DRAMA

Hamlet, Shakespeare
• The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is
a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601.
• It is Shakespeare’s longest play, with 29,551 words.
• Set in Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his attempts to exact revenge
against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet’s father in order to seize his
throne and marry Hamlet’s mother.
• Shakespeare, the author:
o William Shakespeare (bapt. 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English
playwright, poet and actor.
o He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon” (or simply
"the Bard”).
o His extant works:
▪ 37 plays
▪ 154 sonnets,
▪ 2 non-dramatic narrative poems:
• “Venice and Adonis”
• “The Rape of Lucree”
o Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.
o At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three
children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith.
o Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as
an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men.
o At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died
three years later.
o Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1588 and 1612, and
this work is generally divided into four periods.
▪ First Period (1577 – 93)
▪ Second Period (1594 –1600)
▪ Third Period (1601 – 1608)
▪ Fourth Period (1608 – 1612)
• Characters:
o Hamlet – son of the late king and nephew of the present king, Claudius
o Claudius – King of Denmark, Hamlet’s uncle and brother to the former king
o Gertrude – Queen of Denmark and Hamlet’s mother
o Polonius – chief counsellor to the king
o Ophelia – Polonius’s daughter
o Horatio – friend of Hamlet
o Laertes – Polonius’s son
o Voltimand and Cornelius – courtiers
o Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – courtiers, friends of Hamlet
o Osric – a courtier
 o Marcellus – an officer
o Barnardo – an officer
o Francisco – a soldier
o Reynaldo – Polonius’s servant
o Ghost – the ghost of Hamlet’s father
o Fortinbras – prince of Norway
o Gravediggers – a pair of sextons
o Player King, Player Queen, Lucianus, etc. – players
• Plot:
o Prince Hamlet is depressed. Having been summoned home to Denmark from
school in Germany to attend his father’s funeral, he is shocked to find his
mother Gertrude already remarried.
o The Queen has wed Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius, the dead king’s brother.
o To Hamlet, the marriage is “foul incest.”
o Worse still, Claudius has had himself crowned King despite the fact that Hamlet
was his father’s heir to the throne. Hamlet suspects foul play.
o When his father’s ghost visits the castle, Hamlet’s suspicions are confirmed.
o The Ghost complains that he is unable to rest in peace because he was murdered.
Claudius, says the Ghost, poured poison in King Hamlet’s ear while the old king
napped.
o Unable to confess and find salvation, King Hamlet is now consigned, for a time,
to spend his days in Purgatory and walk the earth by night. He entreats Hamlet
to avenge his death, but to spare Gertrude, to let Heaven decide her fate.
o Hamlet vows to affect madness — puts “an antic disposition on” — to wear a
mask that will enable him to observe the interactions in the castle, but finds
himself more confused than ever.
o In his persistent confusion, Hamlet questions the Ghost’s trustworthiness. What
if the Ghost is not a true spirit, but rather an agent of the devil sent to tempt
him? What if killing Claudius results in Hamlet’s having to relive his memories
for all eternity? Hamlet agonizes over what he perceives as his cowardice
because he cannot stop himself from thinking. Words immobilize Hamlet, but
the world he lives in prizes action.
o In order to test the Ghost’s sincerity, Hamlet enlists the help of a troupe of
players who perform a play called The Murder of Gonzago to which Hamlet has
added scenes that recreate the murder the Ghost described.
o Hamlet calls the revised play The Mousetrap, and the ploy proves a success.
o As Hamlet had hoped, Claudius’ reaction to the staged murder reveals the King
to be conscience-stricken. Claudius leaves the room because he cannot breathe,
and his vision is dimmed for want of light.
o Convinced now that Claudius is a villain, Hamlet resolves to kill him. But, as
Hamlet observes, “conscience doth make cowards of us all.”
o In his continued reluctance to dispatch Claudius, Hamlet actually causes six
ancillary deaths.
o The first death belongs to Polonius, whom Hamlet stabs through a wall-hanging
as the old man spies on Hamlet and Gertrude in the Queen’s private chamber.
o Claudius punishes Hamlet for Polonius’ death by exiling him to England. He
has brought Hamlet’s school chums Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to Denmark
from Germany to spy on his nephew, and now he instructs them to deliver
Hamlet into the English king’s hands for execution. Hamlet discovers the plot
and arranges for the hanging of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern instead.
o Ophelia, distraught over her father’s death and Hamlet’s behavior, drowns while
singing sad love songs bemoaning the fate of a spurned lover.
o Her brother, Laertes, falls next. Laertes, returned to Denmark from France to
avenge his father’s death, witnesses Ophelia’s descent into madness. After her
funeral, where he and Hamlet come to blows over which of them loved Ophelia
best, Laertes vows to punish Hamlet for her death as well. Unencumbered by
words, Laertes plots with Claudius to kill Hamlet. In the midst of the sword
fight, however, Laertes drops his poisoned sword. Hamlet retrieves the sword
and cuts Laertes. The lethal poison kills Laertes.
o Before he dies, Laertes tells Hamlet that because Hamlet has already been cut
with the same sword, he too will shortly die.
o Horatio diverts Hamlet’s attention from Laertes for a moment by pointing out
that “The Queen falls.” Gertrude, believing that Hamlet’s hitting Laertes means
her son is winning the fencing match, has drunk a toast to her son from the
poisoned cup Claudius had intended for Hamlet. The Queen dies.
o As Laertes lies dying, he confesses to Hamlet his part in the plot and explains
that Gertrude’s death lies on Claudius’ head. Finally enraged, Hamlet stabs
Claudius with the poisoned sword and then pours the last of the poisoned wine
down the King’s throat.
o Before he dies, Hamlet declares that the throne should now pass to Prince
Fortinbras of Norway, and he implores his true friend Horatio to accurately
explain the events that have led to the bloodbath at Elsinore. With his last breath,
he releases himself from the prison of his words: “The rest is silence.”
o The play ends as Prince Fortinbras, in his first act as King of Denmark, orders
a funeral with full military honors for slain Prince Hamlet.
 King Lear, Shakespeare
• King Lear is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare.
• It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain.
• Shakespeare's King Lear is a five-act tragedy. Most Elizabethan theatre adheres to the
five-act structure, which corresponds to divisions in the action.
• In his A Defence of Poetry, Percy Bysshe Shelley called King Lear “the most perfect
specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world.”
• First staged in 1606.
• First printed in 1608.
• Characters:
o Lear – King of Britain
o Earl of Gloucester
o Earl of Kent – later disguised as Caius
o Fool – Lear's fool
o Edgar – Gloucester’s first-born son
o Edmund – Gloucester’s illegitimate son
o Goneril – Lear’s eldest daughter
o Regan – Lear’s second daughter
o Cordelia – Lear’s youngest daughter
o Duke of Albany – Goneril’s husband
o Duke of Cornwall – Regan’s husband
o Gentleman – attends Cordelia
o Oswald – Goneril’s loyal steward
o King of France – suitor and later husband to Cordelia
o Duke of Burgundy – suitor to Cordelia
o Old man – tenant of Gloucester
o Curan – courtier
• Plot:
o King Lear opens with a conversation between the earls of Kent and Gloucester,
in which the audience learns that Gloucester has two sons: Edgar, who is his
legitimate heir, and Edmund, his younger illegitimate son. This information will
provide the secondary or subplot.
o Next, King Lear enters to state that he intends to remove himself from life’s
duties and concerns. Pointing at a map, Lear tells those in attendance that he has
divided his kingdom into three shares, to be parceled out to his three daughters,
as determined by their protestations of love.
o The two elder daughters, Goneril and Regan, exaggerate their love by telling
their father that their affection for him exceeds all reasonable expectations.
o The youngest daughter, Cordelia, tells Lear that she loves him, but only as a
daughter should love a father.
o Lear, angry and disappointed at what he deems a lack of devotion on Cordelia's
part, divides his kingdom equally between Goneril and Regan, and banishes
Cordelia.
o Later, France agrees to marry the now dowerless and banished Cordelia.
o When Kent attempts to defend Cordelia, Lear banishes him as well.
o Meanwhile, Goneril and Regan decide that if Lear becomes too much of a
nuisance, they will have to decide what disciplinary actions to take.
o In the developing subplot, Edmund complains of his unhappiness at being an
illegitimate — and thus, disinherited — son. As part of his plot to claim what is
not his, Edmund gives a false letter to his father, Gloucester, declaring that
Edgar is proposing that they kill their father and split the wealth between them.
