Waiting for Amanda: Nol Coward as Comedian of the Absurd

Author(s): Archie K. Loss

Source: Journal of Modern Literature, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Jul., 1984), pp. 299-306
Published by: Indiana University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3831250
Accessed: 03-11-2015 15:49 UTC
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for

Waiting
Noel

Amanda:
as

Coward
the

of

Private

Absurd

work

Lives is an enduring
of sophisticated

representative
ahead

looks

to future

most

Coward's

modern

comedy

In the spirit of Borges's

by Kafka, we now see?after

in this

play

Very early
is not divorce

of the

category
but rather

about

of the absurd
Hawthorne,
Beckett,

as a comedian

in the work

it is made

clear

remarriage?Stanley
of remarriage
comedy
and hate,

because

only

it is

years ahead
of him influ-

thirty

our reading
Albee, and Pinter?Coward,

of the absurd.1

and

love

not

stage

of its period,
but also because
it
in the theatre.
It is in fact Noel

work?theatre

enced

at least,

for the

developments

of its time.

feel

Comedian

emotions

that what

Private

Cavell

excludes

in his Pursuits
which

Lives

is about

it from

the

of Happiness2?

the principal

characters

toward

Captain
eternally

one another
in nearly equal
measure.
Like Alice and the
in Strindberg's
Dance
of Death,
and Elyot are wedded
Amanda
and repulsion:
"Selfishness,
by their mutual attraction
cruelty,

11follow in my thinkingon moderndramain this essay MartinEsslin'sThe Theatreof the Absurd,rev. ed.
(AnchorBooks,1969) (repr.OverlookPress,1973). Esslin,however,treatsthe conceptof the absurdas avantgardeanddoes notapplyit to sophisticatedor,as somecall it, "high"comedyofthe twentiesandthirties.On the
to hiseditionof the playsof PhilipBarry,StatesofCrace:
subjectof highcomedysee BrendanGill'sIntroduction
BraceJovanovich,1975),pp. 3-4 andelsewhere.Thefirstbook-lengthstudy
EightPlaysby PhilipBarry(Harcourt
of Coward'stotal achievementas a dramatisthas appearedin John Lahr,Cowardthe Playwright(London:
ThePrivilegeof His Company:Noel CowardRemembered(Bobbs-Merrill,
Methuen,1982).WilliamMarchant's
1975),whilechieflya memoir,hasvaluablecommenton Coward'scomic technique;see especiallyChapter12,
pp. 194-215.
2 ". . . their[Amanda'sand
Elyot's]witty,sentimental,violentexchangesget nowhere;theirmakingsup never
add up to forgivingone another(no place they arriveat is home to them);and they have come fromnowhere
(theirconstantreminiscencesneveradd up to a pasttheycan admittogether).Theyareforeverstuckin an orbit
aroundthe foci of desireandcontempt,"Pursuitsof Happiness:TheHollywoodComedyof Remarriage
(Harvard
UniversityPress,1981), pp. 18-19.
299

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K. LOSS

ARCHIE

300

hatred,

petty

possessiveness,
came

out

qualities
These qualities
theatrical

we

because

and

it. "All

puts

other"

each

loved

and Amanda

re-established,

Elyot together

of the play

of the first act, the real subject

the end

as Amanda

jealousy,"

in us just

begins:

those
(210).3

again

language

by
and

situation.

The frequent
criticism
Lives misses
the point.

that

nothing

The

point

after Act One of Private

happens
is that in the sort of relationship

based on conflicting
Elyot have?one
emotions?nothing
ever can happen;
playing out their
they are bound to repeat themselves,
but
scene
and
with
different
words
and
different
props
again
again
Amanda

and

with

always

very end)
clear.

the same
Amanda

only

in the very

Here,

In the

result.
and

Elyot appear,

heart

of love and hate

feelings
become
ends in themselves:

ploys

their
and

that point
they
and

in which
is made
find

gesture

(until

the

abundantly

ways
which

to act out
virtually

matter

of the dialogue
of their
skips from recollections
with others (in?
of past relationships

to recollections

relationship

cluding

in language

act,

How long will it last, this ludicrous, overbearing love of ours?

