Theatrical Morality
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
_As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139-143
To see life as nothing more than a play is a concept that has existed as a clich long before Shakespeare wrote it into his comedy. This concept seems to imply something more of theatre itself. With the parallelism shared between life and theatre would it be safe to se that theatre teaches morality? First let it be noted that morality is subjective ethic values which one deems necessary for a supposed better quality of life and/or afterlife. Although there have been those opposed to the idea of theatre being a teacher of morality throughout history, it does indeed.
A distinguished Connecticut clergyman, Theodore Thornton Munger, insists, "The claim of the theatre as a school of morals is false; not because it is immoral, but because it cannot, from its own nature, be a teacher of morals. _The abuses that have clustered about it are enormous. _In evil days it sinks to the bottom of the scale of decency, and in best days it hardly rises to the average." Furthermore, he has also said, "Aside from the moral contamination incident to the average theatre, the influence intellectually is degrading. Its lessons are morbid, distorted, and superficial; they do not mirror life." Munger makes a harsh criticism of theatre derived from his religious background. He was known as a teacher of life and philosophy within the Protestant church in New England during the American Reconstruction. Munger believes that the teaching of morality should be left to the church and no other source.
Adding to the opposition, English novelist and poet Dinah M. Mulock exhorts, "If the theatre is ever to be a school of morals, we may well say of it what Hamlet says of its acting, 'Reform it altogether.' Coming away from a modern play, as out of the reeking, noxious theatre where it is acted, is, to many, like quitting a moral hell_a very ingenious, elegant, amusing hell, but nevertheless as black as Avernus, and into which the descent is quite as easy." As if that were not bad enough, she says, "There should be one theatre where we might take our young daughters without tainting their fresh souls by images of wickedness, or worse, putting it in such pleasant and pathetic shape that they mistake it for virtue." Mulock started her writing career with children's novels, which intend morals upon younglings. She makes a plea that theatre is strictly an adult amusement where morals are quickly lost under some frilly guise. There is a strong emphasis put on maintaining the innocence of young daughters that is attributed to her own maternal instincts of wanting to protect her adopted daughter from anything in the world with a possibility to taint the immaculate.
Topping the opposition is a well thought out complaint from Jeremy Collier's "A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage": "The business of plays is to recommend virtue and discountenance vice; to show the uncertainty of human greatness, the sudden turns of fate, and the unhappy conclusions of violence and injustice; 'tis to expose the singularities of pride and fancy, to make folly and falsehood contemptible, and to bring everything that is ill under infamy and neglect. Our poets write with a different view and are gone into another interest. 'Tis true, were their intentions fair, they might be serviceable to this purpose." Collier refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Protestant rule of William and Mary after the Glorious Revolution of Britain; he remained loyal to James II and his Catholic ways. Ten years after the change of power he wrote the "Short View" critiquing the comedies and authors loyal to the new rule. He insisted that, although the theatre is a place were morality should be observed, the playwrights of the time had missed this target. Collier believes the highbrow comedies of the time to be nothing more than frivolous entertainment to the upper class and empty of moral value.
From the rebuttal comes a sympathetic plea from William Hazlitt, "It is remarkable how virtuous and generously disposed every one is at a play. We uniformly applaud what is right, and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment." Hazlitt, an English writer and critic, suggests that theatre is a tool through which the crowd is to decipher what is moral and immoral. By the crowd's reaction, others unsure of their disposition are socialized to learn right from wrong.
As the first major response to Collier's "Short View", John Dennis wrote "The Usefulness of the Stage" which contends: "As the in maintaining the cause of the stage, I am defending poetry in general; so in defending that I am pleading for eloquence, for history, and philosophy. I am pleading for the reasonable pleasures of mankind, the only harmless, the only cheap, the only universal pleasures; the nourishments of youth and the delights of age; the ornaments of prosperity and the surest sanctuaries of adversity; now insolently attempted by furious zeal, too wretchedly blind to see their beauties or discern their innocence." What stage writings Collier degrades as smut, Dennis rebuts to be beauties and innocence. Dennis implies that teaching of morality is the cause of the stage and must be defended.