The cunning Edmund easily convinces his father that Edgar cannot be trusted.
o Within a short time, Lear moves to Goneril's palace. Goneril tells Lear that he
needs a smaller troop, more decorous in behavior and better suited to the king’s
rank and age. The king is very angry and says he will pack up his people and
move to Regan’s palace. Lear’s anger continues to build, and he calls upon
nature to curse Goneril's womb. In response, Goneril turns out 50 of Lear’s
retinue.
o As the subplot develops, Edmund wounds himself slightly, pretending that
Edgar has attacked him.
o Certain that Edgar will also try to kill him, Gloucester promises to find the
means to make Edmund his heir.
o After his escape into the woods, Edgar decides that he will disguise himself as
a Bedlam beggar, who will be known as Poor Tom.
o Meanwhile, Cornwall orders an impassioned Kent placed in the stocks.
o Lear arrives and quickly realizes that Regan has joined Goneril in seeking to
reduce Lear’s authority.
o Lear reminds his daughters that he gave them all that they now enjoy, but they
are unmoved.
o An angry Lear calls for his horse, and rides into the storm with his Fool for
protection. Exposed to the storm, the Fool attempts to reason with his king, but
Lear will have no part of submission, especially before his daughters.
o Soon the king and Fool are joined by Edgar disguised as Poor Tom.
o Gloucester tells Edmund of the plot to save the king, unaware that he is
divulging the plans to a traitor. Edmund immediately resolves to tell Cornwall
of the plan.
o Edmund soon receives his reward: Gloucester’s title and lands.
o The captured Gloucester is tortured by Regan, who fiendishly plucks at his
beard, and Cornwall, who gouges out Gloucester’s eyes, but not before one of
Cornwall’s servants draws a sword and stabs Cornwall, who soon dies of his
wounds.
o Later, Edgar is both shocked and dismayed when a blinded Gloucester is led in
by one of his tenants.
o The disguised Edgar agrees to take Gloucester to the cliff he seeks, where he
dupes Gloucester into thinking that he is at the edge of a precipice.
o After Gloucester jumps and loses consciousness, Edgar easily convinces his
father that he has somehow survived a fall from the cliffs.
o Oswald arrives and attempts to kill Gloucester but is, instead, slain by Edgar.
As he lays dying, Oswald gives Edgar a letter from Goneril instructing Edmund
to murder Albany so that she will be free to wed Edmund.
o Goneril and Edmund soon learn that Albany is a changed man, one who is
pleased to learn of the proposed invasion by France and displeased when he
learns that Gloucester has been replaced by his younger son, Edmund.
o Meanwhile, Cordelia learns of her father’s deteriorated mental condition and
returns to England with an army to defend her father. Within a short time,
Cordelia and her father reunite.
o In spite of Albany’s intent to save Lear and Cordelia’s lives, Edmund resolves
that they will die.
o Edmund orders that Lear and Cordelia be imprisoned.
o Albany, Goneril, and Regan join Edmund, and a confrontation erupts between
all four characters.
o Edmund’s treachery is revealed, and he is wounded in a fight with Edgar, whom
Edmund does not recognize as his brother.
o Soon, Regan dies, poisoned by Goneril, who then kills herself.
o Since he is now dying, Edmund admits that the charges against him are truthful,
and he seeks to know the identity of his killer. Edgar confesses his lineage as
brother and shares the news that their father, Gloucester, has died.
o Edmund, who says he wants some good to come from so much death, reveals
his and Goneril’s plan to have both Lear and Cordelia murdered and to have
Cordelia’s death appear a suicide.
o Efforts to rescind these orders are too late, and soon Lear enters with a dead
Cordelia in his arms.
o Unable to accept Cordelia’s death, the king also dies, his body covering that of
his youngest daughter.
o Albany informs Kent and Edgar that they must now rule the kingdom together,
but Kent replies that he will soon leave the world to join his master.
o Edgar is left to speak of the sad weight of these events, which everyone must
now endure.
 Twelfth Night, Shakespeare
• Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare,
believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night’s entertainment for
the close of the Christmas season.
• The play centers on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck.
• Viola (who is disguised as Cesario) falls in love with the Duke Orsino, who in turn is
in love with Countess Olivia.
• Upon meeting Viola, Countess Olivia falls in love with her thinking she is a man.
• First performed in 1602.
• First published in 1623.
• Characters:
o Viola – a shipwrecked young woman who disguises herself as a page named
Cesario
o Sebastian – Viola’s twin brother
o Duke Orsino – Duke of Illyria
o Olivia – a wealthy countess
o Malvolio – steward in Olivia’s household
o Maria – Olivia’s gentlewoman
o Sir Toby Belch – Olivia’s uncle
o Sir Andrew Aguecheek – a friend of Sir Toby
o Feste – Olivia’s servant, a jester
o Fabian – a servant in Olivia’s household
o Antonio – a sea captain and friend to Sebastian
o Valentine and Curio – gentlemen attending on the Duke
• Plot
o In the kingdom of Illyria, a nobleman named Orsino lies around listening to
music, pining away for the love of Lady Olivia. He cannot have her because she
is in mourning for her dead brother and refuses to entertain any proposals of
marriage.
o Meanwhile, off the coast, a storm has caused a terrible shipwreck.
o A young, aristocratic-born woman named Viola is swept onto the Illyrian shore.
Finding herself alone in a strange land, she assumes that her twin
brother, Sebastian, has been drowned in the wreck, and tries to figure out what
sort of work she can do. A friendly sea captain tells her about Orsino’s courtship
of Olivia, and Viola says that she wishes she could go to work in Olivia’s home.
But since Lady Olivia refuses to talk with any strangers, Viola decides that she
cannot look for work with her. Instead, she decides to disguise herself as a man,
taking on the name of Cesario, and goes to work in the household of Duke
Orsino.
o Viola (disguised as Cesario) quickly becomes a favorite of Orsino, who makes
Cesario his page.
o Viola finds herself falling in love with Orsino—a difficult love to pursue, as
Orsino believes her to be a man.
o But when Orsino sends Cesario to deliver Orsino’s love messages to the
disdainful Olivia, Olivia herself falls for the beautiful young Cesario, believing
her to be a man.
o The love triangle is complete: Viola loves Orsino, Orsino loves Olivia, and
Olivia loves Cesario—and everyone is miserable.
o Meanwhile, we meet the other members of Olivia’s household: her rowdy
drunkard of an uncle, Sir Toby; his foolish friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who
is trying in his hopeless way to court Olivia; Olivia’s witty and pretty waiting-
gentlewoman, Maria; Feste, the clever clown of the house; and Malvolio, the
dour, prudish steward of Olivia’s household.
o When Sir Toby and the others take offense at Malvolio’s constant efforts to
spoil their fun, Maria engineers a practical joke to make Malvolio think that
Olivia is in love with him. She forges a letter, supposedly from Olivia, addressed
to her beloved (whose name is signified by the letters M.O.A.I.), telling him that
if he wants to earn her favor, he should dress in yellow stockings and crossed
garters, act haughtily, smile constantly, and refuse to explain himself to anyone.
o Malvolio finds the letter, assumes that it is addressed to him, and, filled with
dreams of marrying Olivia and becoming noble himself, happily follows its
commands. He behaves so strangely that Olivia comes to think that he is mad.
o Meanwhile, Sebastian, who is still alive after all but believes his sister Viola to
be dead, arrives in Illyria along with his friend and protector, Antonio.
o Antonio has cared for Sebastian since the shipwreck and is passionately (and
perhaps sexually) attached to the young man—so much so that he follows him
to Orsino’s domain, in spite of the fact that he and Orsino are old enemies.
o Sir Andrew, observing Olivia’s attraction to Cesario (still Viola in disguise),
challenges Cesario to a duel.
o Sir Toby, who sees the prospective duel as entertaining fun, eggs Sir Andrew
on.
o However, when Sebastian—who looks just like the disguised Viola—appears
on the scene, Sir Andrew and Sir Toby end up coming to blows with Sebastian,
thinking that he is Cesario.
o Olivia enters amid the confusion.
o Encountering Sebastian and thinking that he is Cesario, she asks him to marry
her. He is baffled, since he has never seen her before. He sees, however, that
she is wealthy and beautiful, and he is therefore more than willing to go along
with her.
o Meanwhile, Antonio has been arrested by Orsino’s officers and now begs
Cesario for help, mistaking him for Sebastian.
o Viola denies knowing Antonio, and Antonio is dragged off, crying out that
Sebastian has betrayed him.
o Suddenly, Viola has newfound hope that her brother may be alive.
o Malvolio’s supposed madness has allowed the gleeful Maria, Toby, and the rest
to lock Malvolio into a small, dark room for his treatment, and they torment him
at will.
o Feste dresses up as “Sir Topas,” a priest, and pretends to examine Malvolio,
declaring him definitely insane in spite of his protests.
o However, Sir Toby begins to think better of the joke, and they allow Malvolio
to send a letter to Olivia, in which he asks to be released.
o Eventually, Viola (still disguised as Cesario) and Orsino make their way to
Olivia’s house, where Olivia welcomes Cesario as her new husband, thinking
him to be Sebastian, whom she has just married.
o Orsino is furious, but then Sebastian himself appears on the scene, and all is
revealed.
o The siblings are joyfully reunited, and Orsino realizes that he loves Viola, now
that he knows she is a woman, and asks her to marry him.
o We discover that Sir Toby and Maria have also been married privately.
o Finally, someone remembers Malvolio and lets him out of the dark room. The
trick is revealed in full, and the embittered Malvolio storms off, leaving the
happy couples to their celebration.
