ABSTRACT
A recognition scene depicts that moment at which long lost or even presumably dead characters are suddenly recognized for who they are and found to be very much present and alive. Recognition scenes abound in The Odyssey, where the old nurse Eurycleia recognizes the disguised Ulysses by his scar, in the New Testament after the Resurrection of Jesus, and in Shakespeare where, for example, Pericles recognizes his daughter who was lost as an infant. Recognition scenes can also encompass the discovery of one's own identity or true self, or of someone else's identity or true nature. The moment of recognition always places the event in a new and larger context, so that what formerly seemed insignificant or meaningless suddenly becomes drenched and suffused with meaning and emotion.