William Congreve's plays were directly attacked by Collier, which lead to his rebuttal "Amendments of Mr. Collier's False Citations". Congreve makes an appeal with reference to Aristotle's teaching of theatrical comedy: "For men are to be laughed out of their vices in comedy; the business of comedy is to delight as well as to instruct; and as vicious people are made ashamed of their follies or faults by seeing them exposed in a ridiculous manner, so are good people at once both warned and diverted at their expense After the action of the play is over and the delight of the representation at an end, there is generally care taken that the moral of the whole shall be summed up and delivered to the audience in the very last and concluding lines of the poem. The intention of this is that the delight of the representation may not so strongly possess the minds of the audience as to make them forget or oversee the instruction. It is the last thing said, that it may make the last impression; and it is always comprehended in a few lines and put into rhyme, that it may be easy and engaging to the memory." Congreve believes that people will be sound enough of mind to extract what morals are to be learned from the delightful representation of comedy. He adds that should a comedy not be clear and outright about its moral intent then it should be furnished at the conclusion of a play in brief.
Looking back into the very roots of theatre itself, it is noted that its foundation has been grounded in the religions of every culture. Religion being the most accepted teacher of morality. The earliest performances spring forth in the form of oral tradition that become more animated with each passing generation. Eventually it leads to lyrical oration and symbolic movement. The Greeks are the first to categorize western theatre into two styles, comedy and tragedy. Comedy is defined as a plot that starts in conflict and ends in resolve. In a comedy the resolution is brought about by a wrong being righted. By a wrong being righted a moral lesson is acquired within the play that onlooker is to absorb into their own life values as to find their own happy resolutions. Thus comedies are plays to teach the accumulation morals. Tragedy is defined as beginning in resolve and ending in conflict. In a tragedy a character will have a moral flaw eventually resulting in a tragic fall by the end of the plot. By making an antagonist of this immoral trait, the audience naturally will reflect upon themselves in search of purging themselves should they hold such a trait. Thus tragedies are plays to teach the purging immoralities.
According to Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura's "social learning theory", the theatre must meet five requirements in order to for the learner to retain the moral lesson: 1) the learner must be attentive 2) the learner must be able to remember what has been seen 3) the learner must be able to replicate the behavior, and 4) the learner must be motivated to demonstrate the lesson. Theatre, when executed correctly, meets all requirements of the theory. Thus, thanks to the social learning theory, playgoers will walk away more morally inclined through the socialization of theatre.
If it is true for theatre to be a teacher of morality then there must be fault with the reasoning of the opposition. Munger, although very powerful in his speech, has fault in his words. He has been blinded by his faith and does not adhere to logic. He claims that the theatre is incapable of being able to teach morality. Is that to imply that any written word, other than those of religious origin, are incapable of teaching morality? Of course they are not incapable. Morality is taught through socialization from birth. Parents teach their children starting with the word, "No!" Then they read books full of moral teaching as bedtime stories. Many of these very stories have been adapted from stories performed in theatre over the years, such as Peter Pan, or have been adapted into theatrical performances themselves.
Mulock, although an author of moral contribution to her time, had a veil pulled over her eyes by her maternal instincts. She is so worried of her adopted daughter's innocence that she forgets William Blake's lessons of experience. Experience requires the loss of innocence but can prove to be useful as an adult because right from wrong is learned. How can one interpret the moral from the immoral without knowing what immorality is? If theatre can share the experience needed for such things, without having to be personally tainted, why not learn from it? Mulock also seems to have been beside herself for not remembering that the intended audience for performances varies as much as the writings itself. A moral is not to be taught to different ages in the same manner. An adult will have reason enough to pull the moral fiber from theatre of the mature nature and deep context, while a child needs to have the moral lesson apparent. Leave the vices guised as virtues to the ripened crowd. Has Mulock not learned anything of the immorality, such as the corruption of power, from the very Hamlet she tore down?
Collier, a man with good intent, was left behind at the gate. His "Short View" was so short that he was incapable of seeing the long term. For this he shall never be confused with a totalitarian. He starts heading in the right direction when he talks of how plays should advocate that which is moral and condemn that which is immoral. However he fails to acknowledge that the plays of his day very well do that. His stubborn Catholic upbringing has put blinders over his eyes, narrowing his vision. He is unwilling that the writers of the newly Protestant England are able to embed morality within their comedies. Congreve takes challenges Collier to the task of pointing out his fault in failing to write a moral play, asking Collier to point out what should be amended where and how. Collier's pen is too frustrated by the depicting of a loss of innocence, filling his essays with accusations of the playwright's "smut" and "vulgarity", to stop and ponder what morality can be learned from these portrayals of fictitious events and characters.
