AFFECTIVE
ANALYSIS
THEA291 Dr. Larsen
The techniques of "affective analysis"
lead the analyst to an answer to the question: "What kind of emotional experience may a production of this play
provide an audience?"
Critics,
directors, actors, even casual
readers or viewers needing an answer to the question, "What feeling is the
playwright trying to express?" can read prefaces, prologs, the author's
letters, or transcripts of his speeches, or they can, sometimes, ask the
playwright what attitude or emotion prompted the writing of the play.
Unfortunately, however, many playwrights simply never leave any explanatory
documents for the aid of bewildered and curious investigators. Some playwrights will try to explain
the emotional foundations of their plays, but the explanations often have
little apparent relevance to the plays, either because playwrights are not
adept at explaining themselves, or because they don't know what prompted them
to begin writing or what feeling sustained them during
the period of composition. Even if they know what drives them, they may
refuse to explain because they want readers and viewers to experience their
plays: They'll say, "If I
could explain the pathos of the play, I wouldn't have to go through the agony
of writing it!" Still more
important for the play analyst is the possibility that the emotion the
playwright is conscious of may not be the emotion expressed in the play. The conclusion of all this is
that reference to sources outside the play in itself can be only secondary
indications of the pathos of the play. The primary source of information about the potentialities of a
playscript is the playscript itself.
One can further conclude that the emotional power or significance of the
play is a product of the playwright's manipulation of character, setting,
action, theme, language. The
answer to our leading question: "What kind of emotional experience may a
production of this play provide an audience?" can be answered best in terms of the techniques
employed by the playwright to facilitate expression of the play's unique
pathos.
Please note: An
affective analysis is aimed at discovering the unique and individual pathos of
a play, not merely at discovering whether a play is a "comedy" or a
"tragedy." Such gross classifications
are helpful only when they suggest avenues along which the critic pursues the
deeper significance of the play's experience.
THE
TECHNIQUE OF AFFECTIVE ANALYSIS:
1. What
do the characterÕs want? The technique of dynamic analysis combined with a
close reading of the text will lead the analyst to an understanding of
character motive. Express in active verb statements.
2. What is the main action of the play? Summarize the wants of the character;
the playÕs dynamic substance is the sum of the dynamic attributes of the
dramatis personae.
3. What
is the play about? In other
words, what subjects dominate the dialog?
Note the subjects of each speech.
What do the characterÕs talk about? What are the main attributes of the world of the play? No play is about everythingÑabout
Òlife.Ó Each play creates a circle
of interests and the characters live in that circle and no other.
4. How
do the characterÕs percieve the world of the play? What are the attitudes of the
characters toward their situation?
Two kinds of evidence are available:
a. Lyrical statements by the
charactersÑoutpourings of feeling about a situation gives the analyst an
overt, self-conscious version of the characterÕs pathetic qualities.
b. An indexing of subject talked about, actions
performed, and lyrical expressions provides the analyst with a deeper insight
into the characterÕs emotional make-up.
With regard to each theme, what does each character do? What other themes crop up in dialog in
association with the central theme? What does the character confess to feeling
about each theme and of what strategic value is each confession?
5.
Once the analyst knows what the characters want and what they feel about what
they want, the analyst can ask,"What
has the playwright done to promote an audience's identification with each
character?"
a.
How does the playwright manipulate elements of the mise en scene to promote an
audience's sympathy for a character? to promote an audience's rejection of a
character?
b.
How has the playwright selected events for dramatization which promote or
diminish audience identification?
c. Has the playwright used familiar or
unfamiliar character types?
d.
How has the playwright manipulated language, gesture, movement, to promote or
diminish identification?
e.
Do characters' expressed attitudes promote or inhibit identification?
Assignment
For the assigned play, perform the technique of
affective analysis as outlined above. Where it states, Òeach character,Ó use
the main characters in your analysis (protagonist and antagonist/s). End with a summary paragraph that
answers the question: What kind of emotional experience may a production of
this play provide an audience?