Who knows?
Shall we always want to bicker and fight?
No, that desire will fade, along with our passion.
Oh dear, shall we like that?
It all depends on how well we've played. (232)

As the subject
past

second

of the comedy,

their

AMANDA:
ELYOT:
AMANDA:
ELYOT:
AMANDA:
ELYOT:

long

recently
rhetorical

rejected
tricks

spouses,
increase.

Sibyl
The

and
list

Victor),
includes

the

verbal

deliberate

malapropism:
[thoughtfully]: Bison never sounds right to me somehow. I
have a feeling it ought to be Bisons, a flock of Bisons.
You might say a covey of Bisons, or even a school of Bisons.
ELYOT:
AMANDA: Yes, lovely. The Royal London School of Bisons (217);
AMANDA

mixed

metaphor:
AMANDA:

and

I don't believe
(219);

in crying over my bridge before I've eaten it

paradox:
AMANDA

[wistfully]: He used to look at me hopelessly like a lovely

spaniel, and I sort of melted like snow in the sunlight. (224)4

3I have used the text as given in No'elCoward,Play Parade(Doubleday,Doran& Company,1933), pp.

181-263.
4 SeeElyotattheveryendoftheplay:"Iwouldn't
marry
youagainifyoucamecrawlingtomeonyourbendedknees"
(239).

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COWARD'S

PRIVATE

There

are also

"Very

wistful.

301

LIVES

simple

puns,

It's all

those

as when

pretzels
I always felt the Poostza

and

"I must

flamingoes"

dear

wonder,"

(228).5

Hungarians,
and

was far too big,

as in Amanda's

litotes,

of the

says

I shouldn't

"And Poostza;
replies,
or no Danube"
(218),
see those

Amanda

Coward's

Elyot

Danube

eloquently
deflating,
comic
effects typi-

order of words perfectly

upon a precise,
barely explicable
when
line about the
juxtaposed?as
Elyot says, shortly after Amanda's
I
should
"Why
flamingoes,
stop? You know you adore being made love
"It's
so soon after dinner"
in the
(228)?but
to," and Amanda
rejoins,
cally

depend

second

of Private

act

Lives

As if in response

important.

the element
of verbal
play is particularly
to that emphasis,
the act ends on a note of
for Coward,
with the lovers rolling over and

physicality
unusually
strong
over on the floor, in Coward's
the second

Structurally
toward

the

end

of Act

reconciliation

can

last

words,

act also
One,
only

"in paroxysms

depends

when
if they

find

a verbal

upon

Amanda

and
some

of rage."

Elyot

device,

set up

that

agree
means
to keep

their
from

bickering:
AMANDA:

With

Elyot's

renewal,"

. . . the moment we notice we're bickering, either of us, we

must promise on our honour to stop dead. We'll invent some
phrase or catchword, which when either of us says it, automatically cuts off all conversation for at least five minutes. (214)
that they agree on two minutes,
"with an option
settle
on the name
Solomon
shortened
Isaacs,

qualifier
they

of
to

"Sollocks."
In Act Two,

in Paris, the word

as the lovers

comes

to have

the effect

of an incanta-

to explode,
it stops
of the scene.
Twice

up to their final quarrel. Whenever

they threaten
them and, at the same time, it slows down the pace
it works as intended
before a third time when it fails,

but

moments,

tion,

between

various

scenes

ferences

and

build

these

occur?situations

as part of the slowly

emotion,
building
which divert the lovers from their dif-

enhance

the theatricality
of the act as a whole.
little scenes,
with Elyot's line "Are you
beginning
for this dance?"
and ending
with the description
of Lady Bun-

In the first of these

engaged

5See the celebrated

exchangein Act I:
ELYOT: ... I went aroundthe world,you know,afterAMANDA[hurriedly]:Yes,yes, I know. How was it?

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302

die

K. LOSS

ARCHIE

her ear trumpet

shrimps
through
an upper-class
ball, with musical

blowing

Elyot

parody

in Coward's
on the
comedies)
important
this scene?which
to an interlude
amounts

Amanda

(222-23),

accompaniment

phonograph.
or digression?is

and

(always

The

of

subject

courtship,
its relationship
to the second
of
act, as well as to the decision
Amanda
and Elyot to run away from their new partners,
is easily seen.
The second
little scene
comes
the
as
lovers sit to?
afterward,
shortly
and

about modern
life. "It's
gether at one end of the sofa talking desultorily
all right if you happen
to be a specialist
at something,"
Elyot says
and then he attempts
In this scene
to seduce
Amanda.
the
(226-27),
parody
da's

grows

line (228)

which

about

The

seduction.

