The Subtext of Drama Author(s): Leo Rockas Source: College Literature, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Winter, 1976), pp.
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42
THE SUBTEXT OF DRAMA
Leo Rockas The term and the concept of subtext has begun to be used in the criti cism of drama often enough to suggest that it has some utility and that an attempt to review the uses of the term and refine the concept might now be helpful. Though Maynard Mack mimimizes "what is called in to as John Russell Brown such critics the theatrical 'subtext,'"1 jargon day's and J. L. Styan have shown that the concept permits them to make cer about plays which tain necessary observations they would find awkward
to express without it.
as I understand it, is based on a petition and the granting or it. The "scenes" of a play lacking a petition may with some refusing be called "expository." The petition for news for information, confidence or old stories, is a pretext for narration instead of drama, even if appar are delivering that narration. In Oedipus interlocutors ently dramatic the King and there is no real drama until the scene between Oedipus Teiresias. he of the what knows for Teiresias past Oedipus petitions retreats from and future, in a series of imploring gestures, while Teiresias realizes that Tei him in increasing horror at his requests. When Oedipus resias will not satisfy him, he reverses the direction of the subtext and be until he finally drives him off the stage. The subtext gins accusing Teiresias Drama, of
is the underlying motives, gestures, and attitudes of the characters, sug
gested The
by but not contained
in the actual
words
spoken
back
and forth.
scene between Oedipus and Teiresias has more subtextual complex can I than note at least that Teiresias, but indicate I here, ity might by looks like the petitioner; and by being chased away coming to Oedipus, looks like the psychological loser in the scene. But Teiresias has not come to petition; he has been "summoned." In drama as in life the one who goes to the other is the one who wants something, and the other he goes to has it. Businessmen for the one say, "Let him come to me" come to is in the seat of authority. But what if a king (or a boss) wants the other. And something? He must not seem to and so he summons comes about because Teiresias refuses rejection of Teiresias Oedipus' his petition. Though Oedipus in this scene boasts and struts and charges, he is clearly and desperately the loser. The of subtext implies a discovery in the of subtleties interpretation of "dramatic ironies." text, but itmust not be confused with the discovery are consciously The subtext is what the characters trying to do to each most and be in the understood other, may easily imagery of dancing, or
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THE SUBTEXT OF DRAMA 43
says he will punish the murderer of Laius, the only boxing. When Oedipus to impress or intimidate his subjects. To call sub subtext is his attempt interwoven textual analysis psychological may be valid, but it is closely
with the text and does not necessarily view the character as a whole and
in a later scene are the real person; the gestures and attitudes of Oedipus a psychological, result of a theatrical, not necessarily The development. and subtext is the dance of those turns and counter-turns of sympathy to terms it between the characters for which is avoid the hard antipathy as of the chorus. It is at least possible that the strophe and antistrophe, choruses and the scenes of classical drama had some structural and dia lectical influence upon each other. And the dance or pantomime arising from the text of a play would be an expression of the subtext just as valid, as is the text itself. But the text remains our though totally non-verbal, only authority for its subtext. of the Moscow Art Theater, used
founder Konstantin Stanislavski, the term "subtext" to refer to
the manifest, flows basis play ments, the felt inwardly beneath ... ... of a web all of
uninterruptedly for existing, and a part,
expression the words innumerable,
of of
a human a text,
being giving inner
them
in a part, which life and a
sorts
objects
attention,
adaptations, us makes
adjustments say the words
a inside patterns of the imagination, inner move figments smaller and greater truths and a belief in them, and other similar elements. It is the subtext that varied of do in a play.2
we
In England and America the term is associated with "method" John Russell "naturalism," acting. critic, reports that the word is not Shakespearean lish Dictionary of 1939. Nor is it listed Supplement can dictionary, the unabridged Webster's including tional Dictionary of 1961. Despite the apparent seems of to the be concept something implied in
history for some time back. Brown, who wrote
with Chekhov, the English Brown, listed in the New Eng in any current Ameri Third New Interna newness of the term, theatrical and critical
articles on "Shake
with
two
in 1963 and reconsidered them in his book Shake speare's Subtext" in to the concept finds in references 1966, Performance speare's Plays all but definitions in T. S. Eliot, in the of the term?in Granville-Barker, lectures of the actor Henry in account Richard Steele's of Bet Irving, in Shakespeare terton's Othello, himself.3 and explication Brown's discovery of subtext in Shakespeare is a very to both and addition theatrical criticism. But he implies helpful literary that the concept is especially to Shakespeare "a new because applicable naturalism was the kindling spirit in his theatre."4 Though he cites Eliot's to the dialogue reference of Greek drama as "a shorthand, and often,
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44
COLLEGE LITERATURE
as in the best of Shakespeare, a very abbreviated shorthand indeed, for the acted and felt play, which is always the real thing," it is almost as if Brown is expressing the "method" implications of Shakespeare because was was to not Chekhov. But Shakespeare genius enough anticipate Soph to anticipate ocles genius enough Can there be a text for Shakespeare?
