THE PLAYS OF ARNOLD BENNETT THE PLAYS OF ARNOLD BENNETT By Terence Roy Morgan A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University January 1983 MASTER OF ARTS (1982) McMASTER UNIVERSITY (English) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: The Plays of Arnold Bennett AUTHOR: Terence Roy Morgan, B.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Alan Bishop NUMBER OF PAGES: vi + 112 ii ABSTRACT This thesis examines the plays of Arnold Bennett. In the years immediately preceding World War I, Bennett was an extremely popular and successful playwright. With the advent of the War, however, Bennett's success as a playwright came to an end. Although Bennett had nine plays produced between 1919 and his death in 1931, only one, Mr. Prohack, received moderate critical and popular acceptance. At the time, this seemed to suggest either that Bennett burned himself out during the War or that he could not adjust to the changes in the theatre - that his achievement was both opportune and ephemeral. Yet several important factors may have influenced contemporary judgment or Bennettis contribution as a playwright. Bennett's playwriting technique was similar to his novel-writing technique. He wrote a great deal that was either never published or immediately dismissed as mediocre. He served a long apprenticeship as a playwright from 1894 until 1908, working alone and in collaboration. Yet none of this work appeared on stage. Later, after his initial recognition as a playwright in 1908, he continued to write plays that were never produced. The critical judgment of Bennett's playwriting, then, depends upon the plays chosen to represent his achievement as a playwright. Perhaps more than other literary works, the play is very susceptible to "external" influences. The choice of director, producer,actors, theatre, and so on, can all have a decisive influence on the acceptance of a play. The changes brought about by the War, for example, had a profound effect on the public's attitude to the theatre and, apparently, to Bennett's plays. But practical problems can also influence critical perception of a play. For instance, Bennett's Mr. Prohack had a very successful opening with Charles Laughton in the lead. Unfortunately, the lease on the theatre ran out, Laughton accepted new commitments, and what had promised to be a long run ended abruptly. In addition, Bennett offended theatre critics by declaring that he wrote plays to make money, and that plays were far easier to write than novels. And since he had achieved his first fame as a novelist, Bennett might have been seen as an interloper in tIie theatre. Probably he did n-ot help his acceptance when, according to Kinley Roby, he described theatregoers as "untrained, child-like intelligences, just arousing themselves to the significance of things". Now, over fifty years after his death, criticism of Bennett's plays can be more objective. It is "literary criticism" rather than "drama criticism", however, because his plays are seldom produced now. But the critic who carefully reads Bennett's plays can arrive at a fair evaluation of his work. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my appreciation to the supervisor of this thesis, Dr. Alan Bishop. I am very grateful for his suggestions, guidance and support. Without Dr. Bishop's encouragement, the thesis would never have been completed. y TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract iii-iv Acknowledgements v OH-AP-'PER ONE: Arnold Bennett 1 Notes for Chapter One 13 CHAPTER TWO: Political and Social Criticism 14 Notes for Chapter Two 41 CHAPTER THREE: Historical Plays 42 Notes for Chapter Three 55 CHAPTER FOUR: Classes, Roles, and Convention 56 Notes for Chapter Four 69 CHAPTER FIVE: Men and Women 70 Notes for Chapter Five 87 CHAPTER SIX: Conclusion 88 Notes for Chapter Six 108 Bibliography 109 CHAPTER ONE ARNOLD BENNETT I: The Man Arnold Bennett was born on May 27, 1867, in Hanley, one of the - six towns of the Potteries which became the Five Towns of Bennett's fiction. Arnold was the eldest of six children. His father, Enoch Bennett, had made his way up from the lower middle class through unstinting hard \J.lork, &YJ.d at the age of thirty ..... four, in 1876, he became a solicitor. He had had to work night and day to pass his Law Society examinations, and the family felt that this contributed to his poor health later on. Enoch Bennett was proud of his material success and his intellectual interests. Eventually he provided a large home for his family with an extensive library. A number of significant influences on Arnold Bennett's upbringing are reflected in his writing. The very forceful and demanding father is one of these. Bennett's father expected his children to work hard and succeed; but he also demanded intellectual and cultural awareness. The children were given books for presents, and they were expected to read rather than play outside. This autocrat had a serious nervous breakdown in 1899, however, and Arnold Bennett took care of a hopelessly incapacitated father until his death in 1902. 1 2 Another strong influence on Bennett was the Methodism which stressed hard work, piety, obedience, thrift, and material success. It had a great deal of emotional appeal with its revival meetings and hymns. Despite the enthusiasm and emotion shown in the church services, however, the Methodists tended to be restrained and unemotional in personal affairs. They did offer help to the poor, nevertheless, and provided-educational facilities. Bennett rejected this -religion early in -his life because he felt it was joyless, but he certainly understood the hold it had on people. The social and economic li ves of the Potteries were also one of Bennett's concerns. Like small towns everywhere, the Potteries had a very structured hierarchy: classes were well defined and roles rigidly enforced. The Potteries also had a harsh economic reality. Children went to work at a very early age and their health was often ruined by dangerous jobs. Conditions had improved by Bennett's time, but he was aware of the suffering that still existed, and remained sympathetic to the working classes throughout his life. The Potteries, of course, were also blighted by the dust and smoke of the local industries. The towns were begrimed with soot and ash. There were huge slag heaps, and narrow, crowded streets. When Bennett became a world traveller, he was overwhelmed by the beauty of other areas, and only later did he learn to appreciate the beauty that could be found in the Six Towns. Bennett did not seem to be profoundly affected by his formal schooling: the only aspect of school, in fact, that did seem to influence 3 him was his introduction to French. In 1882 he passed the Cambridge Junior Local Examination. He could have gone to the Newcastle High School and then to university, but decided to leave school at the end of 1883 at the age of sixteen. He immediately joined his father's firm as a clerk while he studied for his matriculation in the evenings. Surprisingly, Bennett failed his Law Examination; but during the same period he learned -that new -skill, Pitman's- shorthand. In 1889 he left fur London, and became a shorthand clerk with a firm of solicitors. He was twenty-one. Bennett stayed in the same law office in London for almost five years. During that time he became fairly comfortable financially, but there were times of great loneliness. He was able to go to the theatre, buy books, and enjoy cultural and athletic pursuits. Eventually Bennett made friends and began to travel in intellectUal circles. In 1891 he wrote a parody of a sensational serial for the periodical Tit-Bits, and won twenty guineas. With this encouragement, Bennett began to feel that he could write, unaware that he had before him years of disappointment and frustration. In 1893 he decided to commit himself fully to literature and he obtained the assistant editorship of a women's magazine, Woman. He started work on New Year's Day, 1894. Bennett wrote all kinds of articles for the magazine - gossip columns, household hints, theatrical reviews, cycling information. His reviews of plays and books kept him well informed of current trends. In 1896 he became the editor of Woman. All this time Bennett was becoming more and more familiar with the literary