Christopher Fry as a Poet & Playwright
- 1. Name: Hirani Khushboo A. M.A.SEM_III CORE_07:Modern British Literature Topic: Christopher Fry as a Poet & Playwright
- 2. Christopher Fry as Poet & Playwright Born: 18th December 1907 Died: 30th June 2005 Liveliest Dramatist of 20th Century Contribution: Revival of English Poetic Drama in the world of Theatre Regarded as the technique of Dramaturgy Best known for his Verse Dramas “The Lady’s Not for Burning” which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950
- 3. Career • He gave up his career in 1932 an found Tunbridge wells • He wrote ‘The Peregrines’ when he was a school boy • First appeared in 1953 in a programme at ‘The Saville Theatre’in London • He also wrote the music for ‘She shall have music’ in 1935 • Influenced by poet T.S.Eliot later become friend • Artistic Director of ‘Oxford Playhouse’1939
- 4. Literary Contributions 1) Religious Festival Plays The Boy with a Cart (1938) Thor, with Angels (1948) A sleep of Prisoners (1951) “His Religious plays are not only about religious pilgrimages; they are part of the ongoing pilgrimage. His characters are much closer to ordinary people and ordinary life.” Theme : 1)Good & Evil 2)Man & God
- 5. Comedies 1)A phoenix of frequent (1946) 2) The Lady’s not for Burning (1949) 3)Venus Observed (1950) 4) The Dark is light Enough (1904) Theme: “The Comedy is a climate of damp and dry of spirit and matter, playing April with each other and the climate is the comedy.” -Christopher Fry (Preface)The Lady’s not for Burning “Comedy is an escape, not from truth but from despair, a narrow escape into faith”
- 6. Tragedy • The First Born(1946) Translation of French Playwright • Ring Round the Moon (1950) • The Lark (1955) • Tiger at the Gate (1955)
- 7. Evidential Critical Reputation Based on his Dazzling language in his works Most striking stage Vocabulary and most natural images “His theatre as theatre of Words” Because his words are not only heard but also seen through the eyes and experienced through the mind. He did not Juxtaposed verse and prose in his plays as Shakespeare and Eliot did; but he has gift for inventing colloquial language which is rhythematically charged with innovated idioms.
- 8. Ability to Weave Musical Words “By God, a cuckoo Grief and god A chanting cuckoo that laughs with no smile A world unable to die, sits on and on In spring sunlight, Hatching egg after egg. Hoping against hope that out of one of them will come The reasons for it all and always out pops the arid chuckle And centuries of cuckoo spit” -Oxford University Press, London (Thomas Mendip) ‘The Lady’s not for Burning’ “He believe that words gives us a larger or deeper experience of action”
- 9. Christopher Fry • Use language charged with emotions • Sentimental in nature • Advocate poetic drama dealing with spiritual matters • World is a land of fertility and he recommends its acceptance after a renewal or purification of spirit • As an artist approaching the physical world with joyful respect T.S.Eliot • Rationalist and Intellectual • The World is a wasteland and reject physical life • look at life as a devoid of Life
- 10. Stage setting Christopher Fry William Shakespeare
- 11. Tragedy • Concern wit the destiny of the protagonist with sorrows • Demonstrate Human Dilemma • No bound of Three Unities • More focused on developing characters and porting mood rather than building plot • Distinguishes between the true and actual Characterization • Characters are busy not in revealing their personalities but in exploring their inner selves Humor • Humour with Intellectual touch • First please the gallery as it written for a very sophisticated audience • treat life as a joke, quite funny than laughable • He not ridicule man’s follies in characters of conduct but to expose the errors and weakness of the soul.
- 12. Theme of Fry’s play • In all his plays is the Quest for identity on the part of one or more characters. • The quest for identity as a religious quest for the Discovery of God. • Use of poetry in Drama : “Poetry is action and action is poetry” • Plays are made up of paradox, Mystery, Intellectual elements, Religious beliefs, philosophy and mysticism.
- 13. Bibliography • Wikipedia • WWW.enotes.com • WWW.Shmoop.com