Irony in the Drama: An Essay on Impersonation, Shock, and Catharsis by Robert Boies Sharpe (review)

328 MODERN DRAMA December IRONY IN THE DRAMA: AN ESSAY ON IMPERSONATION, SHOCK, AND CATHARSIS, by Robert Boies Sharpe, :The University of .North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1959, 215 pp. Mr. Sharpe's original essay on the aesthetics of the drama ~ based on ~ conception of art as essentially ironio-"an honest imitation of nature, intended not to deceive but to be ironically perceived"-and of drama as the most ironic of the arts because "impersonation adds an extra dimension of irony" to all plays. To me the interesting parts of the book are those that deal with catharsis as an "ironical psychological state" and with ironic shock as the device most commonly employed to induce catharsis. The author amusingly parodies the conventional defense of literary influence as the cause of tragic shock. "Maxwell Anderson did it because he studied the Elizabethans to find out how they wrote tragedy. The Elizabethans did it because they modelled their tragedies on Seneca, the Roman, who modelled his on the Greeks. The Greeks did it because their tragedy originated in religious representations of the Greek myths, which were primitively bloody, sexy, and dirty.'" Sharpe's opinion is that tragic horrors-and also comic bawdry-are "shock devices ironic in themselves and productive of the drama's most important ironies." "By offending the moral feelings and at the same time appealing by suggestion to the repressed desires, shocks are in themselves ironically contradictory in their immediate effects." In tragedy the tension built up by shock is not allowed relief until the final purgation; but in comedy there is the constant relief of laughter. Therefore the catharsis of tragedy is more powerful than that of comedy. Professor Sharpe's comments on catharsis and shock are an important contribution to the aesthetics of drama. Moreover, his detailed analysis of the cathartic process in comedy and tragedy (in terms of nine steps) should be a useful tool for the study of dramatic form. Unfortunately, the author is a much better aesthetician than he is a practicing critic of plays. Consequently, the chapters on Irony in the Drama which are devoted to illustrative materials and to the criticism of specific plays are disappointing . The author's comments on Shakespeare's use of irony are sound but rather commonplace, although one must concede that it would be difficult to say anything fresh on that much-abused subject. Of more dubious value, in my opinion, is his application of ~ theories to contemporary drama. His chapter "Modern Trends in Tragedy," which does no more than mention Brecht, Pirandello, and Giraudoux, is devoted. principally to O'Neill, Miller, and Williams; and Camino Real is dismissed as "full as a packed parking lot of symbols and frantic with expressionism." On the other hand, Maxwell Anderson's Winterset is praised for its brilliant use of dramatic technique. Indeed, to Mr. Sharpe Winterset is the model American play. His chapter on "Modern Trends in Comedy," which is principally a study of Shaw, is equally unfortunate. His conception of Shaw as contemptuous of the devices of the theater and as "self-limited by a violent reaction against romanticism and idealism" is a testimony to the limitations of the critic rather than the playwright. But these limitations do not make Professor Sharpe's contribution to dramatic theory less valuable. Irony in the Drama would be a more nearly perfect book if it were a purely theoretical essay in aesthetics, b~t its usefulness is not lessened by its faults. JULIAN B. KAYE ...