2 - Exposition

Summary

In most kinds of play where a strong dramatic illusion is aimed at, the author's voice is for the most part concealed behind the voices of his characters, although at times a character may be deemed to be speaking for the author. A particular case of author speaking to audience occurs in expository scenes, which are needed in most plays, in the absence of a pure authorial or narrative voice, to provide information essential for the comprehension of the action. Expository scenes are indispensable in plays which open in medias res, as humanist plays regularly do, or in any play where the author wishes to respect the unity of time. It might appear unnecessary to offer much exposition in a play whose subject matter is well known, but even while acknowledging and indeed exploiting the familiarity of their subjects, authors still need some way of leading their audience into the play. Moreover, some plays are not on well-known subjects and some authors make substantial changes to the données of the fable (more frequently in the seventeenth century than the sixteenth: Racine's inventions of Aricie and Eriphile are conspicuous, but not exceptional, examples of this freedom). An unfamiliar story, or a story which has been much adapted, needs particularly careful introduction.

In order to see how the mechanisms of exposition work, I shall look first at some expository scenes in seventeenth-century tragedy. After considering some of Racine's expositions, I shall use Corneille as a springboard back to the sixteenth century.