out of the

directly
third

"Sollocks"

its being
and

too

head,

refrains

from

with

by the

Aman-

The subject

singing

accompaniment.

here

is
in

argument
record over

the phonograph

breaks

piano
on

brief

with

ends

the final

before

followed

musicals,

the

after dinner.

scene,

fails and Amanda

old

but

soon

last such

is a pantomime

Elyot's

and the scene

lines,

of a group
There

of

is little

romanticism?AMANDA:
exchange
"Big
stuff"
"Yes, big romantic
darling."/ELYOT
[smiling]:
In this case the seduction
the theme.
(230)?provides
very nearly does
occur but is interrupted
the
for
these creatures
by
telephone?typically,
dialogue,
romantic

stuff,

of chance,

a wrong

number.

interlude

and

incantation,

repulsion

the

lovers

stuff,"

they

Role-playing
of the
ginning
end

and

in the

suggestion
Victor and

which

we

has a special
in Private Lives from
significance
in the second
play to the end, but particularly
out
various
attitudes
toward
one another
Elyot try

same

inevitable

at least
Sibyl,

to

spouses

in the

quasi-lovers,
have
we

other,

but also

sion

built

ment
doubles
theme

final

As a final
applicability
of the play,

act

showing
accustomed

become

concludes,

into

conflict.

of its universal

each

Amanda

by
and

feel. Constantly
building
up to the "big romantic
as
are
from
it
just
constantly
and, more
kept
by chance
by their own combative
personalities.

importantly,

Amanda

The rhythm
of the act, established
is a direct
reflection
of the attraction

the

touch

be?

act,

as

only

to

to this theme?a

to the human
change

the

from

species?
indignant

same

behavior
to
outrageous
in Amanda
and Elyot. As the act

realize

not only that Victor and Sibyl are attracted

to
that their attraction
has the same degree
of repul?
it as that of the principals.
at the end of play,
When,

and

Elyot tiptoe
in the flat, we also
for the major
of the play.

out,
know

characters,

leaving

Sibyl

that their
reflecting

and

function

Victor

in violent

has been

in this final

scene

argu?
to serve as
the major

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COWARD'S

PRIVATE

That

is less

theme

These

at first glance,

it might

than

flippant

as the ending

humorous

303

LIVES

appear
may seem, there

of the play

are serious

for

touches

an

touches

which,
pessimism
throughout.
suggest
underlying
while not strong enough
to make Coward's
black, nevertheless
comedy
it
which
a cutting
a mordant
keeps
edge,
gives that comedy
quality,
in this regard are
the key speeches
from being merely
trivial. Perhaps
towards

Elyot's

the

of the

end

second

with

act,

their

note

strong

of

paradox:
ELYOT [seriously]:
You mustn't be serious,
my dear one, it's
just what they want.
AMANDA: Who's they?
All the futile moralists who try to make life unbearable. Laugh
ELYOT:
at them. Be flippant. Laugh at everything, all their sacred shibboleths. Flippancy brings out the acid in their damned sweetness and light. (232)
The

same

of

understanding

the

traditional

(echoing
pens if one
answers,

"Yes,

tone

light

to our

matter?essential

subject

comes

shortly

afterward

"What
questions,
and
left still laugh?"

as Amanda

hap-

that's

Elyot

plaints)
Does the one

with

yes,

all his might":

. . . Let's be superficial and pity the poor philosophers. Let's

blow trumpets and squeakers, and enjoy the party as much as
we can, like very small, quite idiotic school-children.
Let's
savour the delight of the moment. Come and kiss me, darling,
before your body rots, and worms pop in and out of your eye
sockets. (232)
and others

speeches
which
while

like them

it apart from

sets

the play
period;

play?and

lover's

of us dies?