 The Way of the World, William Congreve
• The Way of the World is a play written by the English playwright William Congreve.
• It premiered in early March 1700 in the theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London.
• It is widely regarded as one of the best Restoration comedies and is still occasionally
performed.
• Initially, however, the play struck many audience members as continuing the
immorality of the previous decades, and was not well received.
• William Congreve, the author:
o William Congreve (24 January 1670 – 19 January 1729) was an English
playwright and poet of the Restoration period.
o He is known for his clever, satirical dialogue and influence on the comedy of
manners style of that period.
o He was also a minor political figure in the British Whig Party.
o Congreve was educated at Kilkenny College, where he met Jonathan Swift, and
at Trinity College Dublin.
o He moved to London to study law at the Middle Temple, but preferred literature,
drama, and the fashionable life.
o Congreve used the pseudonym Cleophil, under which he published Incognita:
or, Love and Duty reconcil'd in 1692. This early work, written when he was
about 17 years of age, gained him recognition among men of letters and entry
into the literary world.
o He became a disciple of John Dryden whom he met through gatherings of
literary circles held at Will’s Coffeehouse in the Covent Garden district of
London. Dryden supported him throughout his life, often composing
complimentary introductions for his publications.
o William Congreve shaped the English comedy of manners through his use of
satire and well-written dialogue.
o Congreve achieved fame in 1693 when he wrote some of the most popular
English plays of the Restoration period.
o This period was distinguished by the fact that female roles were beginning to be
played predominantly by women, which was evident in Congreve’s work.
o His first play The Old Bachelor, written to amuse himself while convalescing,
was produced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1693. It was recognized as a
success, and ran for a two-week period when it opened. Congreve’s mentor John
Dryden gave the production rave reviews and proclaimed it to be a brilliant first
piece.
o The second play to be produced was called The Double-Dealer which was not
nearly as successful as the first production.
o By the age of 30, he had written four comedies, including Love for
Love (premiered 30 April 1695) staged at the Lincoln’s Inn Theatre, which was
nearly as well-received as his first major success, and The Way of the
World (premiered March 1700). This play was a failure at the time of
production but is seen as one of his masterpieces today, and is still revived.
 o He wrote one tragedy, The Mourning Bride (1697) which was extremely
popular at the time of creation but is now one of his least regarded dramas.
o After the production of Love for Love, Congreve became one of the managers
for the Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1695.
o Congreve’s career as a playwright was successful but brief. He only wrote five
plays, authored from 1693 to 1700, in total.
o This was partly in response to changes in taste, as the public turned away from
the sort of high-brow sexual comedy of manners in which he specialized.
o Congreve may have been forced off the stage due to growing concerns about
the morality of his theatrical comedies.
o He reportedly was particularly stung by a critique written by Jeremy
Collier (A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage),
to the point that he wrote a long reply, “Amendments of Mr. Collier’s False and
Imperfect Citations.”
o Although no longer on the stage, Congreve continued his literary art. He wrote
the librettos for two operas that were being created at the time, and he translated
the works of Molière.
o As a member of the Whig Kit-Kat Club, Congreve’s career shifted to the
political sector, and even a political appointment in Jamaica in 1714 by George
I. Congreve continued to write, although his style changed greatly. During his
time in Jamaica, he wrote poetry instead of full-length dramatic productions and
translated the works of Homer, Juvenal, Ovid, and Horace.
o Works:
▪ The Old Bachelor (1693)
▪ The Double Dealer (1694)
▪ Love for Love (1695)
▪ The Mourning Bride (1697)
▪ The Way of the World (1700)
• Characters:
o The play is based on the two lovers Mirabell and Millamant.
o In order for them to marry and receive Millamant’s full dowry, Mirabell must
receive the blessing of Millamant’s aunt, Lady Wishfort.
o Unfortunately, Lady Wishfort is a very bitter lady who despises Mirabell and
wants her own nephew, Sir Wilfull, to wed Millamant.
o Meanwhile, Lady Wishfort, a widow, wants to marry again and has her eyes on
an uncle of Mirabell’s, the wealthy Sir Rowland.
o Another character, Fainall, is having a secret affair with Mrs. Marwood, a friend
of Fainall's wife.
o Mrs. Fainall, who is Lady Wishfort's daughter, herself once had an affair with
Mirabell and remains his friend.
o In the meantime, Mirabell’s servant Waitwell is married to Foible, Lady
Wishfort's servant. Waitwell pretends to be Sir Rowland and, on Mirabell’s
command, tries to trick Lady Wishfort into a false engagement.
• Plot:
o Before the action of the play begins, the following events are assumed to have
taken place.
▪ Mirabell, a young man-about-town, apparently not a man of great
wealth, has had an affair with Mrs. Fainall, the widowed daughter of
Lady Wishfort.
▪ To protect her from scandal in the event of pregnancy, he has helped
engineer her marriage to Mr. Fainall, a man whom he feels to be of
sufficiently good reputation to constitute a respectable match, but not a
man of such virtue that tricking him would be unfair.
▪ Fainall, for his part, married the young widow because he coveted her
fortune to support his amour with Mrs. Marwood.
▪ In time, the liaison between Mirabell and Mrs. Fainall ended (although
this is not explicitly stated), and Mirabell found himself in love with
Millamant, the niece and ward of Lady Wish-fort, and the cousin of his
former mistress.
▪ There are, however, financial complications. Half of Millamant's fortune
was under her own control, but the other half, 6,000 pounds, was
controlled by Lady Wishfort, to be turned over to Millamant if she
married a suitor approved by her aunt.
▪ Unfortunately, Mirabell had earlier offended Lady Wishfort; she had
misinterpreted his flattery as love.
▪ Mirabell, therefore, has contrived an elaborate scheme. He has arranged
for a pretended uncle (his valet, Waitwell) to woo and win Lady
Wishfort.
▪ Then Mirabell intends to reveal the actual status of the successful wooer
and obtain her consent to his marriage to Millamant by rescuing her from
this misalliance.
▪ Waitwell was to marry Foible, Lady Wishfort’s maid, before the
masquerade so that he might not decide to hold Lady Wishfort to her
contract; Mirabell is too much a man of his time to trust anyone in
matters of money or love.
▪ Millamant is aware of the plot, probably through Foible.
o When the play opens, Mirabell is impatiently waiting to hear that Waitwell is
married to Foible.
o During Mirabell's card game with Fainall, it becomes clear that the relations
between the two men are strained.
o There are hints at the fact that Fainall has been twice duped by Mirabell: Mrs.
Fainall is Mirabell’s former mistress, and Mrs. Marwood, Fainall’s mistress, is
in love with Mirabell.
o In the meantime, although Millamant quite clearly intends to have Mirabell, she
enjoys teasing him in his state of uncertainty.
o Mirabell bids fair to succeed until, unfortunately, Mrs. Marwood overhears Mrs.
Fainall and Foible discussing the scheme, as well as Mirabell and Mrs. Fainall’s
earlier love affair.
o Since Mrs. Marwood also overhears insulting comments about herself, she is
vengeful and informs Fainall of the plot and the fact, which he suspected before,
that his wife was once Mirabell’s mistress. The two conspirators now have both
motive and means for revenge.
o In the same afternoon, Millamant accepts Mirabell’s proposal and rejects Sir
Wilfull Witwoud, Lady Wishfort’s candidate for her hand.
o Fainall now dominates the action. He unmasks Sir Rowland, the false uncle, and
blackmails Lady Wishfort with the threat of her daughter’s disgrace. He
demands that the balance of Millamant’s fortune, now forfeit, be turned over to
his sole control, as well as the unspent balance of Mrs. Fainall’s fortune. In
addition, he wants assurance that Lady Wishfort will not marry so that Mrs.
Fainall is certain to be the heir.
o This move of Fainall’s is now countered; Millamant says that she will marry Sir
Wilfull to save her own fortune. Fainall insists that he wants control of the rest
of his wife’s money and immediate management of Lady Wishfort’s fortune.
When Mirabell brings two servants to prove that Fainall and Mrs. Marwood
were themselves guilty of adultery, Fainall ignores the accusation and points
out that he will still create a scandal which would blacken the name of Mrs.
