Merciful Versical
This is a play written in verse: a play written in the middle of the previous century. One does not come across that very often and, for certain readers, the dialogue that follows represents a good example of why. True enough, verse drama is not for everyone, but it does seem to be specially pre-constructed for fanciful flights of fancy speaking:
“There is certainly enough going on. Madam, watch Hell come
As a gleam into the eye of the wholesome cat
When philip-sparrow flips his wing.
I see a gleam of hell in you, madam.”
Personification
Right off the bat, the play dives head-first into a world of swirling metaphor and simile. In fact, one might say the drama is richly dripping with figurative language. The very first page of the script includes an observation by the protagonist which situates the dramatic narrative firmly within the boundaries of metaphor with a lofty response to a simple query of where you been?
“Straight from your alehouse.
Damnation's pretty active there this afternoon,
Licking her lips over gossip of murder and witchcraft.
There's mischief brewing for someone.”
Self-Deprecation
The protagonist of the play, Thomas, is particularly noted for one personality characteristics. He is among the great self-deprecating heroes of his time. The verse construction gives this aspect of his character a special kind of glow especially evident when heated in the crucible of metaphorical imagery:
“I breathe,
I'm a black and frosted rosebud whom the good God
Has preserved since last October. Take no notice.”
The Universal Deprecation
Coincidentally enough, a character who is not the other co-protagonist, responds to this peculiarly individualized put-down of the self by engaging with it in a way that expands into the collective or universal. This is not the only instance of this device utilized in the play:
“Men, to me, are a world to themselves.”
The Anti-Realist
The playwright works defiantly against the concept of realism. Realistic dialogue is not to be found in the play because, perhaps somewhat ironically, Fry views it as contradictory to the authenticity of universality. Realistic dialogue is that which constrains and restricts, whereas more figurative and lyrical dialogue speaks to the larger essence of existence. And that is why the play is punctuated with language such as that which constructs the following:
“We've given you a world as contradictory
As a female, as cabalistic as the male,
A conscienceless hermaphrodite who plays
Heaven off against hell, hell off against heaven.
Revolving in the ball-room of the skies
Glittering with conflict as with diamonds”
