ABSTRACT
. . .With Ibsen, the dramatic process shows the gradually growing self-consciousness or self-possession in a soul - Mrs. Alving's realization of her fatal submission to false conventions, Norah's awakening to her true relation to her husband. But the people in ‘The Seagull,’ though they talk eloquently about themselves - though Trigorin remorselessly analyses his own character, though Treplev speaks of the vanity that is eating away his life, though even Madame Arkadin, for a moment, sees herself as ‘sinful’ - achieve, by such intermittent self-examination, no greater clearness of courage of aim; but move, from vague desire to deep discouragement, generally taking refuge at last in fatalistic dreams about the future of humanity, when all will be put right; or, as in the beautiful last scene of ‘Uncle Vanya,’ in visions of the other world. ‘You have had no joy in your life. But wait. We shall rest.’ Those who so speak may be called optimists. The others, too early embittered, like Treplev, resort to suicide.
