Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)

STUDIES - Judit Kádár: The Figure of 'Everyclown'in Jack Richardson's Gallows Humour

2.2. Conclusion The mechanism of Richardson's drama-technique, his peculiar clownery is much the same as Winston describes Breton's humor noir. "...He attempts to bring his audience into the same position he occupies by threatening and horrifying it and then undercutting its fear by some witty or comic turn" (270). However, in Richardson's play we are not released in this sense; the ending is a happy one only for Martha. Through the example of Everyclown (the Pierrot-like sad clown in all of us) our attention is called to the individual's effort and opportunity, the responsibility of missing the chance to change for better. Though skeptical in its final conclusion of the play, the authorial intention and the effect is revolting for humanistic reasons. We are tossed into the need of seeing clearer and making a choice as a playwright claims at the end of the Prologue: That one-time basic distinction between the quick and the dead has became far too abstract today for one with my earthbound mind, and this fundamental confusion was, I fear, showing up in my performances. For even on the stage, in a play darkened by the shadow of gallows, I, so perfectly at home in such a setting, now find it difficult, with my ancient eyes, to tell the hangman from the hanged. / hope, for my future and peace of mind, that you, the author's contemporaries, do not (GH 71) 59