The Real Ins pector Hound Choices & Their Impact Dialogue - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

S D M u a a n l l t n i n t y The Real Ins pector Hound

Choices & Their Impact ● Dialogue ● Imagery ● Fourth Wall

Dialogue ● Dueling soliloquies ○ Birdboot and Moon ‘converse’ ● Puns and Wordplay ○ “Oil my gun” ○ Card game ○ Birdboot and Moon’s dialogue on stage

Impact of Dialogue ● Comedic effect ● Difficulties of communication ○ Breakdown of communication ● The absurd ○ Meaning of words can be variable ○ Multiple meanings exist

Imagery ● Inspector Hound’s appearance ○ Two inflated pontoons ○ Foghorn ● Weather: Fog ○ Creates a sense of mystery ○ External Force ○ Symbolisms

The Fourth Wall ● Breaking the fourth wall is referencing characters or beings outside of the story being portrayed ● Creates a sense of absurdity within the play ○ Moon & Birdboot taking the place of characters

Lenses ● New Criticism ● Archetypal ● Reader-Response Criticism

New Criticism ● Concerned with the work in-and-of-itself, rather than social and historical influences and meanings ● The Real Inspector Hound is concerned with the idea of absurdism, and is explored through characterization, dialogue, and the situation of a “play-within-a-play”

Archetypal Lens ● Concerned with universal symbols and characters ● Imposter ● Playa ● Stock characters ○ Maid ○ Widow ● Disruption of archetypes!

Analysis and Themes ● Built from a stock ‘who-dun-it’ ● Stoppard plays with the absurd ○ Characters ○ Repetition ○ 4th wall / Play-ception ● Through the use of the fourth wall and stock characters, Stoppard implies that one does not simply have just one, universal identity. ● Stoppard highlights the absurdities and complexities of communication through his use of repetition.

Reader-Response Criticism ● A literary work is converted into an activity that goes on in a reader's mind. ● Narrator, Plot, Characters, Style, and Structure are less important than the connection between the reader and the text. ● Reader-Response theorists actually think that readers are active participants who create a work of literature in the process of reading it.

Clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FONFHaYSVY (1:04:20ish to end)