| Sir Tom Stoppard, the early plays.9. TravestiesSir | | | | structured around the plot of The Importance of |
| Tom Stoppard's play Travesties (1974) might be | | | | Being Earnest.The play takes its title from the |
| seen as a return to the problems he dealt with | | | | fact that Carr's memory tends to oversimplify |
| right at the beginning of his career in A Separate | | | | the characters he met, and hence they are often |
| Peace (1960) and Enter a Free Man (1963). In | | | | seen as travesties of themselves. For example in |
| these plays the 'heroes' lived in a world of their | | | | one scene the dialogue falls into the form of |
| own so separate from the real world that they | | | | limericks, and in another into the form of question |
| were unable to function in society. In Travesties, | | | | and answer, travestying Joyce's techniques in |
| with Dogg's Our Pet (1971) as a stepping stone, | | | | Ulysses. The point of this is that while Joyce, |
| this simple opposition between the individual and | | | | Tzara and Lenin are each 'living in their own world', |
| the rest of the world is scrapped in favour of a | | | | asserting that their view of reality is more valid |
| philosophical standpoint which asserts that, to an | | | | than the others, the whole picture presented to |
| extent, every individual lives in a world of his | | | | the audience is itself only Carr's view of reality.For |
| own.A 'real world', separate from our perception | | | | the first few minutes of the play not a single |
| and interpretation of it may or may not exist. But | | | | sentence of comprehensible English is spoken. |
| the term applies to what seem to be areas of | | | | Tzara is picking words from a hat, Lenin is |
| common experience, about which we seem to be | | | | speaking Russian, and Joyce is speaking the |
| able to communicate in a more or less common | | | | language of Ulysses. To the audience it is |
| language.Travesties is ostensibly concerned with | | | | incomprehensible nonsense, until Henry Carr |
| artists, and their relationship with the world they | | | | arrives on stage to begin his narrative. The |
| live in. As we saw in A Separate Peace, and Enter | | | | implication suggested by this dramatic structure is |
| a Free Man (in which being an inventor can be | | | | that 'objective reality' is incomprehensible without |
| equated with being an artist), it is one of | | | | somebody there to comprehend it; and the |
| Stoppard's basic assumptions that the artist | | | | person comprehending reality will distort it |
| creates a world of his own, and, to an extent, | | | | according to the limitations on his ability to |
| lives in it as an alternative to the real world. In | | | | perceive, and the personal interpretation he puts |
| Travesties we have two artists, Tristan Tzara | | | | upon what he perceives. The logical implication of |
| and James Joyce, with very different approaches | | | | this is that we all live in our own private reality. |
| to their lives and their art. For Tzara, the Dadaist, | | | | We are our own narrators, and we distort reality |
| art is a revolutionary act in itself, breaking down | | | | just as Henry Carr does. And our attempts to |
| our usual assumptions about the world, and | | | | re-create or assert our view of reality will be |
| Art.'Tzara (To Joyce): You've turned literature into | | | | more or less a travesty of objective reality.It is |
| a religion and it's as dead as all the rest. It's an | | | | interesting that his final statement on this theme |
| overripe corpse and you're cutting fancy figures | | | | rests on a concept of 'relativity'; that 'reality' is |
| at the wake. It's too late for geniuses: Now we | | | | relative, depending on the observer, in the same |
| need vandals and desecrators, simple minded | | | | way that the fate versus free will, and order |
| demolition men to smash centuries of baroque | | | | versus chaos themes ended with the concept of |
| subtlety, to bring down the temple, and thus | | | | 'perspective'. They are, fundamentally, the same |
| finally, to reconcile the shame and the necessity | | | | concept, relativity being a more sophisticated |
| of being an artist!' (p.62.)For James Joyce art is | | | | development of 'perspective'. It is also interesting |
| justifiable for its own sake, operating on a level | | | | to note the similarity between these conclusions |
| above political or social revolution.'As an artist, | | | | and the prevailing scientific doctrine of the day: |
| naturally I attach no importance to the swings and | | | | Einstein's theory of Relativity.Travesties is a play |
| roundabouts of political history.' (p.50)Lenin is a | | | | about the inescapable subjectivity of all Human |
| third point in the argument, asserting that art is | | | | experience, and hence of any human concept of |
| only valid as an aid to political revolution. | | | | 'reality'. For Stoppard it seems to mark the end |
| 'Lenin: Today, literature must become party | | | | of a line of enquiry which began in 1960 with A |
| literature. Down with non-partisan literature: Down | | | | Separate Peace.In this cycle of works Stoppard is |
| with literary supermen. Literature must become | | | | reflecting the climate of uncertainty which affects |
| part of the common cause of the proletariat, a | | | | us all in this age of relativity.'Dotty: You're |
| cog in the Social Democratic mechanism.' | | | | probably still shaking from the |
| (p.85)One could pursue the arguments about the | | | | four-hundred-year-old news that the sun doesn't |
| relationship between art and society through the | | | | go round youGeorge: We are all still shaking. |
| play; this is one level on which the play functions. | | | | Copernicus cracked our confidence, and Einstein |
| But more importantly we are given an overview | | | | smashed it for if one can no longer believe that a |
| of the whole problem, and here Stoppard uses | | | | twelve-inch ruler is always a foot long, how can |
| the stage to dramatise a concept, by the fact | | | | one be sure of relatively less certain propositions, |
| that we are seeing the events of the play | | | | such as that God made the Heaven and the |
| through the distorting medium of Henry Carr's | | | | Earth.' (Jumpers)Read the full version of this |
| memory.We are introduced to this dimension of | | | | essay at: |
| the play by having Carr as narrator, and reminded | | | | Mackean runs the site which features a |
| of it by the repeated 'time slips', in which a scene | | | | substantial collection of English Literature |
| is played two or three times, slightly differently | | | | Resources and Essays, and where his sites on |
| each time as Carr's memory plays tricks on him. | | | | Books Made Into Movies, and Short Story Writing |
| The egocentric Carr's best memory of the war | | | | can also be found. He is the editor of The |
| years in Zurich is that he played a leading role in | | | | Essentials of Literature in English post-1914, |
| Joyce's production of The Importance of Being | | | | published by Hodder Arnold. |
| Earnest. Thus the events of Travesties are | | | | |