A future historian looking at Love! Valour! Compassion! would not be
able to pinpoint a capital-T Truth.
Throughout the years, capital-T Truth has evolved. Long ago, Truth came from God, and then
from human knowledge. In this play,
the Truth is unknown. It is almost
like there is a struggle between the Truth of God and the Truth of humans. It is hard to find the Truth because it
seems to sway between the two Truths.
Bobby discusses God on page 87, he says, “ I think we all believe in God
in our own way. Or want to. Or need to.” These statements show that there is no proof; Bobby is questioning
the idea of God and its Truth. But
there is no real capital-T Truth when it comes to human perspective too. In conclusion, I believe a future
historian would have difficulties finding a Truth.
Unlike
Glass of Water and The Children’s Hour, the well-made play
structure is not apparent. The
only real factor in Love! Valour!
Compassion! that translates to the well-made play structure is that it is
in three acts. It veers from the
structure in almost every aspect.
The plot does not revolve around a secret and there is no obligatory
scene. The other plays we have
read focus on plot, while this one focuses on the characters.
The
capital-T Truth is up in the air.
Future historians would be unable to find one in this play. They would have trouble even finding a
type of structure to the play.
I agree with your take on the lack of a plot and focusing of the characters. It was a very confusing play for me to read. Maybe, I just like a good story, but I really didn't see much of a story here except for the fact that everyone kinda had their own story and somehow their stories were intermixed with each other. It would have been more interesting to me to have on main story line through out the play.
ReplyDeleteLove! Valour! Compassion! definitely creates challenges when looking at play structure, because of just how much action and narrative is going on the entire time. I agree that Bobby questioning the truth is well representative of how the men feel about truth during the play. Even though there isn't any capital T truth, I think it's accurate to say that each of the men does have faith or find truth in his own way. Even it's manifested concretely or emotionally, such as through dance or through love in a relationship. There is something that really drives each of these men, and even though they are questioning, as you mentioned in your blog post, I think each man discovers truth his own way.
ReplyDeleteYou really did an excellent job in pin-pointing the idea of capital-T truth, or lack thereof, in the play. Those quotes by Bobby are really true to this idea and I'm glad you pointed them out because I kind of overlooked them when writing my own response on the play. You're completely right in saying that historians would have a hard time finding a structure for the play, but this had me thinking. I wonder if there are other plays written around the same time as this one that reflect the structure. I'm not well-read enough to know, but that would be something to think about.
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