drama without a subtext? The last question raises an even more basic
there can be any literary text without a subtext. Brown question, whether over what the to do about "subtext" of Brutus deliberating analyzes as she waits and of Juliet ruminating But if "soli for Romeo. Caesar, a as has must not I well? elsewhere have subtext, loquy" "lyric" argued that there is no rehetorical difference between lyric poems and the lyrical Brown looks for subtext in passages of drama.5
Shakespeare's to these tions; matter unusual actor's or words use means of gesture, must and be stage-business added broken the text and itself: silent physical shifts the to be cause confronta in subject of introduction by the the text
sudden
in tone
tempo,
syntax reactions
or metre, all need that
expression is to sound like
or disproportionate of the unspoken an "imitation of
reactions,
sustained them. If
life"
it needs
a subtext.6
From
speare's
this perspective,
sonnets, especially
it is easy
in the
enough
passionate
to see
the "subtext"
to the
of Shake
young man
addresses
are "dramatic" the dark lady. These lyrics in the second person, though as usual in lyric the second person is present only in the speaker's mind. But even in lyrics lacking this absent addressee we are teased to the heart-cry, what lies beneath the text. There imagine what prompted as to lack a subtext: is hardly a Sapphic fragment so fragmentary and
I said, Sappho
Enough! Why
try to move a hard heart? Pain me by penetrates drop drop.7
Lyrics
too are bursting with "the unspoken reaction that prompted them"; even and confrontation; "business," they suggest gesture, they certainly include sudden shifts in tone, broken syntax, unusual words, certainly
disproportionate, since the stimuli, the "dramatic situations" out of
are
which
is "tone,"
they arise, are usually
"voice," the authorial
silent or indefinite.
presence, the
In prose
"Henry
fiction
too there
or "Jane
Fielding"
Austen"
which Wayne Booth the of suggestion performing in even the most sophisticated
of the piece.8 The posits to his listeners is felt gesturing storyteller as Henry fiction. In fact, such a novelist the author
as
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THE SUBTEXT OF DRAMA 45
James or Joseph Conrad may call for more than does for instance of "subtext," such
Mariner.
in the analysis of implication, a storyteller as the Ancient
and Cecily of Gwendolen J. L. Styan analyzes "subtext" in the meeting as a Earnest series of battle in The Importance gestures: "Where of Being as we on have as Cecily and Gwendolen seen, quickly equal ground, begin is the first to be caught at a disad shifts and Gwendolen the balance the mistress of the situation."9 vantage while Cecily becomes increasingly That is certainly the language of subtext, as I see it. But Styan's analysis of the opening lines of Rosmersholm, Mrs. Helseth and Rebecca watching the approach of Rosmer, is an analysis of the implications, however subtle, is almost entirely of the text, which therefore expository. The two women
at, each other.