ELYOT:

These

of serious

combination

outwardly

Private

add a significance

the typical

to the action

sophisticated

Lives conforms

of

of its

comedy

of its

to the conventions

is most appropri?
the level which the title suggests
genre, inwardly?at
these conven?
ate for an understanding
of the action?it
goes beyond
a tone uniquely
At the same
tions to establish
Coward's.
time, this
forms
tone?of
serious
and
seriousness?anticipates
flippancy
flippant
of drama

which

have

become

familiar

in the

past

twenty-five

to thirty

years.
The

pattern

Lives?one
characterizes
Waiting

of

attraction

couple's
at least

for Godot

Like Amanda

two

and
and

for a long
together
lives. Their dialogue

and

repulsion

self-destructiveness

which
mirrored

we

other

Who's

see

major
plays of the modern
Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Elyot, Vladimir
time and promise
has the same

in Private

in another's?also
theatre,

seem to have been

Estragon
to remain
so till the end of their

and

mixture

of seriousness

and flippancy,

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304

K. LOSS

ARCHIE

of mordant

wit

Private

Lives.

Pozzo

and

and

Their

sheer

Amanda's

and

is mirrored

Elyot's

in

dialogue

in that of another

is mirrored

relationship

Lucky?as

of the

as much

ludicrousness,

couple?
in

ultimately

The play in which

of Sibyl and Victor.
they have their life emin Act I,
like
Private
from
Lives,
phasizes,
Lucky's
speech
language,
which
the failure
of language,
to the puns and other verbal
suggests

that

ploys

in Didi's

which,

theatrical
emphasizes
to scene
like two old
plays
faite.

"Yes,

from
the pair of tramps moving
in
terms
of
structure,
Finally,

situations,

viewing

"with

There

vision

their

between

and dramatic

in each

not in large incidents

modern
theatre.

In a preface

Woolf.
Edward

most?but

Albee

order

more

kid ourselves

of date."7

joyed the enormous

both in what they
Coward's

George

and

and

of Coward's

Who's
work

are better

with

has been

each

turned

other
inward

Afraid

of

published
made than
but from
ways
and with
too

long,
a playwright
who had just ensuccess
of Virginia Woolf, are especially
poignant,
say about Albee's
major play and in what they say
These

work.

Martha,

relationship.

words,

"Order

of the formal
description
about existence
with each

destructive

in language
play coming
or plot?they
are not-

that Coward's

my mind

in their

and

"plays
of the superimposed
paste of form,
form. And Mr. Coward's
subjects?the

unless

not,

and Private

of philosophical
effects (given the

principals)

Lives

that we do and do not exist

ourselves?have
out

than

are Private

to a collection

noted

not in the sense

within:

of their

structure?movement

ably alike as plays of the

More notably
alike, however,
Virginia
in 1965,

development,
in their comic

intent?yet
of the social
level

contrivance,

fails.
for Godot

Waiting

of aesthetic

difference

essentially
and theatrical

as the curtain

(263),

differences
of tone

and even

static

about

both

can

suitcases"

are obvious

additional

gone

scene

followed

Lives?differences

we

also

play

last direction
line, "They do not
by the famous
in Beckett's
lovers
(94),6 is the equivalent
play of Coward's
in Sibyl and Victor and going smilingly
themselves
out of the

move"

door,

they

let's go,"

The

abound.

speeches,

from the standard

of the piece bien
imagine
to
a
or
both
end more or
climax,
building
turning point
"Well? Shall we go?" and Estragon's
begin. Vladimir's

than

less where

Gogo's

vaudevillians.

are as far as one

Rather

and

from

more

side

than

of Coward's

form"

is a particularly

comedies,

and

the

other

good
point

a good description
of their theme.
like Amanda
and Elyot, have a fundamentally
have
not
found it necessary
to conjure
They
up

6 WaitmgforCodot (London:Faberand Faber,1965),

7ThreePlaysby No'elCoward(Dell, 1965),

p. 94.

pp. 4-5.

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COWARD'S

PRIVATE

a divorce
the

and

pretense

ence.

LIVES

to force
remarriage
of new relationships,

affection
their

of each

mutual

other.

themselves,

affection

Like Amanda
in part

dependence
Albee's

Nick

and

separation

through

to recognize
their mutual
dependtheir own fantasy of a son who has
in fact seeking
the
they vie while

created

They have, however,

existed
over whose

never

305

and

because

to realize
Elyot, they come
of the example
of another

and

come to visit and who

couple?in
play
Honey?who
in some ways are worse off than George
and Martha themselves.
By the
end of each
there
is
a
of
when
the
play
point
recognition
principals
realize
that, in spite of all their flaws, all their destructiveness,
they are
bonded
world
which
a
them to
together
indissolubly
expects
against
come
apart.8 Each play, to make its point, depends
upon a repetitive
structure
as well as upon verbal games
and theatrical
situations.
"Get
the Host,"
"Get the Guest,"
the
Hostess"?these
of
"Hump
games
Albee's
life,

and

same

effect

nally,

the

become

silly rhyme
of incantation

amount

in Act

it9?compares
words and

with a whole
synonymous
of "Who's
Afraid of Virginia
as the

of time

mean?from

concepts
geese

have

play
the

the

II, to the
with

rhetorical

and the sheer

the

"Sollocks"

attitude

toward

Woolf"

has the

of Coward's

comedy.

