Lionel Abel
THE HERO OF METATHEATER
We speak of the "hero of tragedy" as if we had at hand
some notion - clear or unclear - as to the kind of individual who be–
comes known to us in an action we can call "tragic"; in a work based
essentially on the plays of Sophocles, Bernard Knox has even char–
acterized such individuals as being of "heroic temper." I like
Mr. Knox's term; it correctly describes those figures who satisfy us
with the attitude they take when resolved to act at the cost of suffer–
ing.
If
they do not altogether satisfy us in this respect - certain char–
acters of plays known to us as tragedies do not - by this fact alone
they cast doubt on the nature of the drama which shows them forth.!
It
has been alleged that the dramas they appear in - however catas–
trophic, however designated by the author- are not "true" tragedies.
Now it has been my claim that there is a form of drama distinc–
tive enough to be characterized as "metatheater."2 Can it also be
said that a particular type of individual may be singled out as the
likely or even paradigmatic protagonist in such a dramatic work?
But let me first of all ask this: can the heroes of metatheater–
assuming there to be such - be said to have the same
temper
as heroes
of tragedy? My answer: they mayor may not have the qualities
claimed for the heroes of tragedy, which brings me to the question I
have been leading up to all along: What are the qualities which a
character
has
to possess to be a hero of metatheater?
I have chosen as my paradigmatic metatheatrical figure not a
character from some work written for the stage, but one taken from a
novel, the first of its kind, and written by a novelist who had pre–
viously failed as a playwright. I have chosen Don Quixote to repre–
sent the character traits especially
appropriate
to the metatheatrical
hero, as well as those which are
essential
to him.
What is essential for the hero of metatheater is that he be con–
scious of the part he himself plays in constructing the drama that un–
folds around him. He may, like Don Quixote, have foisted on the
scene the action in which he is caught, and in which he can no more
hope to be successful than if he had been thrust into it against his
1. Hamlet, for example.
2. See my book
Metatheater
(New York: Hill and Wang), 1963.