Fainall unless he gets the money.
o At this point, Mirabell triumphantly reveals his most successful ploy. Before
Mrs. Fainall married Fainall, she and Mirabell had suspected the man’s
character, and she had appointed her lover trustee of her fortune. Fainall is left
with no claim to make because Mrs. Fainall does not control her own money.
He and Mrs. Marwood leave in great anger.
o Sir Wilfull steps aside as Millamant’s suitor; Lady Wishfort forgives the
servants and consents to the match of Mirabell and Millamant.
 Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw
• Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after the Greek mythological
figure.
• It premiered at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on 16 October 1913 and was first
presented in German on stage to the public in 1913.
• Its English-language premiere took place at Her Majesty’s Theatre in the West End in
April 1914.
• In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures, which
then came to life. The general idea of that myth was a popular subject for Victorian
era British playwrights, including one of Shaw’s influences, W. S. Gilbert, who wrote
a successful play based on the story called Pygmalion and Galatea that was first
presented in 1871.
• Shaw would also have been familiar with the musical Adonis and
the burlesque version, Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed.
• Shaw’s play has been adapted numerous times, most notably as the 1938
film Pygmalion, the 1956 musical My Fair Lady and its 1964 film version.
• Shaw mentioned that the character of Professor Henry Higgins was inspired by several
British professors of phonetics, but above all, the cantankerous Henry Sweet.
• George Bernard Shaw, the dramatist:
o George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his
insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright,
critic, polemicist and political activist.
o His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s
to his death and beyond.
o He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and
Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1913) and Saint Joan (1923).
o With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory,
Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded
the Nobel Prize in Literature.
▪ George Bernard Shaw received his Nobel Prize one year later, in 1926.
During the selection process in 1925, the Nobel Committee for
Literature decided that none of the year’s nominations met the criteria
as outlined in the will of Alfred Nobel.
▪ According to the Nobel Foundation’s statutes, the Nobel Prize can in
such a case be reserved until the following year, and this statute was then
applied. George Bernard Shaw therefore received his Nobel Prize for
1925 one year later, in 1926.
o Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish
himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-
education.
o By the mid-1880s, he had become a respected theatre and music critic.
o Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and
became its most prominent pamphleteer.
 o Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, Arms and
the Man in 1894.
o Influenced by Henrik Ibsen, he sought to introduce a new realism into English-
language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social
and religious ideas.
o By the early twentieth century his reputation as a dramatist was secured with a
series of critical and popular successes that included Major Barbara, The
Doctor’s Dilemma, and Caesar and Cleopatra.
o Shaw’s expressed views were often contentious; he
promoted eugenics and alphabet reform, and opposed vaccination and
organized religion.
o He courted unpopularity by denouncing both sides in the First World War as
equally culpable, and although not a republican, castigated British policy on
Ireland in the postwar period. These stances had no lasting effect on his standing
or productivity as a dramatist; the inter-war years saw a series of often ambitious
plays, which achieved varying degrees of popular success.
o In 1938 he provided the screenplay for a filmed version of Pygmalion for which
he received an Academy Award.
o His appetite for politics and controversy remained undiminished; by the late
1920s, he had largely renounced Fabian Society gradualism, and often wrote
and spoke favorably of dictatorships of the right and left—he expressed
admiration for both Mussolini and Stalin.
o In the final decade of his life, he made fewer public statements but continued to
write prolifically until shortly before his death, aged ninety-four, having refused
all state honors, including the Order of Merit in 1946.
o Since Shaw’s death scholarly and critical opinion about his works has varied,
but he has regularly been rated among British dramatists as second only
to Shakespeare; analysts recognize his extensive influence on generations of
English-language playwrights.
o The word Shavian has entered the language as encapsulating Shaws ideas and
his means of expressing them.
• George Bernard Shaw, the novelist and critic:
o The published novels, neither commercially successful, were his two final
efforts in this genre: Cashel Byron’s Profession written in 1882–83, and An
Unsocial Socialist, begun and finished in 1883. The latter was published as a
serial in ToDay magazine in 1884, although it did not appear in book form until
1887. Cashel Byron appeared in magazine and book form in 1886.
o In 1884 and 1885, through the influence of Archer, Shaw was engaged to write
book and music criticism for London papers.
o When Archer resigned as art critic of The World in 1886 he secured the
succession for Shaw.
o The two figures in the contemporary art world whose views Shaw most admired
were William Morris and John Ruskin, and he sought to follow their precepts
 in his criticisms. Their emphasis on morality appealed to Shaw, who rejected
the idea of art for art’s sake, and insisted that all great art must be didactic.
o Of Shaw’s various reviewing activities in the 1880s and 1890s it was as a music
critic that he was best known.
o After serving as deputy in 1888, he became musical critic of The Star in
February 1889, writing under the pen-name Corno di Bassetto.
o In May 1890 he moved back to The World, where he wrote a weekly column as
“G.B.S.” for more than four years.
o In the 2016 version of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Robert
Anderson writes, “Shaw’s collected writings on music stand alone in their
mastery of English and compulsive readability.”
o Shaw ceased to be a salaried music critic in August 1894, but published
occasional articles on the subject throughout his career, his last in 1950.
o From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the theatre critic for The Saturday Review, edited
by his friend Frank Harris. As at The World, he used the by-line “G.B.S.”
o He campaigned against the artificial conventions and hypocrisies of
the Victorian theatre and called for plays of real ideas and true characters.
o By this time, he had embarked in earnest on a career as a playwright: “I had
rashly taken up the case; and rather than let it collapse I manufactured the
evidence.”
• About Pygmalion:
o The Source of the Title: The Legend of Pygmalion and Galatea
o Shaw took his title from the ancient Greek legend of the famous sculptor named
Pygmalion who could find nothing good in women, and, as a result, he resolved
to live out his life unmarried. However, he carved a statue out of ivory that was
so beautiful and so perfect that he fell in love with his own creation. Indeed, the
statue was so perfect that no living being could possibly be its equal.
Consequently, at a festival, he prayed to the goddess of love, Aphrodite, that he
might have the statue come to life. When he reached home, to his amazement,
he found that his wish had been fulfilled, and he proceeded to marry the statue,
which he named Galatea.
o Even though Shaw used several aspects of the legend, most prominently one of
the names in the title, viewers, writers, critics, and audiences have consistently
insisted upon there being some truth attached to every analogy in the myth. First
of all, in Shaw’s Pygmalion, Professor Henry Higgins is the most renowned
man of phonetics of his time; Higgins is also like Pygmalion in his view of
women — cynical and derogatory: Higgins says, “I find that the moment I let a
woman make friends with me, she becomes jealous, exacting, suspicious, and a
damned nuisance.” And whereas in the myth, Pygmalion carved something
beautiful out of raw stone and gave it life, Shaw’s Higgins takes a “guttersnipe,”
a “squashed cabbage leaf” up out of the slums and makes her into an exquisite
work of art. Here, however, the analogies end. Shaw’s “Galatea,” Eliza,
develops a soul of her own and a fierce independence from her creator.
 o In the popular film version and in the even more popular musical comedy
version, My Fair Lady, the ending allows the audience to see a romantic love
interest that blends in with the ancient myth. This, however, is a sentimentalized
version of Shaw’s play. Shaw provided no such tender affection to blossom
between professor and pupil.
• Preface to Pygmalion:
o Shaw ultimately wrote a preface to almost all of his plays that he considered
important.
o In fact, sometimes the Prefaces, the Prologues, and the Afterwords exceeded the
length of the original dramas.
o In one of his prefaces, he comments that most dramatists use the preface to
expound on things that have little or no importance to the drama.
o Here, Shaw’s preface does not comment upon the drama that is to follow, but
instead, since the play deals with phonetics, and since the character of Henry
Higgins is based largely upon a man named Henry Sweet, and since Shaw
ultimately did leave a large sum of money upon his death for a thorough
revision of English spelling rules, he uses this preface to comment upon the
absurdity of English spelling in connection with English pronunciation.
o Finally, Shaw sarcastically refers to those critics who say that a successful play
should never be didactic; this play is obviously didactic, and it has been
immensely popular ever since it was first presented.
• Characters:
o Professor Henry Higgins: Higgins is a forty-year-old bachelor who specializes
in phonetics and who is an acclaimed authority on the subject of dialects,
accents, and phonetics.
o Eliza Doolittle: She is an uneducated, uncouth “guttersnipe,” the flower girl
whom Higgins (for a dare) decides to mold into a duchess. She is probably
twenty years younger than Higgins.
o Alfred Doolittle: Eliza’s father; he is a dustman with a sonorous voice and a
Welsh accent, who proudly believes in his position as a member of the
“undeserving poor.”
o Colonel Pickering: A distinguished retired officer and the author of Spoken
Sanskrit. He has come to England to meet the famous Professor Henry Higgins.
