There is, however, a third common method of comical representation
which neither exaggerates nor abstracts, but preserves the concreteness
of the finest art--we may call it the method of contrast. It consists
in exhibiting the contrast between the actual conduct of men and women
and the standard,--either that which they themselves profess to live
up to or our own, which we impose upon them. Their pretenses are
unmasked or their absurdities shown up against the ideal of
reasonableness. We behold the _bourgeois_ who would be a gentleman
remain _bourgeois_ and the women who would be scholars remain
women. Success in comedy of this kind depends upon possessing the
ability to formulate the implicit assumptions underlying the behavior
of the people portrayed or to make one's own standards with reference
to them valid for the spectator. Here is no falsification, but, on the
contrary, a vivid revelation of the truth; because, just as by placing
two colors in contrast with one another the hue of each is intensified,
so by setting man in relief against the background of what he ought
to be, we perceive his real nature more sharply. As the child dressed
like a grown-up appears all the more childish for his garb, so man
appears the more human for his pretenses. To be sure, in order to
increase the comical effect, this method is often employed in
conjunction with that of exaggeration. The Athenian democracy was
probably not quite so stupid as Aristophanes represents it; the average
Britisher is not so philistine as Shaw paints him.
Pages:
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139