlet warns Polonius not to let his daughter “walk in the sun”, this can mean
quite literally that she should not walk outside, e.g, in public places, but if
one considers that the sun in Elizabethan times was also used as a royal
emblem, the sentence can be read as an read as an indirect warning not to let
Ophelia come near Hamlet himselft. Another pun is used with the words
“conception” and “conceive”, which on the one hand refer to the formation of
ideas and hence are positive (“blessing”) but on the other hand also mean that
a woman becomes pregnant, which was no desirable for an unmarried woman. Thus,
Hamlet implicitly advises Polonius to take care of his daughter lest she should
lose her innolence and consequenly her good reputation. The puns, albeit funny
at first glance, convey a serious message.
Another
concept to be mentioneds in the context of a play with languages is wit. The
idea of wit, which combines humour and intelect, plays a significant role in
the so-called comedy of manners. Wit is expressed in brief verbal expressions
which are intentionally contrived to create a comic surprice. It was
particularly popular in plays of the Restoration period, and the most
well-known examples are Wiliam Wycherley’s The Country Wife (1675) and Wiliam
Congreve’s The Way of the World (1700)
Another
author famous for his witty plays is the late nineteenth-century writer Oscar
Wilde. Consider the following brief excerpt from his play The Importance of
Being Earnest
LADY
BRACKNELL Good afternoon, dear Algernon, I hope you are behaving very well.
ALGERNON I’am feeling very well, Aunt Agusta.
LADY
BRACKNELL That’s not quite the same thing. In fact the two things rarely go
together. [See Jack and bows to him with icy coldness] ALGERNON [To Gwendolen]
Dear me, you are smart!
GWENDOLEN
I am always smart! Aren’t I, Mr Worthing? JACK You’re quite perfect, Miss
Fairfax. GWENDOLEN Oh! I hope I am not that. It would leave no room for
developments, and I intend to develop in many directions. (The Importance of
Being Earnest, I)