in the third person (Rosmer) and are not working upon, or gesturing
are not meant to discredit Brown's and Styan's analyses These comments of the term to include all of subtext, but to suggest either a broadening or to a term the the subtext applicable of texts, narrowing only literary to drama. In the meantime what I am speaking of may be called, a little subtext. This psychological dramatic dance between the redundantly,
speakers is thin in drama or meager runs more or passages. less in certain continuously In expository throughout or narrative a play, passages, but
whether
by a single storyteller or as in Ibsen by two or more or reminding characters themselves of the past, themselves questioning there is a subtext?the subtext of stories, of prose fiction. The dramatic subtext of such passages is only in the chance that the stirring up of mem a present difference ories will make between the speakers. In lyric or solo passages to himself, whether other (a single speaker ruminating rendered
speakers are present or not), there is also a subtext?the sub
possible
text of lyric poems.
possible inclusion
The
of
dramatic
subtext
of such passages
as reviewed
is only
or
in the
antici
second-hand
conversations
pated by the single
another speaker.
speaker,
Only then
or in the chance
can begin that
of a possible of dramatic
passages,
intrusion subtext.
certain
from
"working-upon-each-other"
between
Subtext
the characters
is stronger or
which
more
is the obbligato
urgent in certain
plays,
first prompted Strangely, since the artistry of Chekhov of subtext, the subtext of Chekhov's plays can some is easy enough to see in the relatively early Sea Gull interest tempted to remain behind out of a romantic in the young Nina, the actress Arkadina performs one of the most magnifi cent subtextual dances of her career and renders him helplessly depen dent upon her. By the time of The Three Sisters, Chekhov's impression
certain playwrights. Stanislavski's insight times be elusive. It is that, as Trigorin
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46
istic technique
text. Masha
COLLEGE LITERATURE
and effects
good-bye, and
has somewhat
announces she is
blurred
leaving
the causes
and says
of his sub
not until
nine pages later in the Modern she say, "(Taking off her hat)" time she has gotten interested
major," dox, not with I whom think a she will later contradiction,
does Library translation by Stark Young that she is staying for lunch. In the mean in the arrival of Vershinin, the "lovesick
have in my an affair. argument. I come, Because then, to subtext a para can
was pressed to arrive at the basis of be elusive in Chekhov, Stanislavski and Tolstoy, in Shakespeare and Shaw, the sub all drama; in Turgenev text is closer to the surface and may not need special formulation. But the necessities of the director are not exactly those of the critic. If the director, in an escape from the artificial declamation of an earlier
theater, wishes to encourage a more naturalistic expression of the text
and subtext, he will ask the actor to find a consistent tone and attitude even in his part, which has its suggested life in the total performance
when he is not actually speaking, or even on stage. Every actor as nearly
as possible becomes the character he portrays, so that when the text calls them as the total subtext upon him to burst into words he will express this leads to a biographi of the play suggests. From the critical viewpoint criticism has been at some cal view of dramatic character which modern Harold Rosenberg's terms, it leads to the person pains to discredit?in rather than to the identities alities found only in novels and biographies view of character found in plays.10 At its absurd limits the biographical leads to the questions of how many children Lady Macbeth had, what Hamlet child. studied at Wittenberg University, and what Juliet was like as a
is a present life, an on-stage life. Help The life of a dramatic character has been in the theater, it must be regard ful as the Stanislavski method as a somewhat But the ed critically of naturalism. artificial technique no a it and has if is between director critic, necessary dispute, dispute, it?as a series of pre effect on the analysis of subtext as I have defined
sent psychological turns and counterturns between the characters. What
thoughts and feelings Hamlet may have had during the undramatized and with to trip England, here is how he behaves now with the gravedigger over Ophelia's and both Both director Laertes critic, grave. spectator subtext. For the and reader, can benefit from a recognition of dramatic of subtext in and the expression subtext is what makes drama dramatic, a literary work will render it dramatic, whether it is called a play or not. or dialogue; includes conversation do these fiction, for instance, occur A constitute drama? convenient in of passages couple examples the stories of Hemingway. "The Killers" looks like drama; all but a few Prose
ever
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THE SUBTEXT OF DRAMA 47
sentences and paragraphs are in the quotation marks of conversation.
