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Felicity: It should like the cry over a gigantic hound… Mrs. Drudge: Inspector Hound Cynthia: A police dog? (26) Or: Cynthia: Thank you so much for coming. Hound: Not at all. You never know, there might have been serious matter. Cynthia: Drink? Hound: more serious than that even. Stoppard’s use of silences constructs a more optimistic world view expressed in his plays. He says more with his silences than with all his witty dialogue. Silence is full of words. Esslin (1982) in Theater of Absurd, remarks that “the meaning of the words spoken in drama, in the last analysis, derives from a consideration of who does what with those words to whom under which circumstances” (86). Thus, meaning and situation are related to each other. Random meaning and selective language illustrate some sort of differences between the stage-world and the world of the spectators. 1.1. Repetition in The Real Inspector Hound “Where’s Higgs?”(5) is repeated on many occasions to establish the comic situation. Birdboot repeats that he is “a man of scrupulous integrity,” (10). “I’m a man of my scrupulous morality “(8). However his actions suggest something else. Cynthia repeats this sentence several times, “Don’t, I love Albert” (23). “Moon: Sometimes I dream that I’ve killed him. Birdboot: what? Moon: what?” (29). “Moon: I think we are entitled to ask” (31).There is no purpose in repeating the sentences more and more. The more words are repeated the deeper gap between characters appears. 2. Witty Language According to Tim Brassell (1985) , “Stoppard utilizes the audience and the critics’ idea of humor in two distinct forms: humor as a theoretical concept, and humor as a part of the stage, or as part of the performative dimension in the text on stage” (2). In other words, the audience defines humor as something that makes us laugh while the players define humor as the use of language that stimulates laughter. Nevertheless, Stoppard in The Real Inspector Hound uses images of humor in his play-within-the play comedy to convey the audience how witty language of detective fiction makes certain situations to be funny to the audience. In his book, On Humor, Simon Critchley (2002) believes that humor occurs when we both fully understand and follow the rules in society (67). He states that, “Humor is produced by a disjunction between the way things are and the way they are represented in a joke, between expectation and actuality” (22). A good example for witty language is Simon, who also plays as Birdboot in The Real Inspector Hound, when questions Mrs. Drudge that country people in Muldoon Manor do not really care or know much about the weather in their country. Stoppard writes: Simon: I say, it’s wonderful how you country people really know the weather. Mrs. Drudge: know whether what? (12). Stoppard writes these two above lines to convey humor between Simon and Mrs. Drudge by witty metaphoric language. Throughout Mrs. Drudge confusion with Simon’s bold statement, Stoppard tries to show how these two lines about the weather are meant to be funny to the characters as well as the audience. Thus, Stoppard in The Real Inspector Hound uses images of humor in his play-within-the play comedy to convey witty metaphoric language to the audience and make it funny. 2.1. Metaphor in The Real Inspector Hound Metaphor is a turning away from literal language to figurative language. The present article seeks different kinds of metaphors and their processes in the following. 2.2. Simple Metaphor in The Real Inspector Hound In order to demonstrate what is meant by a Simple metaphor, the present article refers to a statement made by the Inspector. He notes that “words can be your friend or your enemy” (59). The construction of this metaphor indicates a basic process, one very close to the definition of metaphor as a tuning-away from literal 583
language to figurative language. Words, instead of operating as lexical units, have the qualities of a friend or enemy bestowed upon them. The metaphor is direct and to the point. It is necessary to distinguish between parts of language that give rise to confusion and parts of metaphor construction that permit complication. In the previous example, complication actually arose from an association on the level of language: one had to determine whether or not literature and religion were dead: the metaphor was almost a secondary concern. Since the article is dealing with simple metaphors, it is intended to clarify the ways in which the transfer of qualities can become complicated. A brief passage from play illustrates the point: HOUND. Please, Lady Cynthia. we are al1 in this together. I must ask you to put yourself completely in my hands. CYNTHIA. Don't. Inspector. I love Albert. HOUND. I don't think you quite grasp my meaning. (28). The kind of metaphor expressed in these lines “put yourself completely in my hands” is simple, but Cynthia does not realize that a turning-away has taken place. In The Real Inspector Hound, the metaphorically named Mrs. Drudge “the Help” (12). Here, is given the task of creating an image which evokes Lady Muldoon's country residence: “The fog is very treacherous around here; it rolls off the sea without warning. Shrouding the cliffs in a deadly mantle of blind man’s bluff” (12). This is figurative language, fog does not literally “roll” or “shroud' things. There is the possibility that wit may arise from the pun on “bluff”, referred to here as a children's game, but also generating associations with “bluff” as a cliff or hill, like those around the Muldoon residence. Why is this metaphor not witty? This simple metaphor cannot be witty. First, there is no great intellectual faculty at work to associate fog with a rolling or shrouding action. There is no sense of play in the metaphor, and the double meaning of “bluff” can be dismissed as a common joke technique. Second, the economy transference process does not suggest wit. Mrs. Drudge could easily said, “The fog is thick”, but she exaggerates the fog’s effect in order to make laugh. As the reader mentions, simple metaphor is not witty because the process of transference is simple. 2.3. Complex Metaphor in The Real Inspector Hound Transference process in complex metaphor is complicated. It adds delay to the completion of the transference. Thus, it is not direct due to interference. The following example is a complex metaphor.”Inspector: Yes, one of them can read and the other one can write. That's why we go around in threes I have to keep an eye on those bloody intellectuals.” (59) Customarily, a person who can read or write is not considered to be an “intellectual”. Superlative abilities in these fields constitute intellectualism. However, these men are intellectuals according to the Inspector; the statement may be true for him. The metaphor constructor and metaphor receiver may not agree on the term which the metaphor is created. There is no consent or awareness between them. The present article takes as examples two statements made by Birdboot in The Real Inspector hound: BIRDBOOT: You mean Myrtle! She means nothing to me-nothing!-shets all cocoa and blue nylon fur slippers--not a spark of creative genius in her whole dumping knee-lengthknackered body (35). BIRDBOOT: Al1 right! I love your little pink ears and you are my own fluffy bunny-boo- (p.32). One would be hard-pressed to deny the humor in picturing a human being as cocoa and fur slippers. However, wit is also generated by the interference of context in the metaphor. What if Birdboot were talking to a rabbit with little pink ears? Idea is certainly farfetched. The audience cannot accept it easily. This expression is inappropriate for a husband to express. Thus, they are witty metaphors. The speeches in which Birdboot speaks to Myrtle on the phone also demonstrate the significance of appropriateness versus inappropriateness to the classification of a metaphor as witty. It is unlikely that one would maintain the proper time and place for public displays of affection. Birdboot gives a similar carelessness when discussing the outcome of the mystery play when he and Moon have come to see: “(looking after FELICIT), Red herring-smell it a mile off” (38). Felicity may indeed be a phony character used to throw the audience off the 584
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