The Logic of A Dream Play

THE LOGIC OF A DREAM PLA Y STlUNDBERc'S Dream Play is customarily lauded for its originality, the power of its dialogue and the beauty of its verse, the opportunity it offers to peer into the strange mind of its creator, and for the welcome contrast its compassionate mood offers to the hysteria of Strindberg's other plays. But those who begin by citing its virtues almost invariably conclude that technical innovations and stage tricks are no substitute for thought and meaning; that subjectivity results in artistic chaos; that verses of such beauty require a more imposing setting; and that, when all is said and done, bursting chrysanthemums are no substitute for the verbal fireworks of Strindberg's sex battles. In a word, A Dream Play is technically original, historically important, but utterly incoherent. Bernhard. Diebold, that fine early German critic of Strindberg, distinguished theater poetry from poetry in the theater and esteemed the former as high art when it was an integral part of the play. But the end of A Dream Play disappointed him. Chrysanthemums instead of enlightenment: the poet gives up and the prestidigitator takes over.! The visual richness of the play makes it extremely difficult to stage adequately and almost as difficult to read. I do not know of any play in world literature which contains so many pictures and images, scenes and characters that are quickly and lastingly imprinted on the mind. But the literary critic tends to overlook the pictures or refuses to examine them with care, preferring to look for meaning where he has always found it before: in the words, in the plot, in the characters. There is, of course, the semblance of a narrative in A Dream Play, but, as Strindberg implies in his preliminary note, the narrative sways rather wildly and threatens at times to plunge completely off the road. In the prologue Indra's Daughter descends from heaven to hear the complaints and grievances of mankind. Incarnated as Agnes, she appears on earth talking to a glazier in front of a growing castle. They enter the castle to release an army officer who is held prisoner there. The Officer is seen next in his parents' home and then at the stage entrance to an opera house, waiting in vain through the seasons and years for his beloved Victoria. A mysterious door with a clover-leaf venthole makes him feel uneasy, and when the police forbid him to open it, he goes to the Lawyer for an injunction. Now the Lawyer meets Agnes and tells her that he is about to be awarded his degree as doctor of laws. In a mimed and danced scene at the church where the ceremonies are held the Lawyer is denied his degree for having de1 . Anarchie im Drama (Frankfurt am Main, 1921), p. 2lO. 352 1962 LOGIC OF A DREAM PLAY 353 fended suffering humanity. The church organ, emitting the sound of human voices, is transformed into Fingal's Cave, as the Lawyer and Agnes decide to unite their destinies. The next scene is a domestic one showing the Lawyer and Agnes married and quarreling bitterly over trifles. The Officer comes to release her from this domestic hell and carry her off to the seaside. Scenes at Foulstrand and Fairhaven present a broad view of society, with the tone varying from the satiric and humorous to the melancholy. The next scene finds Agnes back in Fingal's Cave talking to a poet who had made his first appearance at Foulstrand. To the music of the wind and the waves Agnes reads the Poet's complaint to the gods, and she confesses to him that she has had her fill of earthly life and desires to return to heaven. The scene shifts to the theater corridor for the ceremonial opening of the clover-leaf door which is supposed to conceal the secret of the universe. The learned faculties are gathered there to learn the secret. The door is opened by the glazier and reveals nothing. In the last scene, outside the castle once again, the Daughter bids goodbye to her companions in life. The castle begins to bum. The whole cast parades by to...