“I’m extremely interested in science, sir.”
The long opening scene of a conversation between Taplow and an instructor who is not actually one of his own teachers is the key to understanding everything which unfolds in the narrative following it. What is fascinating, however, is that there is not really any particular bit of content which is exchanged between the two characters that is fundamentally essential. Rather it is the subtext of what is taking place and that subtext only comes into focus upon learning further information provided by other characters. One particularly significant example is Taplow’s assertion here which at the time does not seem to carry any kind of import at all. In fact, as with so much of the rest of the dialogue in this opening sequence, the assertion seems to be just conversational small talk. Once the implication of how flattery and social insinuation is a vital element to students succeeding in the school is made clear, however, much of what Taplow says in the scene begins looming much larger over how the story playing out.
“She’s evil.”
It takes some time for Hunter to discover this truth, but then it must be true what they say: evil could not persist in the world did it not have the ability to take on many disguises. One of the disguises is as a put-upon wife of a humorless, boring, dried-out old man. Much of the dialogue in this play is cryptic in the sense that it may be a revelation, it may be a revelation disguised as a mundane statement, it may be someone lying on purpose or it may be someone who is lying about lying. Few single statements are, indeed, absolutely true on every level. Frank’s observation of Mrs. Crocker-Harris—the woman with whom he’s having an affair—only comes after being exposed to the real thing hiding beneath the disguise. What he says is true, perhaps even understated.
“Yesterday, I looked for the manuscript while I was packing my papers. I was unable to find it. I fear it is lost—like so many other things. Lost for good.”
Taplow has come to the instructor’s home to try to wrangle a higher final grade with extra credit work translation Agamemnon. Things are going well-enough, but hardly perfectly, when Andrew emotionally recalls having written an entire translation in verse when he was younger. Taplow responds obsequiously with the suggestion it must have been quite an undertaking and goes on to ask if his teacher ever published it. Clearly already worked up emotionally, the teacher responds wistfully to his student about lost things. After being interrupted by the headmaster, Taplow excuses himself from the Crocker-Harris home for some time and when he returns—lo and behold—he has brought with him a copy of Robert Browning’s version of the verse translation. Which—amazingly!—he has taken the time to inscribe with a personal greeting of a quote written in Greek. A quote that—startlingly—to god looking over gentle masters. This is one of those cases where dialogue gets cryptic because when Taplow hands the older man the book, his responses and behavior suggest—though it is never directly confirmed—that this book just may possibly have been purchased within on the spur of the moment between the time Andrew began getting emotional and the time Taplow returned with what is presumed to be a gift given some more seriously consideration before purchasing.
“Come along, my dear. We mustn’t let out dinner get cold.”
MILLIE slow sits and begins to serve dinner.
With these words and this stage directions, the play comes to an end. What started out as an informal conversation between two guests alone in a room inside the home of other characters ends with those two characters sitting down to enjoy a hot home-cooked meal. In between, a world exploded. The play is, in its way, almost as violent as a Martin Scorsese drama. Voices are never raised, punches are not thrown and the text is amazingly light on exclamation points. Nevertheless, as the story progresses forward, the stage becomes a setting for rage, recrimination, repulsive emotional abuse, obsequious currying of favors, bribery, authoritarian pressure, illicit sexual relationships and very nearly one complete emotional meltdown. Attending a performance of this play is much a decision to witness violence on stage, but violence that at all times observes British decorum, even as it violates proper codes of visitor etiquette and domestic conduct.
