ABSTRACT

Actors vary enormously in their interpretation of great roles, partly because they differ in their understanding of the character, and partly because even the finest actor is limited in the range of possibilities he can represent. No single actor can bring out everything that Shakespeare put into Lear, Hamlet or Falstaff, just as no single pianist can bring out everything Beethoven put into his sonatas. The concept of character is a necessary one, and to an actor the very idea of questioning its necessity would seem absurd. The identity of character and idea in drama needs to be demonstrated in some detail, and a relatively simple example presents itself in the role of the concept of ‘honour’ in Henry IV, Part I.