YHB was thinking, today, about the differences between Rich Alfie and Poor Alfie. Poor Alfie comes in with the potential of causing real trouble. It\u2019s a plot point: before we can really settle down to Eliza\u2019s education, we have to know that the Old Life won\u2019t be rearing it\u2019s head. As you might expect it to, if you didn\u2019t know the show. In fact, that would be the more usual sort of thing, with the battle between her Old Life and her New Life, reconciling the two, blah blah blah, we\u2019ve seen that movie before. No, Shaw isn\u2019t interested in that as a character study. He wants Eliza thrown into the new life with a clean break. Poor Alfie\u2019s scene, where he is bought off with a five pound note, makes that clear.
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Rich Alfie, on the other hand, is closer to comic relief. It\u2019s pointed comic relief—everything Shaw does is pointed, even when it\u2019s dull—but it isn\u2019t necessary from the plot point of view. Oh, I suppose it clears up whether Eliza will be forced<\/I> to stay with Higgins, but there are so many options available to her that I doubt any theatergoer, even if unfamiliar with the play in any of its forms, would get to Rich Alfie\u2019s scene with any question about that.
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So he serves different purposes in the two scenes. And he has also changed quite a bit. He\u2019s had a harrowing experience, and although Shaw\u2019s interminable who-does-what-afterwards essay indicates that he recovers from his sudden prosperity, I am not playing it that way, and I don\u2019t think you need to. I think Alfie really is broken by middle-class morality, and he spends the rest of his years, probably not many of them, straightjacketed and morose. \u201cHappier men than me will call for my dust, and touch me for their tip; and I\u2019ll look on helpless, and envy them.\u201d That\u2019s one of the lines that\u2019s been cut from our playing script, but that\u2019s my image of his life after the play.
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During the play, however, he\u2019s still kicking against the pricks, which is what makes the scene funny. Or, rather, he\u2019s caught between his rage and his helplessness, and he\u2019s wearing respectability like a choking necktie. My favorite bits are where he tries, pathetically, to adopt the middle-class mannerisms that are now incumbent on him. I\u2019m itching to get my hands on the hat. That\u2019ll be the real focus. What do you do with a top hat? He won\u2019t have worn one in his life (not whilst sober, anyway, although he may have pinched one from a pre-dawn staggering Algie or Rupert at some point), and he\u2019ll vague know about taking it off indoors and tipping it to ladies, and all, but it\u2019ll all be new. And besides, he\u2019s got to keep it clean and tidy for the wedding. If I can manage it, that hat will be his cage and handcuffs and his red rubber nose, all in one.
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Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus<\/I>,
-Vardibidian.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Which Your Humble Blogger would indeed be hhhhhhonored by your condescension, ma’am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[209],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theeyater"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18424,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11288\/revisions\/18424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}