He is courteous and polite to Eliza, and he shares in Higgins’ experiments in
phonetics in teaching Eliza to speak as a duchess.
o Mrs. Higgins: Henry Higgins’ mother, who thoroughly loves her son but also
thoroughly disapproves of his manners, his language, and his social behavior.
o Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: A lady of the upper-middle class who is in a rather
impoverished condition but is still clinging to her gentility.
▪ Clara Eynsford-Hill: Her daughter; she tries to act the role of the
modem, advanced young person.
▪ Freddy Eynsford-Hill Her son; he is a pleasant young man who is
enchanted by Eliza upon first meeting her.
o Mrs. Pearce: Professor Higgins’ housekeeper of long standing. She is the one
who first sees the difficulty of what is to happen to Eliza after Higgins and
Pickering have finished their experiment with her.
• Plot:
o On a summer evening in London’s Covent Garden, a group of assorted people
are gathered together under the portico of St. Paul’s Church for protection from
the rain.
o Among the group are Mrs. Eynsford-Hill and her daughter, Clara, who are
waiting for the son, Freddy, to return with a cab. When he returns in failure, he
is again sent in search of a cab.
o As he leaves, he collides with a young flower girl with a thick Cockney accent,
and he ruins many of her flowers.
o After he is gone, the mother is interested in how such a “low” creature could
know her son’s name; she discovers that the flower girl calls everyone either
“Freddy” or “Charlie.”
o When an elderly gentleman comes into the shelter, the flower girl notes his
distinguished appearance and tries to coax him to buy some flowers. This
gentleman, Colonel Pickering, refuses to buy the flowers, but he gives the girl
some money.
o Members of the crowd warn the girl against taking the money because there is
a man behind her taking notes of everything she says.
o When the flower girl (Eliza) loudly proclaims that “I am a good girl, I am,” the
bystanders begin to protest.
o The note taker, it turns out, is Professor Henry Higgins, an expert in phonetics.
His hobby is identifying everyone’s accent and place of birth.
o He even maintains that he could take this “ragamuffin” of a flower girl and teach
her to talk like a duchess in three months.
o At this time, the elder gentleman identifies himself as Colonel Pickering, the
author of a book on Sanskrit, who has come to meet the famous Henry Higgins,
to whom he is now talking. The two go off to discuss their mutual interest in
phonetics.
o The next morning at Professor Higgins’ house, the two men are discussing
Higgins’ experiments when the flower girl is announced by Mrs. Pearce,
Higgins’ housekeeper.
o The girl, Eliza Doolittle, remembers that Higgins bragged about being able to
teach her to speak like a duchess, and she has come to take lessons so that she
can get a position in a flower shop.
o Pickering makes a wager with Higgins, who, in the spirit of good sport, decides
to take the bet: he orders Mrs. Pearce to take the girl away, scrub her, and burn
her clothes.
o He overcomes all of Eliza’s objections, and Eliza is taken away.
o At this time, Eliza’s father appears with the intention of blackmailing Higgins,
but he is so intimidated by Higgins that he ends up asking for five pounds
because he is one of the “undeserving poor.”
o Higgins is so pleased with the old fellow’s audacity and his unique view of
morality that he gives him the five pounds and is immediately rid of him.
o Sometime later, Higgins brings Eliza to his mother’s house during her
“receiving day.” Freddy Eynsford-Hill and his mother and sister Clara are also
present. These turn out to be the same people whom we saw under the portico
in the first act.
o Now, however, none of the guests recognize that Eliza is the “ragamuffin”
flower girl of that night. Everyone is amused with the pedantic correctness of
her speech and are even more impressed with Eliza’s narration of her aunt’s
death, told in perfect English, but told with lurid and shocking details.
o After Eliza’s departure, Mrs. Higgins points out that the girl is far from being
ready to be presented in public.
o Sometime later, Higgins, Pickering, and Eliza return late in the evening.
o The men are delighted with the great success they have had that day in passing
off Eliza as a great duchess at an ambassador’s garden party.
o They are so extremely proud that they totally ignore Eliza and her contribution
to the success of the “experiment.”
o Infuriated, Eliza finally throws a slipper at Higgins, only to be informed that she
is being unreasonable.
o Eliza is concerned with what will happen to her now that the experiment is over:
Is she to be tossed back into the gutter; what is her future place? Higgins cannot
see that this is a problem, and after telling her that all of the clothes that she has
been wearing belong to her, he retires for the evening.
o The next day, Higgins arrives at his mother’s house completely baffled that
Eliza has disappeared. He has telephoned the police and is then surprised to
learn that Eliza is upstairs.
o While waiting for Eliza, Mr. Doolittle enters and he accuses Higgins of ruining
him because Higgins told a wealthy man that Doolittle was England’s most
original moralist, and, as a result, the man left an enormous sum of money in
trust for Doolittle to lecture on moral reforms. He has thus been forced into
middle-class morality, and he and his common-law wife are miserable. He has
come to invite Eliza to his wedding, another concession to dreadful middle-class
morality.
o Eliza enters and agrees to come to her father’s wedding.
o As they all prepare to leave, Higgins restrains Eliza and tries to get her to return
to his house.
o He maintains that he treats everyone with complete equality. To him, he makes
no social distinction between the way he would treat a flower girl or a duchess.
o Eliza is determined to have respect and independence, and thus she refuses to
return to Higgins’ house.
o Higgins then admits that he misses her and also admires her newfound
independence. He further maintains that she should return, and the three of them
will live equally, as “three bachelors.”
o Eliza, however, feels otherwise, and she leaves with Mrs. Higgins to attend her
father’s wedding.
 Heartbreak House, George Bernard Shaw

• Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes is a play

written by George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1919 and first played at the Garrick
Theatre in November 1920.
• According to A. C. Ward, the work argues that “cultured, leisured Europe” was drifting
toward destruction, and that “Those in a position to guide Europe to safety failed to
learn their proper business of political navigation.”
• The “Russian manner” of the subtitle refers to the style of Anton Chekhov, which Shaw
adapts.
• Characters:
o Ellie Dunn
o Nurse Guinness
o Captain Shotover
o Lady Utterword
o Hesione Hushabye
o Mazzini Dunn
o Hector Hushabye
o Boss Alfred Mangan
o Randall Utterword
o Burglar (Billy Dunn)
• Plot:
o The play begins as Ellie Dunn, her father, and her fiancé are invited to one of
Hesion Hushabye’s infamous dinner parties.
o The party is being held at the house of her eccentric father, Captain Shotover,
whose house is built in the shape of the stern of a ship.
o Captain Stopover is an inventor well into his eighties who is trying to create a
sort of “psychic ray” that will destroy dynamite.
o When Ellie arrives at the house, she finds that no one is there to greet her, and
so she sits and reads William Shakespeare until, eventually, she dozes off.
o An elderly servant, Nurse Guinness, finds Ellie asleep just before the arrival of
another guest.
o This other guest is Lady Utterwood, Shotover’s younger daughter who has come
all the way from Australia after being away from England for twenty-three
years. When she arrives, her own father pretends not to recognize her.
o Mrs. Hushabye, Captain Stopover’s eldest daughter, has invited Ellie, her
father, Mazzini Dunn, and Ellie’s fiancé, Boss Mangan, to the party with the
intent to persuade Ellie not to marry Mangan, a millionaire industrialist who
befriended Ellie’s father before declaring his intentions towards Ellie. Mangan
gave Dunn money to start his own business, but it failed after just two years.
Mangan bought the business and turned it into a profitable enterprise, hiring
Dunn as a manager. Mrs. Hushabye objects to the union, believing that Ellie
should marry someone she loves rather than someone her father owes a debt to.
o While in conversation with Mrs. Hushabye, Ellie reveals that she has a secret
passion for a mysterious man she has just met, whom she describes as a romantic
adventurer named Marcus Darnley. When Mrs. Hushabye’s husband, Hector,
enters the room, Ellie discovers that he is the man she knew as Darnley. He has
been telling Ellie exaggerated tales of adventure in order to impress her and win
her favor. Ellie is heartbroken and angry with Hector for having deceived her
and betraying his wife and her friend. Mrs. Hushabye consoles Ellie, telling her
that heartbreak is just life’s way of teaching her a lesson.
o Boss Mangan arrives shortly thereafter, and Captain Shotover makes known his
prediction that Mrs. Hushabye will ensure that the marriage between Ellie and
Mangan does not take place. Mangan is heartbroken in hearing this. The next
visitor to arrive is Randall Utterword, Lady Utterword’s brother-in-law. Randall
has invited himself to the house after hearing through his brother that Lady
Utterword is staying there. At the same moment, Hector meets Lady Utterword
and instantly falls in love with her, which initiates the process of his heartbreak.
o After dinner, Mangan reveals to Ellie that he ruined her father on purpose. He
gave Dunn the money to start his business knowing that he would ultimately
fail, as he saw this as the most cost-effective way to get involved in a new
enterprise. Ellie states that she is still willing to marry Mangan, even though he
is really in love with Mrs. Hushabye, and Ellie is actually in love with Hector.
