XVI INTRODUCTION

concision, clarity, and unity of action. There is no secondary action — everything tends to one end " and ail the characters, in one way or another, tend to bring about that end. Through the necessary stages of exposition and complication, the plot moves swiftly, wîth a minimum number of incidents, towards the résolution. The resolution is of course the logical outcome of the "conflict of ideas, of feelings and of passions " that constitute the course of the action. With Hervieu, it is frequently tragic, but not necessarily fatal." It is not always définitive; the powei of the law or of fate, as in Les tenailles and Le réveil, may leave the characters in "the clutch of circumstance," a in much the same situation as at the beginning of the play.

c. Characters. — Hervieu's characters hâve been well defined by him as "des personnages qui discutent. Chacun donne ses motifs et plaide ses droits." " They are not keenly visualized as individuals. To a certain estent they are made to ht the situation and to illustrate the thesis of the play, They hâve been accused of being abstract rather than real. The maie characters are frequently violent and usually prompt of décision. The female characters !3 are more varied. and. more carefully studied, as they are in Racine. They are usually inspired by love ; or by mother-love. Many are passionate, not a few are guilty, but very few are actually vicious. Virtuous wives, in Hervieu, partake of the argumentative nature of the author; they discuss at length with their would-be se- - ducers, rather than resort to the simple expédient of showing them the door. Maie and female, the, characters are nearly always directly involved in the action or, if »-"

* "Bien savoir où l'on va . . . Ce qui tn'apparalt, c'est l'idl veux démontrer." Quoted in Binet, toc. cit., p. 114.

" There is a fatal resolution in Les patates restent, L'énigme, La Homitau, Le dtiale. Le destin est moBre.

* Darftan, Tke Notion, Nov. as, lois-

" Quoted in Binet, hc. cil., p. m. Hervieu added: "On m', qu'ils agissent aussi." — Ib. p. 119.

u Estève, toc. cil., p. 113.