THE ART OF DRAMATIC WRITING its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives BY LAJOS EGRI WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY GILBERT MILLER ‘i SIMON AND SCHUSTER MANUNACLURED In une Usuiny gan. ur Ameen “marpare laiktishae Pubpsat TO MY WIFE, ILONA PREFACE LOOPOOSOOHLOOOOMOHPOOSOOOOODOOIOODOEODOOOPOTOD ‘Tams book was written not only for authors and playwrights, but for the general public. If the reading public understands the mechanism of writing, if that public becomes aware of the hardships, the tremendous effort that goes into any and all literary work, appreciation will become more spontaneous. The reader will find at the end of this book synopses of plays, analyzed according to dialectics. We hope these will add to the reader's understanding of novels and short stories in general, and of plays and movies in particular. ‘We shall discuss plays in this book without acclaiming or dismissing each one in its entirety. When we quote passages to illustrate a point, we are not necessarily approving the whole play. We deal with both modern and classical plays, There is an emphasis on the classics because most modern plays are too soon forgotten. Most intelligent people are familiar with the classics and they are always available for study. We have based our theory on the eternally changing “char- acter” who forever reacts, almost violently, to constantly changing internal and external stimuli. What is the fundamental make-up of a human being, any human being: -pettaps you, who are reading these very lines? This question must be answered before we can settle down to discnss “point of attack,” “orchestration,” and the rest. We must know more about the biology of the subject that we see later, in movement. ‘We begin with a dissection of “premise,” “character,” and il xiv PREFACE “conflict.” This is to give the reader an inkling of that power which will drive a character to greater heights or to his de- struction. A builder who does not know the material he bas to work with courts disaster. In our case, the materials are “premise,” “character,” and “conflict.” Before knowing all these in their minutest detail, it is useless to speak of how to write a play. We hope the reader will find this approach helpful. In this book we propose to show a new approach to writing in general, and to playwriting in particular. This approach is based on the natural law of dialectics, Great plays, written by immortal authors, have come down to us through the ages. Yet even geniuses often wrote very bad plays. Why? Because they wrote on the basis of instinct, rather than from exact knowledge. Instinct may lead a man once, or several times, to create a masterpiece, but as sheer instinct it may lead him just as often to create a failure. Authorities have listed the laws governing the science of playwriting. Aristotle, the first and undoubtedly the most important influence on the drama, said 2500 years ago: Most important of all is the structure of the incidents, not of man, but of action and life. Aristotle denied the importance of character, and his influ- ence persists today. Others have declared character the all- important factor in any type of writing. Lope de Vega, the sixteenth-century Spanish dramatist, gave this outline: In the first act set forth the case. In the second weave together the events, in such wise chat until the middle of the third act one may hardly guess the outcome. Always trick expectancy; and hence it may come to nase that something quite tar from what is promised may be left to the understanding.