When a character changes will or heart, what does Archer require the draft to show, and how do his psychological obligatory scene, his two kinds of conversion and his caution about real change fit together?
Archer sets four requirements around a change in a character. (1) A modification of character or will 'too important to be taken for granted' makes an on-stage scene obligatory; Othello's poisoning is the model, while Tennyson's Becket and Pinero's Iris are cited for skipping it (Ch. XIII). (2) Conversions are of volition or of sentiment; a change of resolve needs a new fact or motive, not the clock (Ch. XIX). (3) A change of heart is hard to externalise and must be proved; at a crucial point it 'must be certified by some external evidence', which the gate in a farcical romance does, Rosmersholm does by a drastic act and The Lady from the Sea does not (Ch. XIX). (4) Real change of character inside a single play-length crisis would have to be catastrophic, which experience does not support; what critics call development is better read as disclosure (Ch. XXII). The sources cited are one author's judgements on plays; no audience was measured.
Structured fields
{
"citations": [
{
"url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10865/pg10865.txt",
"note": "Archer obligatory-scene list and Ch. XXII"
}
]
}Evidence claims
- [sourced_fact] Archer sets four requirements around a change in a character. (1) A modification of character or will 'too important to be taken for granted' makes an on-stage scene obligatory; Othello's poisoning is the model, while Tennyson's Becket and Pinero's Iris are cited for skipping it (Ch. XIII). (2) Conversions are of volition or of sentiment; a change of resolve needs a new fact or motive, not the clock (Ch. XIX). (3) A change of heart is hard to externalise and must be proved; at a crucial point it 'must be certified by some external evidence', which the gate in a farcical romance does, Rosmersholm does by a drastic act and The Lady from the Sea does not (Ch. XIX). (4) Real change of character inside a single play-length crisis would have to be catastrophic, which experience does not support; what critics call development is better read as disclosure (Ch. XXII). The sources cited are one author's judgements on plays; no audience was measured. · locator: Archer obligatory-scene list and Ch. XXII source
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