'Le Bonheur' as a Dramatic Theme and Paradox in Twentieth-century French Theatre

Cf. the concluding chapter (10) of Forces in Modern French Drama, ed. by John Fletcher (London , 1972). The quotation is taken from p. 188.

The Contemporary French Theatre (London, 1958), 2.

Positions et Propositions, quoted by R. Jouve in Comment lire Paul Claudel (Paris, 1945), 32.

In general terms, Maeterlinck's writings show that he would like people to aspire to the 'higher', the nobler, the more generous types of contentedness, those that are purified by internal strength. And he warns that "on n'a que le bonheur qu'on peut comprendre". By contrasting the heavy materialistic 'Gros Bonheurs' with the more intellectual or aesthetic or spiritual ones, he introduced a scale of values that was to reappear in less obvious form as a conflict of values in later plays.

Cf. Fletcher , Forces in Modern French Drama, 35-36.

And, adding to the necessarily paradoxical relationship between happiness and suffering (suffering, that is, at the very least because of a sense of imperfection in this world), the happiness of the faithful is of course seen to be superior in quality to any other kind.

Théâtre, tome i (Paris . Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1956), 226.

Ibid., 301.

Fletcher , Forces in Modern French Drama, 47.

Cf. "M. Jean Giraudoux et la philosophie d'Aristote, à propos de Choix des Elues", Situations I (Paris, 1947 ), 82-98. The quotation occurs on pp. 95-96.

Cf. René Marill , Esthétique et Morale chez Jean Giraudoux (Paris , 1957), 406.

Fletcher , Forces in Modern French Drama, 56.

Ibid., 65.

Antigone (London, Harrap, 1954), 84.

Ibid., 82.

Ibid., 83.

Cf. Henry de Montherlant, Espana Sagrada ( Paris, 1951), 115-18, and note IV (pp. 230-2) of Le Cardinal d'Espagne (Paris, 1960).

Antigone , 28.

Cf. the essay "Syncrétisme et Alternance" in Aux Fontaines du Désir (Paris, 1954).

Cf., for example, Le Solstice de Juin ( Paris , Editions Bernard Grasset, 1941 ), 154-5.

Cf. Fils des Autres (with Fils de personne) ( Paris, Gallimard, 1944), deuxième tableau.

Cf. Le Cardinal d'Espagne (Paris, Gallimard, 1960). Cisneros says, with what is presumably unintentional dry humour, that "la plupart des bonheurs doivent être attentivement surveillés" (Act II, sc. iii).

Cf. H. de Montherlant. Notes sur mon Théatre ( Paris, 1950), 65.

A general will to happiness that can only be fully enjoyed "dans la confrontation tenace et violente qu'il soutient avec son contraire" (, Cahiers Albert Camus I, La Mort heureuse (Paris, 1971), 178).

Cf. A.J. Clayton , Albert Camus, 7: Le Théâtre ( Paris, 1975) : "Voilà donc défini le rôle essentiel de la femme dans ce théâtre: elle est le porteparole du bonheur. de l'égoïsme nécessaire, de la chair en révolte contre le rêve idéaliste ou activiste. Les scènes clefs sont presque toujours celles où la femme se dresse contre l'entreprise male qui risquerait d'amener l'oubli des valeurs charnelles" (p. 22).

P. Nguyen-van-Huy , La Métaphysique du Bonheur chez Albert Camus (Neuchâtel, 1962).

In Le Sel et la Cendre, quoted in Littérature de Langue française hors de France (Sèvres, 1976), 585.

Robert Brustein , The Theatre of Revolt ( London, 1965), 9.

Cf. Dorothy Knowles , "Principles of Staging", in Forces in Modern French Drama. The quotation is taken from p. 11.

Published Paris, 1949.

Louis Lavelle , "La pensée philosophique en France de 1900 à 1950", La Revue—Littérature, Histoire, Arts et Science—des Deux Mondes, no. 13 (ler juillet 1950). 33-62.

Christian Goodden , "Two Quests for Surety-A Comparative Interpretation of Stifter's Abdias and Kafka's Der Bau", Journal of European Studies, v (1975), 341-62, p. 358.

For some interesting observations about this problem, see Colin Smith Contemporary French Philosophy, A Study in Norms and Values ( London, 1964).

Cf. R. Polin , Le Bonheur considéré comme l'un des Beaux-Arts ( Paris. 1965).

R. Mauzi , L'Idée du Bonheur dans la Littérature et la Pensée françaises au XVIIIe Siècle (Paris, 1960).