Ellie reasons that the marriage will give her access to Mangan’s money; she
feels that in some way she is seeking retribution for her father.
o Ellie threatens Mangan, telling him that if he calls off the marriage, she will
ensure that Mangan never sees Mrs. Hushabye again. Distraught by this idea,
Mangan collapses into a nearby chair, and the group proceeds to gossip about
him as he overhears every word.
o Suddenly, a gunshot is heard coming from upstairs. Hector and Dunn capture a
burglar attempting to steal Mrs. Hushabye’s jewels. Captain Shotover tells the
group that the burglar is a pirate named Billy Dunn.
o Ellie pulls Captain Shotover aside and tells him that she would rather marry him
than Mangan. Once Ellie leaves the room, Hector and Randall talk of their
passion for Mrs. Utterword and they both vie for her affections to no avail. It is
clear that she has broken both of their hearts.
o Later in the evening, Mangan confesses to the group that he actually has very
little money and is only in charge of running things for other investors. Ellie
then declares that she will not marry him and that she never intended to follow
through with their marriage plans. She announces that she has actually married
Captain Shotover that very evening.
o The group hears what sounds like an explosion off in the distance and realizes
that there is a bombing raid going on. Nurse Guinness instructs everyone to hide
in the cellar; meanwhile, Hector turns on all the lights in the house, making it
the perfect target. When the raid is over, most of the group survives, and Ellie
is actually disappointed with the return to the humdrum of life. Mrs. Hushabye
and Ellie express their hopes that the planes will return.
o Ellie renames the home the Heartbreak House after all of the disappointments
experienced by herself and others this day.
 The Caretaker, Harold Pinter
• The Caretaker is a play in three acts by Harold Pinter.
• Although it was the sixth of his major works for stage and television, this psychological
study of the confluence of power, allegiance, innocence, and corruption among two
brothers and a tramp, became Pinter’s first significant commercial success.
• It premiered at the Arts Theatre Club in London’s West End on 27 April 1960 and
transferred to the Duchess Theatre the following month, where it ran for 444
performances before departing London for Broadway.
• In 1963, a film version of the play based on Pinter’s unpublished screenplay was
directed by Clive Donner.
• First published in 1960, The Caretaker remains one of Pinter’s most celebrated and oft-
performed plays.
• Harold Pinter, the author
o Harold Pinter (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright,
screen writer, director, and actor.
o A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British
dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years.
o His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The
Homecoming (1964) and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the
screen.
o His screenplay adaptations of others’ works include The Servant (1963), The
Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), The
Trial (1993) and Sleuth (2007).
o He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television and film productions of his
own and others’ works.
o Pinter was born and raised in Hackney, east London, and educated at Hackney
Downs School.
o He was a sprinter and a keen cricket player, acting in school plays and
writing poetry.
o He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but did not complete the
course.
o He was fined for refusing national service as a conscientious objector.
o Subsequently, he continued training at the Central School of Speech and
Drama and worked in repertory theatre in Ireland and England.
o In 1956 he married actress Vivien Merchant and had a son, Daniel, born in
1958.
o He left Merchant in 1975 and married author Lady Antonia Fraser in 1980.
o Pinter’s career as a playwright began with a production of The Room in 1957.
o His second play, The Birthday Party, closed after eight performances but was
enthusiastically reviewed by critic Harold Hobson.
o His early works were described by critics as “comedy of menace”.
o Later plays such as No Man's Land (1975) and Betrayal (1978) became known
as “memory plays”.
 o He appeared as an actor in productions of his own work on radio and film, and
directed nearly 50 productions for stage, theatre and screen.
o Pinter received over 50 awards, prizes and other honors, including the Nobel
Prize in Literature in 2005 and the French Légion d'honneur in 2007.
o Despite frail health after being diagnosed with esophageal cancer in December
2001, Pinter continued to act on stage and screen, last performing the title role
of Samuel Beckett’s one-act monologue Krapp’s Last Tape, for the 50th
anniversary season of the Royal Court Theatre, in October 2006.
o He died from liver cancer on 24 December 2008.
• About the play:
o The Caretaker is one of Harold Pinter’s most popular plays, and certainly one
of the 20th century’s most notable works of the stage.
o It is Pinter’s second full-length play, but his first major success.
o Critics delve into its historical, social, and political themes, but Pinter himself
spoke of his work as simply a piece concerning “a particular human situation”
and about only “three particular people...not, incidentally, symbols.”
o The three-act play was written in 1960 and published that year by Encore
Publishing and Eyre Methuen.
o It is a naturalist, or realist, play, with elements of tragedy and comedy.
o Pinter commented, “As far as I am concerned The Caretaker IS funny, up to a
point. Beyond that point, it ceases to be funny, and it is because of that point
that I wrote it.”
o It has been linked to the Theater of the Absurd, and is often compared to
Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
o Pinter wrote the play while he and his wife were living in Chiswick. Some of
the events in the play were drawn on those from his own life at the time; he
explained that the flat he let had an owner of the house like Mick, and this man
had a brother who was introverted and secretive and had a history of mental
illness and electrical shock treatment. There was also a tramp that the brother
brought home one night, who would become the character of Davies.
o Pinter originally intended the play to end with Aston murdering Davies, but he
felt that the characters took him elsewhere; it instead ends with Aston politely
but emphatically asking Davies to leave the home.
o Major themes in the play include the problems of communication; race and
social class; the current political state in 1950s England; identity; language;
and deception.
o The play is lauded for its placement of a man of the lower social class at (literal)
center stage, for its naturalistic language, meticulous crafting, dynamic interplay
between characters, and layers of meaning.
o The play premiered at the Arts Theatre Club in London in April 1960, then
transferred to the Duchess Theatre.
o It ran for 444 months and then went to Broadway.
o A film version, commonly agreed upon to be of the highest caliber, especially
as two of the stage actors reprised their roles, was released in 1964.
 o It is still a mainstay of the stage, beloved by audiences and critics alike.
• Characters:
o Mick
o Aston
o Davies
• Plot:
o The play takes place in one room of a house in West London during the 1950s.
o It is winter.
o The play begins with Mick sitting on a bed in the room, but when he hears a
door open and shut somewhere offstage, he leaves.
o Aston, his brother, and Davies, an old tramp, enter.
o Aston has helped Davies in a fight at the cafe where he was working an odd job.
o Aston offers Davies clothes, shoes, and a place to stay the night.
o Davies is loud and opinionated, complaining about the “blacks” and people of
other races.
o Aston, by contrast, is reserved, shy, and speaks haltingly.
o Davies accepts Aston’s offer, and says he will have to go down to Sidcup to get
his papers, which will confirm who he is.
o The next morning Aston tells Davies that he was being loud in his sleep, a
statement that Davies strenuously rejects.
o Aston prepares to go out, and tells Davies he can stay there.
o The tramp says he will try to find a job.
o After Aston is gone, Mick enters and engages Davies in a silent tussle. He asks
Davies what his game is.
o Mick asks Davies strange questions and discourses on random topics,
discombobulating the older man. He finally says that Davies can rent the room
if he wants.
o Aston returns with a bag of Davies’s belongings.
o Mick leaves.
o The bag turns out not to be Davies’, and he is annoyed.
o Aston asks Davies if he wants to be the caretaker of the place; he, in turn, is
supposed to be decorating the landing and turning it into a real flat for his
brother. Davies is wary at first because the job might entail real work, but he
agrees.
o Later Davies is in the room and Mick uses the vacuum cleaner in the dark to
frighten Davies. Adopting a more casual manner, he asks Davies if he wants to
be caretaker. Davies asks who really is in charge of the place, and Mick deceives
him. He asks Davies for references, and Davies promises to go to Sidcup to get
them.
o The next morning Davies prolongs his decision to go out, blaming bad weather.
o Aston tells him about how he used to hallucinate and was placed in a mental
facility and given electroshock treatment against his will. His thoughts are
slower now, and he wishes he could find the man who put the pincers to his
head. All he wants to do, though, is build the shed in the garden.
o Two weeks later, Davies is full of complaints about Aston, delivering them to
Mick.
o One night, Aston wakes Davies to make him stop making noise in his sleep, and
Davies explodes, mocking him for his shock treatment.
o Aston quietly says he is not working out and ought to leave.
o Davies curses him and says he will talk to Mick about it.
o Davies speaks with Mick and argues that Aston should be evicted.
o Mick pretends to agree with him for a bit, and then starts to ask Davies about
his claim that he is an expert interior decorator. Befuddled at this claim he did
not make, Davies tries to correct Mick. At one point he calls Aston nutty, which
causes Mick to order him to leave. He gives Davies money to pay him out for
his services.
o Aston enters, and both brothers are faintly smiling.
o Mick leaves, and Davies tries to plead with Aston again. He grows more and
more desperate, wheedling and promising to be better.
o All Aston says is that Davies makes too much noise.
o The curtain descends on Davies’ protestations.
 Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett
• Waiting for Godot is a play written by Samuel Beckett in which two
characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions
and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives.
• Waiting for Godot is Beckett’s translation of his own original French-language
play, En attendant Godot, and is subtitled (in English only) “a tragicomedy in two
acts”.
• The original French text was composed between 9 October 1948 and 29 January 1949.
• The premiere, directed by Roger Blin, was on 5 January 1953 at the Théâtre de
Babylone, Paris.
• The English-language version premiered in London in 1955.
• In a poll conducted by the British Royal National Theatre in 1998/99, it was voted the
“most significant English-language play of the 20th century”.
• Samuel Beckett, the author:
o Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish
novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary
translator.
o He studied French and Italian, completing a M.A. in French at Trinity College.
o After traveling in England and in Europe he settled permanently in Paris, except
for a brief hiatus during World War II.
o Beckett’s time in France also coincided with an active period in Existential
philosophy, most of it centered in Paris.
o Existentialism is a philosophy focused on existence and how a person exists in
the world. The philosophy holds that people do not have an inherent nature or
essence, but instead define their “self” through their actions and choices.
o While Beckett is not an Existentialist, a generally existential view of the human
condition comes through very clearly in the play.
o His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal
and tragicomic experiences of life, often coupled with black
comedy and nonsense.
o It became increasingly minimalist as his career progressed, involving
more aesthetic and linguistic experimentation, with techniques of repetition
and self-reference.
o He is considered one of the last modernist writers, and one of the key figures in
what Martin Esslin called the Theatre of the Absurd.
o A resident of Paris for most of his adult life, Beckett wrote in both French and
English.
o During the Second World War, Beckett was a member of the French Resistance
group Gloria SMH (Réseau Gloria).
o Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his writing,
which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern
man acquires its elevation”.
o He was the first person to be elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984.
• Theatre of Absurd:
o In 1945, World War II ended, leaving behind widespread destruction and more
than 60 million casualties, including 6 million Jews and others killed in the
Holocaust.
o For many, the world appeared chaotic and meaningless.
o Shortly thereafter, a new theater genre called the “theatre of the Absurd”
emerged.
o For playwrights of this genre, “absurd” meant “out of harmony” rather than
“ridiculous.”
o Such theater startled audiences by breaking from traditional stage techniques,
raising questions instead of providing answers, and expressing an inability to
make sense of human actions, choices, and indeed, life itself.
o Waiting for Godot illustrates a number of significant “Absurd” characteristics:
▪ Instead of having a problem that is solved... Theater of the Absurd
resolves nothing (Godot never arrives).
▪ Instead of having a plot with beginning, middle, and end... Theater of
the Absurd features no plot (Act II in Godot repeats the basic pattern of
Act I)
▪ Instead of having dialogue expressing the play’s meaning... Theater of
the Absurd reveals meaning from both words and deeds that sometimes
conflict (Vladimir and Estragon agree to leave, but neither moves)
▪ Instead of having either comedy or tragedy... Theater of the Absurd
blends elements of unlikely comedy with painful situations (Estragon
loses his trousers as he and Vladimir try to figure out how to hang
themselves)
▪ Instead of having distinctive and varied characters... Theater of the
Absurd features less distinctive characters (Vladimir and Estragon have
similar backgrounds and dress alike; all the characters are male)
• Characters:
o Vladimir – nicknamed as Didi, and also addressed as Mr. Albert
o Estragon – nicknamed as Gogo
o Pozzo – an overbearing man
o Lucky – Pozzo’s slave
o A Boy – Godot’s messenger
• Plot:
Act – I
o Along a country road near a dead tree, a tramp named Estragon struggles to
remove his boot.
o His friend Vladimir approaches, happy to see Estragon again and concerned
about Estragon’s welfare.
o As the two men talk and tease each other, Estragon wants to leave but Vladimir
reminds him that they are waiting for Godot, whom they seem to hardly know.
 o Confused, bored and frustrated, they consider hanging themselves from the tree,
but then resolve to keep waiting.
o Pozzo, a bullying landowner, startles the two tramps.
o By a rope, Pozzo holds on to his slave Lucky, whom he plans to sell.
o For entertainment, Pozzo orders Lucky to dance, then “think.”
o Comedy ensues when Lucky launches into a long incomprehensible speech.
o After Pozzo and Lucky leave, a boy brings the message that Godot is not coming
today, but will come tomorrow. Estragon and Vladimir agree to leave, but do
not move.
ACT – II
o The next day, much is the same – except the lone tree has some leaves. Vladimir
and Estragon pass the time by “blathering about nothing in particular.”
o They debate helping Pozzo, now blind and pitiful, and Lucky, now mute, who
have fallen to the ground.
o After Pozzo and Lucky leave, the boy arrives to say Godot will not be coming.
o The men once again contemplate suicide, but decide to wait for tomorrow, in
case Godot comes.
o Act II and so the play ends: they decide to leave, but do not move.
 Waiting for Godot, Eugene O’ Neill
• Long Day’s Journey into Night is a play in four acts written by American
playwright Eugene O’ Neill in 1939–41, first published posthumously in 1956.
• The play is widely considered to be his magnum opus and one of the finest American
plays of the 20th century.
• It premiered in Sweden in February 1956 and then opened on Broadway in November
1956, winning the Tony Award for Best Play.
• O’ Neill posthumously received the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Long Day’s
Journey into Night.
• The work concerns the Tyrone family, consisting of parents James and Mary and their
sons Edmund and Jamie.
• The “Long Day” refers to the setting of the play, which takes place during one day.
• The play is autobiographical.
• O’ Neill wrote A Moon for the Misbegotten (1952) as a sequel, charting the subsequent
life of Jamie Tyrone.
• Eugene O’ Neill, the father of American Drama:
o Eugene Gladstone O’Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an
American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature.
o His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the
drama techniques of realism, earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton
Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August
Strindberg.
o In June 1922, F Scott Fitzgerald received a letter from his friend Edmund
Wilson, in which he described meeting Eugene O'Neill: “He is an
extraordinarily attractive fellow,” Wilson wrote. “I find with gratification that
he regards Anna Christie as more or less junk and thinks it is a great joke that
it won the Pulitzer prize. His genius seems to be only just becoming properly
articulate.”
o By 1922, the 34-year-old O’Neill had already won the Pulitzer prize for drama
twice and done nothing less than reinvent – or rather invent – legitimate
American theatre.
o But Wilson was, as usual, correct: O’Neill was still finding his voice; his
greatest plays, The Iceman Cometh, A Moon for the Misbegotten and the
magnificent Long Day's Journey into Night, which many consider the pinnacle
of 20th-century American theatre, were yet to come.
o O’Neill is the only American playwright to have won the Nobel prize for
literature, and the only dramatist to have won four Pulitzer prizes.
o He introduced psychological and social realism to the American stage; he was
among the earliest to use American vernacular, and to focus on characters
marginalized by society.
o Before O’Neill, American theatre consisted of melodrama and farce; he was the
first US playwright to take drama seriously as an aesthetic and intellectual form.
o He took it very seriously indeed; one cannot accuse O’Neill of frivolity.
 o Of more than 50 finished plays, O’Neill wrote just one ostensible comedy, Ah,
Wilderness! (1933), and even its plot hinges on drunkenness, prostitution,
revenge and repressed desire.
o Of course, most of O’Neill’s plays involve drunkenness, prostitution, revenge
and repressed desire; Ah, Wilderness! is the only one that manages a happy
ending, although A Moon for the Misbegotten (1946) does admit the possibility
of forgiveness, a conclusion that for O’Neill seems downright giddy.
o His first popular hit was The Emperor Jones in 1920, followed by a string of
plays including Anna Christie and Desire Under the Elms in 1924.
o That same year also saw All God's Chillun Got Wings, a groundbreaking
exploration of interracial relations that provoked hate mail and bomb threats.
o Strange Interlude won a Pulitzer in 1928; three years later O’Neill
finished Mourning Becomes Electra.
o In 1936 he was awarded the Nobel; 10 years later, he produced The Iceman
Cometh, followed closely by A Moon for the Misbegotten; both were poorly
received.
o He died in 1953, having requested that Long Day’s Journey Into Night be
withheld from the stage until 25 years after his death. His widow published it
three years later; it was first staged in 1957, and recognized immediately as a
triumph, winning O’Neill his final, posthumous Pulitzer and sparking a revival.
o His significance can hardly be overstated: without O’Neill, there would have
been no Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams, let alone David Mamet or Sam
Shepard.
o Yet in general his plays are long, arduous, defiantly demanding; O’Neill told a
reporter before The Iceman Cometh opened that he’d tried to cut 45 minutes,
but had managed only 15: “It will have to run from 8 o'clock to whenever it now
goddamned pleases – maybe quarter to 12. If there are repetitions, they’ll have
to remain in, because I feel they are absolutely necessary to what I am trying to
get over.”
o O’Neill’s writing was always driven by an autobiographical impulse; by the
time he wrote Long Day’s Journey into Night and A Moon for the Misbegotten,
he was drawing only the lightest veil between the drama and the dramatist,
mining the story of his family’s tortured relationships for their universal
meanings.
o The fine line between love and hate is one that O’Neill’s characters draw and
erase, and draw again: rage explodes, is denied, repressed, avoided and then
explodes once more. Addiction is everywhere, accelerating and deepening the
suffering it is supposed to be assuaging. Guilt, fury, despair, and the
symmetrical need for pity, forgiveness, contrition: these are O’Neill's great
themes.
