John Irving Ideas In Relation To The Cocteau Play Essays Example

There can be no denial of the fact that John Irving strongly advocates the need of engaging the audience in the aesthetic expression in the form of drama or novel. It needs to be reckoned that audience has the power of interpreting the text of a play or novel. As such, it is highly needed on the part of the playwright or a novelist to leave no stone unturned to hog the attention of the audience or readers by the dramatic elements and literary elements so as to leave an impression on the minds of the people. While the dramatic form of art challenges the playwright to engage the audience at the theater watching the live performance, a novel too needs to have the elements so as to evoke the imagination and interest of the avid readers.
Irving opines how important it is for an author to make the audience or readers like a particular character so as to make them get engaged affectively to the events associated with the character. While the audience get engaged and affectively connected, the author can take the liberty to indulge in inserting twists and turns so as to shock the audience and leave a lasting mark. He emphasizes on the importance of emotional link between the story (drama or novel) and the audience or readers. Now, it needs to be noted that the literary and dramatic elements have to be utilized so as to evoke the emotions of the audience or readers. Now, one can relate the view of Irving, the celebrated author, to the literary works of Jean Cocteau. The author goes on to present the characters in a way through which the audience go on to relate to the goodness of the traits of the characters. As such, the people watching the play surely get engaged to the story. However, as the narrative progresses, the author engages in building up the plot so as to reach the climatic sequence.
Cocteau is very specific about the subject of his plays and the literary works penned by him show that characterization is a key process used by the playwright to engage his audience to his work. In the case of the play, The Infernal Machine, the audience is immersed in the events shown to them about the male protagonist of the play. The playwright builds up the link between Oedipus’ character and his audience through the narrative of the play. However, soon after the audience is fully engaged with the play and the protagonist’s character, the tragedy starts to unfold. Now, it is truly the quintessence and skill on the part of the playwright or novelist to be able to create a plot and weave events that would work perfectly to relate to the audience. The primary aim of any literary or dramatic work is to create the perfect mesh of exposition, conflict, climax and resolution in the course of the entire narrative.
Although one might tend to think that there is a basic difference between novel and drama as one is in the written form while the other is acted live in front of the audience, it has to be reckoned that the basic elements of story and writing remain the same. In one case the readers envisage the occurrences in their minds, while in another all the things are audio-visually presented on the stage. As such, there can be no debate over the fact that engaging the audience is the ultimate key to success for any creative artist in the domain of art and aesthetics.