Parallel existentialism and illusion vs reality in the real inspector hound...by i-mei

In a universe suddenly deprived of illusions and of light, man feels a stranger.His is an irremediable exile…this divorce between man and his life,the actor and his setting,truly constitutes the feeling of absurdity…(Camus…myth of Sisyphus)…

The dichotomy between illusion and reality and the collapse of an imagined security of man’s reality is explored in a rather roundabout manner in the real inspector hound.Stoppard’s genius is evident in the way he rigs a structural farce rather intricate in design while avoiding the necessity for a truly substantial plot.It is perhaps the continual sway from a conventional plot and the blurring of distinction between the stageplay and the reader’s audience world that constitutes the actual plot of hound.

From the beginning,we are introduced to a situation where there are two separate planes of existence,one being the audience which the two critics,”Moon” and “Birdboot” are a part of , and the world onstage revolving around Muldoon Manor.Stoppard evidently sets the demarcations between these separate realms as depicted by the incessant flow of chatter between Birdboot and Moon that do not interfere with the conversations and exchanges onstage in the initial stage.

For Moon and Birdboot,their conversation is within their reality and what goes on onstage is illusion.For the characters onstage,Mrs, Drudge , Cynthia , Simon , Felicity, Magnus and Hound; their ongoings in Muldoon manor is their reality though it is the audience’s illusion.Parallel existentialism can only be defined present in this play if the two planes of existence occur separately,though parallel,independent of the other ,never the two shall meet.And it is so,until a certain point in time where there’s a kink in the flow of these two parallel lines of existence.

The relevance of this to my study can also be supported by the fact that in literary drama there is the assumption of verisimilitude according to the rule of the three unities-the achievement of an illusion of reality in the audience of a stage play-requires that the action represented by a play approximate the actual conditions of the staging of the play,,they imposed the requirement of the “unity of place” and the requirement of the unity of time.These of course are optional devices left at the playwright’s discretion.Stoppard however takes away these assumptions and replaces them with a contrasting rule; the rule that there are no rules .And this is where the blurring between reality and illusion takes place.

In the play,the first point of this takes place when the phone onstage rings and Birdboot takes the call which interestingly enough is for him.The events following this is what creates the kink between the separate realities and perhaps even a time loop.

..”(Birdboot mops his brow with a handkerchief.As he turns,a tennis ball bounces through the french windows,followed by felicity,as before,in tennis outfit.The lighting is as it was.It is,let us say,the same moment of time)…”(pg 33)

Now that the phone has been brought into the picture,let us look at it in greater scrutiny.What is the role of this phone which mediates calls from a stranger asking for yet another stranger to whom Mrs Drudge gives excessive information.(pg 11),and on two other occasions within the the first part of the play until the point when hound wants to call the police and discovers that the phone lines have been cut …

Hound: Thank God I’m here-the lines have been cut!
Cynthia : you mean--?
Hound : Yes!-we’re on our own,cut off from the world and in grave danger!(pg 30)

It is then interesting to note that the crucial point of collision between the two separate realms is set into motion when the phone rings when it is supposed to have its lines cut.moreover the phone rings and the call is in fact for Birdboot,a player in a separate world.Who is the puppet master behind this phone anyway?and is the phone a device belonging to the stage sphere or the sphere of the audience or both?Perhaps what Stoppard is trying to create is the awareness that the line between illusion and reality is actually a slim and shady one if only conventions are done away with.After all,in this play it is his vision that there need not be a separation between the audience and the characters in the play and the imagined detachment can actually be transcended by common desires as depicted by the parallel character scenario of Birdboot and Simon.In their separate planes of existence thet have both been toying with Felicity (or the actress playing felicity) and now seek more gratification in Cynthia.Perhaps their common desires project them to a stage where they are interchangeable.This renders their dialogues similar even as Birdboot takes the place of Simon in the play..

Felicity(stiffly):what are you trying to say?
Simon: I love another.
Felicity: I see.
Simon: I didn’t make any promises-
I merely-
Felicity: You don’t have to say anymore-
Simon: Oh,I didn’t want to hurt you-
Felicity: Of all the nerve! (pg 16)

Felicity(stiffly):what are you trying to say?
Birdboot: I want to call it off.
Felicity: I see.
Birdboot: I didn’t promise anything-and the fact is I do have my reputation-people do talk
Felicity: You don’t have to say any more-
Birdboot: And my wife too-I don’t know how she got to hear of it,but-
Felicity: Of all the nerve! (pg.33)

The repetition in the two separate dialogues can also be attributed to the scene playing itself over again.This brings in the issue of time loops and whether real life is just a time loop repeated in a cycle.Perhaps Stoppard merely creates this supposition to enhance his deployment of upsetting the whole idea of chronology and the other conventions thus making us question the entire perception of reality and which is our reality.Reality then is whatever you allow yourself to believe.Man creates his own reality even in a world of illusion.Man’s failure to adapt to varying realities and in defining his own set of beliefs within his reality could probably lead to short-sightedness as did Birdboot in facing his premature death and in Moon being connived and manipulated in the end,for while within his reality he was dreaming of killing Higgs and being first-string,Puckeridge was already, while with more vengeance, executing his plans with the same ultimate motive.



Bibliography

Stoppard,tom , the real inspector hound and other plays,grove press,1998

Abrams m.h. , a glossary of literary terms , 7th edition , Harcourt brace college publishers,1999

Brassell,tim , tom Stoppard an assessment,the Macmillan press limited,1989