The Binary Road of George Farquhar in The Beaux’ Stratagem
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1107.14Keywords:
comedy of manners, sentimental comedies, George Farquhar, exemplary characters, Moralist Jeremy CollierAbstract
The Beaux’ Stratagem is a phenomenal play in all measures. Since its first performance on stage in 1707, it has proved that its magnetic appeal to audiences of different periods has never lost its charm. It ever continues providing gusts of laughter and a profound debate of everlasting sensitive issues on stage. This study endeavors to unravel the factors behind its magnetic appeal, at the same to shed light upon the comic devices standing behind its unprecedented success. The Beaux’ Stratagem was written at a time when the early attraction of wit, risqué language, rakish behavior of gallants, and exposure of female frailties have been worn out and lost their magnitude. At the dawn of the 18th Century, the theater-goers were fed up with the Comedy of Manners, Farce, and Intrigues. and looking for something different. More possibly, Farquhar made out that the audience wanted to feel rather than to think; thus he curbed a natural bent toward wit and tried to engage a more sentimental side in his plays. However, the Beaux’ Stratagem did not completely split with the traditions common during the declining period; it blended them with the new overriding vogues of sentimental and exemplary comedy. As a result, Farquhar’s play came out as an amazing hybrid, coupling the two norms into one design, and producing a dramatic admixture that sounds more typical and better than the ones encountered in the plays of his predecessors and contemporaries.
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