But
for "up"
this conversation
almost between purely the
seems
to be used,
or and narrative what
like
the opening
to happen. to
of Oedipus,
what two men is The
expository characters
purposes, is going
explain
have come to kill Ole Andreson, doesn't occur in the story) would
never seen these men, they say,
but the "scene" of that murder (which also be narrative, not dramatic. Ole has
and so there is nothing personally at issue
not much them. Even if words were exchanged subtext would between in his past Ole has offended be revealed. the man or men Somewhere who have sent the killers. That old situation might have yielded many to hint at them. dramatic but the story doesn't even bother exchanges, is Al's warning Max the speakers The only subtext revealed between not to talk too much; he says as much three times, but Max takes it well, or jokes about it. If it is an issue, if it indicates some rivalry between of this story the men, there is not much sign of it.Most of the conversations can be called "scenes" only inmetaphor; they are used to tell the story and are hardly dramatic; to them. excitement there is no subtextual "Hills Like White Elephants" is also predominantly But conversational. in this conversation the speakers are personally and crucially involved. to continue to have an abortion and whether They are deciding whether to have the abortion. their relationship. The man is petitioning the woman she seems to agree to it, but she does not seem entirely con Eventually vinced. For she is also, though more subtly, petitioning him to agree to have the baby and face the prospect with of a continuing relationship to his petition her. Her agreement is only recognition that her own peti the tion has been denied; since he will not agree to the commitment she grudgingly the abor agrees to his petition, baby would necessitate, tion. The important petition is indicated in miniature early in the story when she observes that the hills look like white elephants; it is her bid a certain claim on the man; but he rejects for insight and sophistication, her insight, and so suggests he is already denying any such permanent claim on him. By the end of the story it is pretty clear that she would like to have the child and raise it with him, but she must agree to the abortion, which will probably mean the end of their relationship. None of this has been said exactly, the subtext their conversa of just suggested through tion; for this story, unlike the other, is fully dramatic.
Frank O'Connor, in his book of essays on short-story writers, seems to be disturbed that so little background is given about the characters in this story. He would like to know more about the girl's parents, broth ers and sisters, job and home?he seems to ask for a story's extension in time and place. But in another comment, more friendly to Hemingway, seems to give a good generic account O'Connor of such pieces as this
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48
one: of the "In his stories the one station is forever restaurant, utterly cafe, upon coming the waiting anonymous
COLLEGE LITERATURE
that room, places. characteristic or the The railway setting car
riage?clean,
well-lighted,
characters,
emerge suddenly from the shadows where they have equally anonymous, been lurking, perform their little scene, and depart again into the sha dows."11 This imagery of the theater indicates what I have been trying to show. Though "The Killers" conventionally passes for a "dramatic" story or narrative?and "Hills Like White meaning "exciting," Elephants" as Chekhov an analysis by subtext shows is "uneventful," is uneventful, to be called "dramatic." that the latter story rather deserves "Hills Like White Elephants" may be short even for one act, but there is no defini and it can only that it does not meet perfectly; tion of play I recognize a be typographical prejudice against quotations marks that would prevent
a critic from agreeing.
NOTES
in Our Time Lear 1King a Character, 2 Building 1950), p. 113. 3 Shakespeare's 197-202. pp. 4 Brown, 5 Modes 6 Brown, 7 Sappho, 59, 61. 8 The 9 The p. 34. (New Barnard York: St. Martin's Press, 1964), pp. 197-202. Plays (Berkeley: tr. Elizabeth of California University R. Hapgood (New Press, York: 1965), Theatre p. 32. Arts,
in Performance
(Harmondsworth:
Penguin
Books,
1969),
of Rhetoric p. 62. tr. Mary
(Berkely:
University
of California
Press,
1958),
nos.
Rhetoric Elements
of Fiction of Drama
(Chicago: (Cambridge:
University Cambridge
of Chicago University
Press, Press,
1961), 1960),
p.
264. p. 24.
10 The Tradition of the New (New York: Horizon Press, 1959), p. 139. 11 The Lonely Voice: a Study of the Short Story (New York: World Publishing
Co., 1963), pp. 166-67.
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