• Characters:
o Mary Tyrone
o James Tyrone
o Edmund Tyrone
 o James Tyrone, Jr. (Jammie)
o Cathleen
• Plot:
Act I
o Long Day's Journey into Night takes place in the Tyrone family summer home
during a single day and night in August of 1912.
o James Tyrone was once a successful actor and has been married to his
wife, Mary, for 35 years.
o Mary has suffered from an unspecified problem (later revealed to be a morphine
addiction) since the birth of their youngest son, Edmund.
o Their sons, Jamie and Edmund, live with them.
o Jamie is a hard-drinking cynic who fights often with his father.
o His younger brother Edmund traveled the world and worked as a journalist.
Now he is home, sick with what his mother claims is a summer cold. Jamie and
Tyrone believe Edmund has consumption (tuberculosis).
o Members of the Tyrone family have their disagreements.
o Tyrone disapproves of his sons’ taste in politics and literature.
o Everyone criticizes Tyrone for being miserly and Jamie for being a drunk.
o All three of the men worry about Mary, who has recently come home from being
treated for her “illness.”
o She is looking healthier, but now her worry about Edmund is causing some
troubling behaviors, things which in the past were signs of drug abuse.
o While they are alone, Jamie expresses his concerns to Tyrone. He also worries
Tyrone will choose less expensive care options for Edmund and suggests
Tyrone’s choice of an inexpensive “quack” doctor is what led to Mary’s
addiction.
o When Mary returns, Tyrone leaves to work in the yard.
o Jamie tells Mary they are proud of her progress, but she gets angry with him for
suggesting Edmund is seriously ill.
o Jamie leaves to work with Tyrone.
o Edmund comes in. Mary is frantically nervous as she cares for him. She
complains of being lonely but becomes defensive when Edmund suggests her
own problems may be partially responsible for their isolation. She says they are
all suspicious of her and heads upstairs, supposedly to take a nap.
Act II, Scene I
o It is lunchtime.
o Edmund reads a book while Cathleen, the servant, brings a tray of drinks
before the meal.
o Edmund has one before Jamie steps inside.
o Then Jamie sneaks one before Tyrone comes in.
o Edmund and Jamie worry about what Mary is doing upstairs. Edmund insists it
does not matter, but Jamie is unconvinced.
o Mary enters. She is affectionate but acting strangely.
o Jamie’s suspicions are confirmed.
o Edmund does not notice at first, but Mary’s odd comments and detached manner
make him suspicious too.
o Jamie confronts Mary, but she denies it.
o Edmund defends his mother and asks her to reassure him, but she cannot.
o As Tyrone approaches, Mary heads to the kitchen to make sure lunch is ready.
o Tyrone and the boys argue about drinking. Tyrone sees they are unhappy and
assumes it is Jamie’s fault.
o Mary appears and Tyrone sees her condition for himself. She is chattering
frantically and will not meet anyone’s eyes.
o Tyrone says he was a fool to believe in her. Mary attacks him for drinking more
than usual, then begs for understanding, saying she is worried about Edmund.
Tyrone will not accept this excuse.
o They go in to eat lunch.
Act II, Scene II
o After lunch, Mary fidgets and talks incessantly.
o The other three look angry, ill, or both.
o The phone rings and Tyrone answers. It is the doctor with bad news.
o Tyrone insists Edmund go see the doctor, but Mary explodes into a tirade.
o Speaking to Tyrone, Mary says the doctor Edmund will visit is the same as the
one “who first gave you the medicine—and you never knew what it was until
too late!”
o Mary goes upstairs, and they know she will take more drugs.
o After Edmund leaves the room, Tyrone confirms to Jamie that his brother has
consumption.
o Jamie and Tyrone argue over the cost of Edmund’s care.
o Jamie leaves and Mary returns.
o Tyrone speaks to Mary about her addiction, but she alternately denies her
addiction and blames it on others.
o When Edmund returns, Tyrone suggests he talk to his mother.
o Edmund asks him for money and Tyrone gives him $10, which is unusually
generous.
o Tyrone leaves and Edmund talks to Mary.
o She will not discuss her addiction but instead asks him to skip his doctor’s
appointment.
o Edmund refuses and leaves with the others.
o Mary is alone. She laughs, saying she is glad they left, then cries about being
lonely.
ACT III
o At dinnertime, the men are not home.
o Mary has invited the servant, Cathleen, to drink with her.
o Cathleen is nice, but Mary is in her own world and does not listen.
o Cathleen complains about how she was treated when she went into the drugstore
to fetch a prescription for Mary. The drugstore man treated her suspiciously
until he learned who she worked for.
o Mary does not care—or does not understand—what bothered Cathleen.
o Mary talks about her youth: her convent education, her plan to become a nun,
and how she met Tyrone.
o Cathleen leaves to help with dinner.
o Mary tries to pray but cannot. She hears the men returning.
o Edmund and Tyrone are home. They have both been drinking but conceal it
well. They observe Mary and can tell the state she is in.
o Mary talks energetically about the boys’ childhoods and their other brother,
Eugene, who died at age two. She shifts between reminiscing and blaming
everyone around her.
o Repeatedly one of the men protests her savage statements, and the other says
not to bother arguing with her.
o Mary is lost in memories of her adored father and how he spoiled her,
particularly about her wedding. She wonders where her beautiful wedding dress
is now stored.
o When Edmund challenges Mary, she furiously blames him for her condition.
o She became addicted after a doctor gave her medicine to help her recover from
Edmund’s difficult birth.
o Edmund attempts to tell Mary about his diagnosis, but she will not listen. Upset,
he leaves the house.
o Then Mary bursts into tears because she fears for Edmund’s health. She believes
Edmund is ashamed of her.
o Tyrone encourages her to eat dinner, but she heads upstairs, presumably to take
more drugs.
o Tyrone is left alone and sad.
Act IV
o It is midnight.
o Tyrone is drinking and playing solitaire when Edmund comes home.
o Edmund is drunk.
o They discuss their differing tastes in literature and poetry. They talk about Mary,
and Tyrone says many of Mary’s stories about her childhood, her father, and
her marriage are not based on reality.
o Edmund is still inclined to trust his mother’s version of things.
o Neither Tyrone nor Edmund wants to go upstairs while Mary is awake, so they
begin playing cards and continue talking.
o Tyrone shares details about his childhood and his acting career. He claims he
had a great start to his career, but he took an easy role to make money and lost
his chance to become a great actor.
o Jamie comes home after visiting the town brothel. He is very drunk.
o Tyrone leaves to avoid a fight.
o Jamie insults their father, but Edmund wants to give Tyrone the benefit of the
doubt.
o When Jamie sneers at Mary, Edmund hits him.
o Jamie says he deserved it and begins to cry. He had been so hopeful that Mary
was going to beat her addiction, and now he knows she will not. He expresses
his worry about Edmund and simultaneously warns Edmund against himself.
He admits he is sometimes jealous of Edmund and has at times given Edmund
bad advice. But he still expresses deep love and affection for his younger
brother.
o After a confrontation with Tyrone, Jamie dozes off, and a few minutes later
Tyrone sleeps too. But when someone is heard playing the piano, all three men
sober up.
o Mary wanders in, carrying her wedding dress. She does not recognize the men
at all. She believes herself to be a convent girl again and talks about her dream
of becoming a nun. Even Edmund shouting his diagnosis at her does not break
through. She falters for a minute, then goes back to her memories. She talks
about marrying Tyrone and being “so happy for a time.”
o Tyrone “stirs in his chair,” and Jamie and Edmund “remain motionless” as the
play ends.