Tom Stoppard: the Moral Vision of the Major Plays by Paul Delaney (review)

Book Reviews present ... , The return of the past within an individual life in the present becomes a metaphor (and a means) for the return of the universal past within the present .., . Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. culturally as well as biologically" (p. 80). Cenainly the two chapters "Text and Subtext" and "Text and Supenext," comprising fifty pages. are the ideological heart of the book. I have let Johnston speak for himself. Deeply aware of the major currents of 19th-century thought and culture, Johnston is so eager to say all that should be said with all the right nuances that the first half of the book is hard going. But when one gets (0 the last five chapters with the splendid discussions of five particular plays, the reading becomes much easier. I rather think that most readers of the book will be at once stimulated and annoyed. The tone is often tendentious. Johnston does not suffer fools, i.e., those who disagree with him, gladly. The book is also seriously flawed by a lack of careful editing and proofreading. There are elementary mistakes in grammar: "We feel the equally as [sic!] imperative pull of a visionary and spiritual force with its lure to earth transcendence (sic!] or transformation" (p. 244). Facts might be questioned. Was it Aristotle or E.M. Forster who makes the precise distinction between plot and story (pp. 55-56)? In an effort to include everything, sentences ~ften become long and complicated. Typographical errors abound. I found seven simple mistakes in the Norwegian - on pages 49. I IS. 139. 159, 183. and 187 respectively. There are wrong references: on page 187 the Fjelde translation cited is on p. 238. not p. 236 of The Major Prose Plays. The "Index" would be more useful if it were more complete; p. 161 has an important statement abom Ghosts; Strindberg is cited on p. 245; Thomas Van Laan is given rather extensive, if unfair. treatment on p. 285; Charles Leland is cited approvingly on p. 267. but the source of his study of Barkman is nowhere given. None of the above references appears in the' 'Index." But these technical problems should not deter the serious reader. I believe that no Ibsen scholar today can avoid taking Brian Johnston seriously. CHARLES LELAND, ST. MICHAEL'S COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PAUL DELANEY. Tom Stoppard: the Moral Vision af the Major Plays. London: Macmillan 1990. pp. 202. $104.95 (Can.) For Paul Delaney. thedifference betweenTom Stoppard and •'theorthodox mainstream" of Rad-Lib playwrights lies in his "metaphysical perspective .... a moral view of individuals and regimes as opposed to a materialistic or ideological view." Intimations ofjust such a perspective, out there beyond his comprehension (the word made flesh by the text ofShakespeare's Hamlet), lure Guildenstem into his unrewarding quest: "Even if I don't know where I am, I like to know that." George and Douy Moore come closer to enlightenment, but the philosopher's theoretical altruism and his wife's practical angst remain as.separate as their living-quarters,just as Joyce's visionary aesthetics and Carr's purblind doggedness elude one another. In the plays that follow Travesties. theory and practice do become one. As Delaney puts it, "timeless moral absolutes can be wed to Book Reviews action in the real world." Professor Anderson, acknowledging that' 'Ethics is a very complicated business," commits his professional foul so that Hollar's words can be published, and Hapgood comes to see that her son's welfare matters more than the complicated business of her foul profession. To underscore that progression ofideas, Delaney deploys Stoppard's own statements (and appends an extensive list of those interviews and essays) which are often more forthright than the elusive texture of the plays themselves. Upholding middle-class values, Stoppard is seen to champion the commonsense of little men. Assured ofethical absolutes, Stoppard intuits a supreme judge while admitting a belief in God is "embarrassing nowadays." Delaney feels no such embarrassment, yet his emphasis is nearly always sensitive to the enigmas which surround that certainty. The grace and balance of his style pay conscious tribute to Stoppard's own fusion of words and ideas, and his wit (though sometimes over...