It is now very evident that theatre is a teacher of morality. Those denouncing theatre as a teacher have been discredited by the fallacies within their preaching. The stand made by Hazlitt, Dennis, and Congreve holds a firm ground and has beaten the false accusations with the help of Bandura's theory.
More thoughts on theatre to ponder:
"The idea that the theatre is managed in accordance with pure morals is a vain imagination. Those who build and manage theatres do so with pure morals is a vain imagination. Those who build and manage theatres do so with the view of a good investment and profitable employment. They know the taste of their customers. They must either conform to these tastes, or lose money by opposing them. A theatre conducted on such principles as would make it safe to the morals of youth would not pay its proprietor."
_William D. Arnot, Scottish clergyman
"Although it is said of plays that they teach morality, and of the stage that it is the mirror of human life, these assertations are mere declamations, and have no foundation in truth and experience."
_Sir John Hawkins
"How much is it to be wished that the celebration of nature and of God were intrusted to none but men of noble minds."
_Goethe
"The end of satire is the amendment of vices by correction, and he who writes honestly is no more an enemy to the offender, than the physician is to the patient when he prescribes harsh remedies."
_John Dryden, English poet, author, and critic
Works Cited
Collier, Jeremy. "A Short View of the immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage." Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy. 2nd ed. Ed. Scott McMillin. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 493-506
Congreve, William. "Amendments of Mr. Collier's False and Imperfect Citations." Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy. 2nd ed. Ed. Scott McMillin. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 513-516
Dennis, John. "The Usefulness of the Stage." Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy. 2nd ed. Ed. Scott McMillin. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 506-512
Edwards, Tyron. The New Dictionary of Thoughts. Standard Book Company, 1960.
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans and J.J.M. Tobin. 2nd ed. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997.
"Social Learning Theory (Bandura) At Learning-Theories." Learning Theories Knowledgebase. May 2008. 1 May 2008 <http://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html>.
Vermeer, Paul, and Johannes Van Der Ven. "Comparing Religious and Moral Socialisation: Experiences of Dutch Youths." Journal of Empirical Theology 19.2 (2006): 203-226. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Fullerton College Library, Fullerton. 23 Apr. 2008. Keyword: moral socialization.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
_As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139-143
To see life as nothing more than a play is a concept that has existed as a clich long before Shakespeare wrote it into his comedy. This concept seems to imply something more of theatre itself. With the parallelism shared between life and theatre would it be safe to se that theatre teaches morality? First let it be noted that morality is subjective ethic values which one deems necessary for a supposed better quality of life and/or afterlife. Although there have been those opposed to the idea of theatre being a teacher of morality throughout history, it does indeed.
A distinguished Connecticut clergyman, Theodore Thornton Munger, insists, "The claim of the theatre as a school of morals is false; not because it is immoral, but because it cannot, from its own nature, be a teacher of morals. _The abuses that have clustered about it are enormous. _In evil days it sinks to the bottom of the scale of decency, and in best days it hardly rises to the average." Furthermore, he has also said, "Aside from the moral contamination incident to the average theatre, the influence intellectually is degrading. Its lessons are morbid, distorted, and superficial; they do not mirror life." Munger makes a harsh criticism of theatre derived from his religious background. He was known as a teacher of life and philosophy within the Protestant church in New England during the American Reconstruction. Munger believes that the teaching of morality should be left to the church and no other source.
Adding to the opposition, English novelist and poet Dinah M. Mulock exhorts, "If the theatre is ever to be a school of morals, we may well say of it what Hamlet says of its acting, 'Reform it altogether.' Coming away from a modern play, as out of the reeking, noxious theatre where it is acted, is, to many, like quitting a moral hell_a very ingenious, elegant, amusing hell, but nevertheless as black as Avernus, and into which the descent is quite as easy." As if that were not bad enough, she says, "There should be one theatre where we might take our young daughters without tainting their fresh souls by images of wickedness, or worse, putting it in such pleasant and pathetic shape that they mistake it for virtue." Mulock started her writing career with children's novels, which intend morals upon younglings. She makes a plea that theatre is strictly an adult amusement where morals are quickly lost under some frilly guise. There is a strong emphasis put on maintaining the innocence of young daughters that is attributed to her own maternal instincts of wanting to protect her adopted daughter from anything in the world with a possibility to taint the immaculate.
