The Well-Made play: AIH, Anne Varty + George Bernard Shaw. Flashcards
What are the main aspects of a ‘well-made play’ ? (who proposed it, where etc)
(5 things)
- Dominated the stage throughout Wilde’s lifetime and beyond
- Originated in France, with the principal exponent being Victorien Sardou
- -Sardou was prolific and hugely popular, scripting comedies/ tragedies translated into English.
- -Highly formulaic and easy to copy
- -Driven by plot and stock characters
What are the 4 act divisions to a well-made play?
‘Exposition, Complication, Crisis and Resolution (/ Denouement)’
What do each of the 4 act division accumulate to? What can you expect in complication?
-Exposition, complication, crisis and resolution.
Exposition - establishes social order which audience expect to be tested
Complication - initiates disruption, e.g ‘character with a past’ You can expect props, letters or accessories causing tension
Crisis - climax in 3rd act, emotional/social clash
Resolution - represents dissipation of threat, restoring social quo to Exposition.
Who achieves the social quo being restored to that of the exposition?
One of the stock key characters - the raissoneur.
They embody normative social values, and uses these to solve the problems in the drama.
What did George Bernard Shaw voice that denounced the template of ‘well-made play’ ?
’ The Manufacture of well-made plays is not an art: it is an industry. It is not at all hard for a literary mechanic to acquire it.’
What did George Bernard Shaw pour, in critique of the ‘well-made play’ according to Anne Varty?
‘he poured contempt on its bewildering excess of theatrical contrivance which was designed to please and pacify, rather than to provoke and challenge. ‘
What was Wilde’s trick to exploit the ‘Well-made play’ according to Anna Varty?
‘Wilde’s trick was to take the reactionary form and to use it to cloak his progressive social vision. ‘
What two things did Anna Varty state that makes ‘An ideal husband Wilde’s most commanding manipulation of the conventions of the well-made play’?
-‘ flaunting its excessive contrivance
-revelling in the display of artifice.’
What did Anna Varty say about Wilde’s ‘playfulness with convention’?
It extends to ‘swapping the gender of the traditional character with a past, making this a man rather than a woman. His boldest move is to cast the Dandy in the role of the raisonneur.’
What does Wilde do in ‘deploying Lord Goring as the raisonneur’?
‘Wilde destabilises the social values which the well-made play was expected to uphold; he also demonstrates that the Dandy’s wit is not gratuitously iconoclastic but motivated by profound ethical vision.’
What is the complication that Anna Varty suggested Wilde created within the exposition?
‘Compressing the drama still further, as a means of increasing suspense, Wilde set an exact time-limit by which Sir Robert must comply’
What are the two climaxes that Anna Varty suggest take place in act III at Goring’s house?
‘A climax in which Mrs Cheveley is branded a thief by reclaiming the brooch/bracelet’
Second - ‘She steals Lady Chiltern’s potentially scandalous letter to Lord Goring.’
In what ways has the ‘happy ending’ of An Ideal Husband balanced individual ethical journeys of the characters? (Robert / Gertrude)
- Robert speaks against the Argentine Canal scheme, knowing it may cost him his career/ marriage
- Gertrude abandons her original moral position of Puritanism to save her marriage
According to Anna Varty, what is the ‘overriding message’ in this play and what type of morality frames the change?
The overriding progressive message of this play is’ the need for both personal and political regeneration.’
‘it is moral relativism rather than moral absolutism that underwrites such change.’
According to Anna Varty, what type of moral universe does Goring create and what does this allow Cheveley at the start of the play?
‘The moral universe which Lord Goring creates is one in which judgment accommodates compromise and compassion.’
Mrs Cheveley has power ‘because the society she enters at the start of the play is not like this.’
What does Anna Varty suggest Wilde exposes? (regarding idealism)
Wilde ‘exposes the weakness of ideals, whether they are ideal husbands, ideal wives, or idea virtues.’
What does the play demonstrate regarding idealism, according to Anna Varty?
‘ideals cannot respond to the exigencies of lived experience; they do not evolve with individuals, and they are unfit to shape a thriving society.’
How did Wilde deploy the era’s most popular form of theatre, according to Anna Varty?
‘He took from the conventions of the well-made play, and demonstrated how they could be adapted to promote a regenerative politics for a progressive age.
