The Contrast by Royal Tyler

888 Words2 Pages

The contrast was written by Royal Tyler. Royall Tyler (1757–1826) “was born in Boston, studied law at Harvard, and then served in the army before writing The Contrast” ( n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013). He was American jurist and playwright who wrote The Contrast in 1787. The setting of the play is in “New York and its upper-class society”. It is an American play inspired by Richard Sheridan’s “The School for Scandal”, he was so inspired by this show that he wrote his own play “The contrast in three weeks”. Both of these stories use differences as its main tool to satirize. These two stories are completed in five acts. What the play does for modern readers is that it keeps entreating us, and gives us an idea about the life in seventeenth century when this play was written. The Contrast is the first comedy written by an American citizen that was performed in public by a company of professional actors. This frolic is truly a difference of the variety which exists from people to people, from the players to the lovers, and the imitators to the genuine. The play has a lot of contrasts representing a bigger concern on the past and traditional background of Europe and America. There is also another contrast in this play which is the contrast between the characterization of male and female characters in the story. The female casts of the story, in contrast to the male casts, are described as subjects of oppression. The gender-based difference shows alignment to the male casts suggesting alignment to the masculine discourse of socio-cultural economy.
As its title suggests, contrast is the detail principle behind the play. The central contrast is one between European fashionable, a result of luxury, and American frankness, a result of moderation ...

... middle of paper ...

...l as La Rue. The stories also have sub-plots without a clear purpose: the Rowson revels not only of Charlotte's parents, but also about her grandparents as well; on the other hand Tyler's play has several scenes in concerning a love triangle with the servants. Both of the stories show father-daughter relationship. The Contrast is a play, which allows the audience to see the action, on other hand Charlotte is a novel, which gives the reader a glance at the characters' thoughts. Charlotte's situation is written as form of a lesson that not to love or trust someone so easily, while The Contrast was written for entertainment and inspire us to love. Manly and Maria truly love each other, while Montraville and Charlotte didn’t. The play Contrast ends happily, on the other hand Charlotte Temple's destiny is somewhat sad, but she gets a second chance through her daughter.

Open Document