Topping the opposition is a well thought out complaint from Jeremy Collier's "A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage": "The business of plays is to recommend virtue and discountenance vice; to show the uncertainty of human greatness, the sudden turns of fate, and the unhappy conclusions of violence and injustice; 'tis to expose the singularities of pride and fancy, to make folly and falsehood contemptible, and to bring everything that is ill under infamy and neglect. Our poets write with a different view and are gone into another interest. 'Tis true, were their intentions fair, they might be serviceable to this purpose." Collier refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Protestant rule of William and Mary after the Glorious Revolution of Britain; he remained loyal to James II and his Catholic ways. Ten years after the change of power he wrote the "Short View" critiquing the comedies and authors loyal to the new rule. He insisted that, although the theatre is a place were morality should be observed, the playwrights of the time had missed this target. Collier believes the highbrow comedies of the time to be nothing more than frivolous entertainment to the upper class and empty of moral value.
From the rebuttal comes a sympathetic plea from William Hazlitt, "It is remarkable how virtuous and generously disposed every one is at a play. We uniformly applaud what is right, and condemn what is wrong, when it costs us nothing but the sentiment." Hazlitt, an English writer and critic, suggests that theatre is a tool through which the crowd is to decipher what is moral and immoral. By the crowd's reaction, others unsure of their disposition are socialized to learn right from wrong.
As the first major response to Collier's "Short View", John Dennis wrote "The Usefulness of the Stage" which contends: "As the in maintaining the cause of the stage, I am defending poetry in general; so in defending that I am pleading for eloquence, for history, and philosophy. I am pleading for the reasonable pleasures of mankind, the only harmless, the only cheap, the only universal pleasures; the nourishments of youth and the delights of age; the ornaments of prosperity and the surest sanctuaries of adversity; now insolently attempted by furious zeal, too wretchedly blind to see their beauties or discern their innocence." What stage writings Collier degrades as smut, Dennis rebuts to be beauties and innocence. Dennis implies that teaching of morality is the cause of the stage and must be defended.
William Congreve's plays were directly attacked by Collier, which lead to his rebuttal "Amendments of Mr. Collier's False Citations". Congreve makes an appeal with reference to Aristotle's teaching of theatrical comedy: "For men are to be laughed out of their vices in comedy; the business of comedy is to delight as well as to instruct; and as vicious people are made ashamed of their follies or faults by seeing them exposed in a ridiculous manner, so are good people at once both warned and diverted at their expense After the action of the play is over and the delight of the representation at an end, there is generally care taken that the moral of the whole shall be summed up and delivered to the audience in the very last and concluding lines of the poem. The intention of this is that the delight of the representation may not so strongly possess the minds of the audience as to make them forget or oversee the instruction. It is the last thing said, that it may make the last impression; and it is always comprehended in a few lines and put into rhyme, that it may be easy and engaging to the memory." Congreve believes that people will be sound enough of mind to extract what morals are to be learned from the delightful representation of comedy. He adds that should a comedy not be clear and outright about its moral intent then it should be furnished at the conclusion of a play in brief.
Looking back into the very roots of theatre itself, it is noted that its foundation has been grounded in the religions of every culture. Religion being the most accepted teacher of morality. The earliest performances spring forth in the form of oral tradition that become more animated with each passing generation. Eventually it leads to lyrical oration and symbolic movement. The Greeks are the first to categorize western theatre into two styles, comedy and tragedy. Comedy is defined as a plot that starts in conflict and ends in resolve. In a comedy the resolution is brought about by a wrong being righted. By a wrong being righted a moral lesson is acquired within the play that onlooker is to absorb into their own life values as to find their own happy resolutions. Thus comedies are plays to teach the accumulation morals. Tragedy is defined as beginning in resolve and ending in conflict. In a tragedy a character will have a moral flaw eventually resulting in a tragic fall by the end of the plot. By making an antagonist of this immoral trait, the audience naturally will reflect upon themselves in search of purging themselves should they hold such a trait. Thus tragedies are plays to teach the purging immoralities.
According to Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura's "social learning theory", the theatre must meet five requirements in order to for the learner to retain the moral lesson: 1) the learner must be attentive 2) the learner must be able to remember what has been seen 3) the learner must be able to replicate the behavior, and 4) the learner must be motivated to demonstrate the lesson. Theatre, when executed correctly, meets all requirements of the theory. Thus, thanks to the social learning theory, playgoers will walk away more morally inclined through the socialization of theatre.
