| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: be saintly, for soldiers to be heroic, for lawyers to be hard-
hearted, for sailors to be simple and generous, for doctors to
perform miracles with little bottles, and for Mrs Warren to be a
beast and a demon. All this is not only not natural, but not
dramatic. A man's profession only enters into the drama of his
life when it comes into conflict with his nature. The result of
this conflict is tragic in Mrs Warren's case, and comic in the
clergyman's case (at least we are savage enough to laugh at it);
but in both cases it is illogical, and in both cases natural. I
repeat, the critics who accuse me of sacrificing nature to logic
are so sophisticated by their profession that to them logic is
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: voice.
He stepped back from the window and looked at an icon of the
Saviour in His crown of thorns. 'Lord, help me! Lord, help me!'
he exclaimed, crossing himself and bowing low. Then he went to
the door, and opening it into the tiny porch, felt for the hook
that fastened the outer door and began to lift it. He heard
steps outside. She was coming from the window to the door.
'Ah!' she suddenly exclaimed, and he understood that she had
stepped into the puddle that the dripping from the roof had
formed at the threshold. His hands trembled, and he could not
raise the hook of the tightly closed door.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: right to dispose of you. Your execution cannot take place without my
consent, and I have too much curiosity to let them shoot you at
present."
"And suppose I am obstinate enough to keep silence?" he replied gaily.
"With an honest woman, perhaps, but with a woman of the town, no, no,
monsieur le comte, impossible!" These words, full of bitter sarcasm,
were hissed, as Sully says, in speaking of the Duchesse de Beaufort,
from so sharp a beak that the count, amazed, merely looked at his
antagonist. "But," she continued, with a scornful glance, "not to
contradict you, if I am a creature of that kind I will act like one.
Here is your gun," and she offered him his weapon with a mocking air.
The Chouans |
