The Proper Function of a Drama According to Pinero
Modern Theatre in Context ::
The Second Mrs Tanqueray
Pinero, whom even Shaw's collaborator William Archer praised for his 'serious treatment of serious themes', believed that the proper function of drama was 'giving back to the multitude their own thoughts and conceptions illuminated, enlarged, and if needful purged'. Treating moral 'problems' in such a socially conformist way on the stage won Pinero an immense popularity; and from 1885 through 1895, with a new play appearing every year, his work was could be seen almost continually in the West End over the whole decade. With the authority this gave him, it was not surprising that Pinero became the main target in Shaw's campaign to promote the 'new' drama (which of course he identified with his own plays); and he singled out The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, Pinero's most widely recognized social tragedy, as an example of 'Sardoodledom' (Shaw's term for the conventional morality embodied in the Well-Made Play formula identified with the French playwright Sardou).
And indeed, in its reliance on revelations, Pinero's plot follows the typical Well-Made-Play, which had been standardized in the 1840s and 1860s by Scribe and Sardou. On the surface The Second Mrs. Tanqueray appears naturalistic, yet beneath the deliberately ordinary conversation and social background the characters are all standard types, even the title figure being the conventional woman with a hidden past. The protagonists'' responses correspond to standard moral expectations. Being based on an ideal of purity, the husband's love is shattered by the revelation that his wife Paula had been forced to make her living as a high-priced call girl before their marriage. His primary concern is to preserve appearances, and when he convinces Paula that immorality is contagious, she poisons herself for fear of corrupting their innocent children.
There may also be a more subversive form of social criticism under this apparently conformist surface, since the surname of
The Second Mrs Tanqueray
Pinero, whom even Shaw's collaborator William Archer praised for his 'serious treatment of serious themes', believed that the proper function of drama was 'giving back to the multitude their own thoughts and conceptions illuminated, enlarged, and if needful purged'. Treating moral 'problems' in such a socially conformist way on the stage won Pinero an immense popularity; and from 1885 through 1895, with a new play appearing every year, his work was could be seen almost continually in the West End over the whole decade. With the authority this gave him, it was not surprising that Pinero became the main target in Shaw's campaign to promote the 'new' drama (which of course he identified with his own plays); and he singled out The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, Pinero's most widely recognized social tragedy, as an example of 'Sardoodledom' (Shaw's term for the conventional morality embodied in the Well-Made Play formula identified with the French playwright Sardou).
And indeed, in its reliance on revelations, Pinero's plot follows the typical Well-Made-Play, which had been standardized in the 1840s and 1860s by Scribe and Sardou. On the surface The Second Mrs. Tanqueray appears naturalistic, yet beneath the deliberately ordinary conversation and social background the characters are all standard types, even the title figure being the conventional woman with a hidden past. The protagonists'' responses correspond to standard moral expectations. Being based on an ideal of purity, the husband's love is shattered by the revelation that his wife Paula had been forced to make her living as a high-priced call girl before their marriage. His primary concern is to preserve appearances, and when he convinces Paula that immorality is contagious, she poisons herself for fear of corrupting their innocent children.
There may also be a more subversive form of social criticism under this apparently conformist surface, since the surname of