If it is true for theatre to be a teacher of morality then there must be fault with the reasoning of the opposition. Munger, although very powerful in his speech, has fault in his words. He has been blinded by his faith and does not adhere to logic. He claims that the theatre is incapable of being able to teach morality. Is that to imply that any written word, other than those of religious origin, are incapable of teaching morality? Of course they are not incapable. Morality is taught through socialization from birth. Parents teach their children starting with the word, "No!" Then they read books full of moral teaching as bedtime stories. Many of these very stories have been adapted from stories performed in theatre over the years, such as Peter Pan, or have been adapted into theatrical performances themselves.
Mulock, although an author of moral contribution to her time, had a veil pulled over her eyes by her maternal instincts. She is so worried of her adopted daughter's innocence that she forgets William Blake's lessons of experience. Experience requires the loss of innocence but can prove to be useful as an adult because right from wrong is learned. How can one interpret the moral from the immoral without knowing what immorality is? If theatre can share the experience needed for such things, without having to be personally tainted, why not learn from it? Mulock also seems to have been beside herself for not remembering that the intended audience for performances varies as much as the writings itself. A moral is not to be taught to different ages in the same manner. An adult will have reason enough to pull the moral fiber from theatre of the mature nature and deep context, while a child needs to have the moral lesson apparent. Leave the vices guised as virtues to the ripened crowd. Has Mulock not learned anything of the immorality, such as the corruption of power, from the very Hamlet she tore down?
Collier, a man with good intent, was left behind at the gate. His "Short View" was so short that he was incapable of seeing the long term. For this he shall never be confused with a totalitarian. He starts heading in the right direction when he talks of how plays should advocate that which is moral and condemn that which is immoral. However he fails to acknowledge that the plays of his day very well do that. His stubborn Catholic upbringing has put blinders over his eyes, narrowing his vision. He is unwilling that the writers of the newly Protestant England are able to embed morality within their comedies. Congreve takes challenges Collier to the task of pointing out his fault in failing to write a moral play, asking Collier to point out what should be amended where and how. Collier's pen is too frustrated by the depicting of a loss of innocence, filling his essays with accusations of the playwright's "smut" and "vulgarity", to stop and ponder what morality can be learned from these portrayals of fictitious events and characters.
It is now very evident that theatre is a teacher of morality. Those denouncing theatre as a teacher have been discredited by the fallacies within their preaching. The stand made by Hazlitt, Dennis, and Congreve holds a firm ground and has beaten the false accusations with the help of Bandura's theory.
More thoughts on theatre to ponder:
"The idea that the theatre is managed in accordance with pure morals is a vain imagination. Those who build and manage theatres do so with pure morals is a vain imagination. Those who build and manage theatres do so with the view of a good investment and profitable employment. They know the taste of their customers. They must either conform to these tastes, or lose money by opposing them. A theatre conducted on such principles as would make it safe to the morals of youth would not pay its proprietor."
_William D. Arnot, Scottish clergyman
"Although it is said of plays that they teach morality, and of the stage that it is the mirror of human life, these assertations are mere declamations, and have no foundation in truth and experience."
_Sir John Hawkins
"How much is it to be wished that the celebration of nature and of God were intrusted to none but men of noble minds."
_Goethe
"The end of satire is the amendment of vices by correction, and he who writes honestly is no more an enemy to the offender, than the physician is to the patient when he prescribes harsh remedies."
_John Dryden, English poet, author, and critic
Works Cited
Collier, Jeremy. "A Short View of the immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage." Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy. 2nd ed. Ed. Scott McMillin. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 493-506
Congreve, William. "Amendments of Mr. Collier's False and Imperfect Citations." Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy. 2nd ed. Ed. Scott McMillin. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 513-516
Dennis, John. "The Usefulness of the Stage." Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy. 2nd ed. Ed. Scott McMillin. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 506-512
Edwards, Tyron. The New Dictionary of Thoughts. Standard Book Company, 1960.
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans and J.J.M. Tobin. 2nd ed. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997.
"Social Learning Theory (Bandura) At Learning-Theories." Learning Theories Knowledgebase. May 2008. 1 May 2008 <http://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html>.
Vermeer, Paul, and Johannes Van Der Ven. "Comparing Religious and Moral Socialisation: Experiences of Dutch Youths." Journal of Empirical Theology 19.2 (2006): 203-226. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Fullerton College Library, Fullerton. 23 Apr. 2008. Keyword: moral socialization.