Fi?

in Albee's

devoted
"bunch,"

play to what words and

or "gangle,"
or is it "gaggle,"
of

of history
itself,
meaning
fascination
of Amanda

as George
and

expounds
for certain

Elyot
Coward's
detail
ploys.
play lacks the naturalistic
of Albee's,
but in structure and intent Private Lives

weight
Woolf are remarkably
similar.
As Terence
Virginia
McNally
put it
"I
think
four
actors
would
have
a
field
recently,
good
day doing Virginia
Woolf and Private Lives in repertory.
The similarities
are enormous.
It's
and

only the tone

In his later
conservative
ventions

that separates
them."10
years as a practicing
dramatist,
position

largely

his pronouncements
little to do with
sympathy

in the

on the

associated

theatre,
with

the

becoming
commercial

on this subject,
however
his own best work.
More
last decade

Coward

took a
typically
a spokesman
for contheatre.
Fortunately,

trenchantly

put, have

revealing,
perhaps,
or so of his life for the work of the

very
is his

newer

8This
point(muchdebatedaboutthis play)mayseem exaggeratedin the case of Georgeand Martha,butthe
subtextof Albee'sfinal pagesjustifiessuch an interpretation.
See the actingeditionof DramatistsPlayService
(New York,1962), pp. 110-11, especiallyafterNickand Honeyexit.
9 P. 55. See PrivateLives,
p. 217, notedabove.
10"Edward
Albee,"Dramatics(September1981),pp. 13-15. TerryOtten," 'Playedto the Finish':Cowardand
Albee,"Studiesin Fiumanities(IndianaUniversityof Pennsylvania)
Vl:l(June1977),pp. 31-37, comparesHay
Feverwith VirginiaWoolf.

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306

British

like

dramatists

Osborne

John

Arnold

and

Wesker

and?

Pinter:

especially?Harold

The Caretaker, on the face of it, is everything I hate most in the theatre:
squalor, repetition, lack of action, but somehow it seized hold of you. . . .
Nothing happens except that somehow it does. The writing is at moments
brilliant and quite unlike anyone else's.11
Nothing

with

force

No single
way Godot

Pinter's

of character
many

aside)

ready

cited.

What
about

we

between

certain

as between

Coward's
nature?it

romantic;

best work

modern

is difficult

to feel

Like the

Coward's
best
genres,
to Coward,
the heroic sentiment
and

Elyot,

he was

com?

major

signifi-

verbal

upon

and

of closely

group

not having

work
and

and

play,

pessimistic

great
work
was

Coward's

aesthetic

of the

intent

dramatists

is not so much

but serious,

in other

like Amanda

Pinter's

of philosophical
work and that
Coward's

of chance.

best

is repetitive.
The concept
to be static. In short, there are

aspects

itconveys,comic

in the

Lives

for Living,

acquire

in

and,

like Coward's,

relationship

and

on a small

much

could

phrase

comedies

Design

events

depends

also tends

are all creatures

literature

like Coward's,

playwright

the sense

play?as

major

Fever,

focus
minor

of

makes
human

lives

of his dramas,

points

again

typically

Hay

of each

level

(social

plays

humor,

and the structure

include

also

in whose

characters

cance.

as

would

Pinter's

Spirit),

related

the same

with Private
play of Pinter's bears comparison
Woolf does, but like all of Coward's
or Virginia

(a list which

Blithe

it does:

to all of Coward's

equal
to Private Lives.

particular,

edies

that somehow

except

happens

be applied

al-

its pessimism

after any Coward

that action

isfutile

masterpieces
is anti-heroic

"big romantic
any of it.

and that

of modern
and

anti-

stuff,"

and,

11Quotedin Cole Lesley,RememberedLaughter:

TheLifeof Noel Coward(Knopf,1976), p. 400.

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