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We demand lots of personality in our drama; we call it character-drawing. Human life is what interests us: we desire to drink deep of it, and drink again and again. The music that we wish to hear is the "still, sad music of humanity"; that is, taking our theory at its best, and before you come down to sheer 'jazz' and ragtime.
Distinguished as the novel is by its character-drawing and its pathos, I doubt if it would have captivated the world without its humor.
Her father especially is a piece of admirable character-drawing. Dickens has often been accused of only catching the surface peculiarities of his personages, their outward tricks, and obvious habits of speech and of mind. Such a study as Mr. Dorrit would alone be sufficient to rebut the charge.
We have just come upon one of the unities most coveted in our literature, and most valued by us when attained, the portrait, the individuality, the character. The construction of a plot we call invention, but that of a character we dignify with the name of creation. It may therefore not be amiss, in finishing our discussion of form, to devote a few pages to the psychology of character-drawing.
It was a play purely of incident; a farce, in which the main improbability being granted, namely, that the twin Antipholi and twin Dromios are so alike that they cannot be distinguished, all the amusing complications follow naturally enough. There is little character-drawing in the play. Any two pairs of twins, in the same predicament, would be equally droll. The fun lies in the situation.
So we are driven back to see what the other side means the men in clubs and Cabinets when they say that character-drawing is a frivolous fireside art, a matter of pins and needles, exquisite outlines enclosing vacancy, flourishes, and mere scrawls. The battleships ray out over the North Sea, keeping their stations accurately apart.
"It contains character-drawing which places it much above the average love story, and makes the reading of it worth while. It is a fine study of a normally-selfish man. There is humor in it, and sustained interest." A MORAL DILEMMA. By Annie M. Thompson. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $1.00. "We have in this most delightful volume ... a new novel by a new author.
"Perfectly easy, graceful, humorous.... The author's skill in character-drawing is undeniable." London Chronicle. "A remarkable work." New York Times. "Maarten Maartens has secured a firm footing in the eddies of current literature.... Pathos deepens into tragedy in the thrilling story of 'God's Fool." Philadelphia Ledger.
Its grim humor, its pitiless character-drawing, wearied them. Audience and play, speaking generally, were at cross-purposes. A minority, it was true, caught every point, shouting with great joy, and a few, who disapproved of the play, but were most devoted admirers of Helen's art, joined half-heartedly in their applause. But the act closed dismally, notwithstanding its tremendous climax.
As in The Tempest a certain preoccupation with the magical beauty of the island dims the character-drawing a little, and perhaps thereby makes the symbol more distinct, so in Sakoontala. It is a faery piece: begining in the morning calm and forest magic; then permitting passion to rise, and sadness to follow; ending in the crystal and blue clearness of the upper air.
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