Browning and the Dramatic MonologueCurry, S. S. (Samuel Silas)
History
Browning and the Dramatic Monologue
Curry, S. S. (Samuel Silas)
Browning, Robert, 1812-1889 -- Criticism and interpretation; Dramatic monologues -- History and criticism
Another fault in the rendering of the monologue is a declamatory tendency.
As the reader discovers but one speaker he confuses the words with a
speech. He feels the presence of the audience to whom he is addressing the
words, or unconsciously imagines an audience, in preparing his monologue,
and forgets entirely the dramatic auditor intended by the author. Thus,
the interpreter, confusing the points of situation, transforms the
monologue into a stump speech.
It degrades the quiet intensity of "A Grammarian's Funeral" to make the
grammarian's pupil, who is aiding in bearing his body up the mountain
side, declaim against the world. How quietly intense and simple should be
the rendering of "By the Fireside."
Although the subtleties of conversation need some accentuation, and
although there is an enlargement of the processes of thinking, and fuller
realization of the truth than in conversation, the monologue never becomes
a speech. An audience may be felt, but never directly dominated, nor even
addressed. In the oration, the speaker directly dominates the audience; in
dramatic representation, the artist does not even look at his audience.
His eye belongs to his interlocutor. The direction of the audience is that
of attraction, and away from the audience that of negation. He must feel a
tendency to gravitate in passion towards the audience, and in the negation
of passion to turn from them; but still he succeeds, not by direct
instruction, but by fidelity of portraiture.
The monologue is as indirect as a play. It is the revelation of a soul,
and to be used not to persuade, but to influence subtly. The truth is
portrayed with living force, and the auditor left to draw his own
conclusions and lessons.
Another fault is indefiniteness. Every part of a monologue must be brought
into harmony with the rest. Part must be consistent with part, as are the
hand and foot belonging to the same organism. If "Abt Vogler" be started
as a soliloquy, it must not be turned into a speech to an audience, nor
even into a direct speech to one individual. If conceived as a speech to
one individual, that character must be preserved throughout. Even though
talking to some one, he would be very meditative, and would often turn and
speak as if to himself.
Closely allied to indefiniteness is exaggeration of certain parts. All
accentuation must be in direct proportion. If inflection be made longer
and more salient, there must also be longer pauses, greater changes of
pitch, and greater variations of movement and color. In the enlargement of
a portrait, it is necessary that all parts be enlarged in proportion. If
only the nose or the upper lip be enlarged, the truth of the portrait is
lost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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