Chapter XIII: Contrasts

It is because contrasts are a distinct feature of literature that it is well to make the study of them and their vocal presentation a feature of the reading course. It is understood, of course, that the teacher must use his discretion as to the time when the definite study of contrasts should be undertaken; but when clearly presented and discriminatingly illustrated, even young children can be led to perceive the artistic value of contrast, to enjoy it as art, and to manifest their appreciation of it in their reading. It should not be difficult to show young children that Cinderella’s character is made to appear more lovable because it is set over against those of her sisters. Children enjoy such effects as well as adults, when pleasantly and suggestively presented to them.

In literature there are found illustrations of contrast upon every page. There are contrasts of ideas, contrasts of emotions, contrasts of scenes, contrasts of characters, and many others. Under the head of “The Central Idea” will be found numerous examples of the first class. We shall here consider a few illustrations of the other classes, while in later pages will be found illustrations for more extended study.

Contrast of emotion is admirably illustrated in the following scene from _The Merchant of Venice_, Act iii., Sc. 1:

SHYLOCK. How now, Tubal! what news from Genoa? hast thou found my
daughter?

TUBAL. I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her.

SHYLOCK. Why there, there, there, there! a diamond gone, cost me
two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse never fell upon our
nation till now; I never felt it till now:--two thousand ducats
in that; and other precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter
were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear! would she were
hearsed at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of
them? Why so;--and I know not what’s spent in the search: why,
thou loss upon loss! the thief gone with so much, and so much
to find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge: nor no ill
luck stirring but what lights on my shoulders; no sighs but of my
breathing; no tears but of my shedding.

TUBAL. Yes, other men have ill luck too. Antonio, as I heard in
Genoa,--

SHYLOCK. What, what, what? ill luck, ill luck?

TUBAL. Hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis.

SHYLOCK. I thank God, I thank God! Is it true, is it true?

TUBAL. I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.

SHYLOCK. I thank thee, good Tubal. Good news, good news! ha,
ha!--Where? in Genoa?

TUBAL. Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night
fourscore ducats.

SHYLOCK. Thou stick’st a dagger in me; I shall never see my gold
again. Fourscore ducats at a sitting! fourscore ducats!

TUBAL. There came divers of Antonio’s creditors in my company to
Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break.

SHYLOCK. I am very glad of it: I’ll plague him; I’ll torture him:
I am glad of it.

TUBAL. One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter
for a monkey.

SHYLOCK. Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was my
turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not
have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.

TUBAL. But Antonio is certainly undone.

SHYLOCK. Nay, that’s true, that’s very true. Go, Tubal, fee me an
officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I will have the heart of
him, if he forfeit; for, were he out of Venice, I can make what
merchandise I will. Go, go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue;
go, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.

We cannot fail to remark how the contrast between Shylock’s emotions (when bemoaning the loss of his ducats at one moment, and cursing the daughter who has robbed him and eloped with a Christian at another) serves to bring out his peculiar character.

Contrast of character is brought out in every great play. Horatio and Hamlet, Cordelia and her sisters, Macbeth and his wife, suggest themselves as examples. The third act of _King Lear_, where the jester’s jibes are interpolated between the fearful outbursts of the king, is a striking example of character, as well as of emotional contrast.

It may be well to remark that the two parts of a contrast do not always occur in succession. Do not the last three or four speeches of Shylock depend, for their effect, upon the keeping in mind by the audience of his emotions and bearing during the former scenes? Let the audience forget these, and they have lost a most significant æsthetic detail. Similarly, when King Robert utters the speech beginning, “Thou knowest best,” the whole effect is lost unless we bear in mind that never for three years has his answer to the angel’s question been other than, “I am, I am the king.”

The following examples will afford good practice:

Sheltered by the verdant shores, an hundred triremes were riding
proudly at their anchors, their brazen beaks glittering in the
sun, their streamers dancing in the morning breeze, while many a
shattered plank and timber gave evidence of desperate conflicts
with the fleets of Rome.--_Regulus to the Carthaginians._ KELLOGG.

The multitude swayed to and fro like a forest beneath a tempest,
and the rage and hate of that tumultuous throng vented itself in
groans, and curses, and yells of vengeance. But calm, cold and
immovable as the marble walls around him stood the Roman.--_Ibid._

If there be three in all your company dare face me on the bloody
sands, let them come on. And yet I was not always thus, a hired
butcher, a savage chief of still more savage men! My ancestors
came from old Sparta, and settled among the vine-clad rocks
and citron groves of Syrasella. My early life ran quiet as
the brooks by which I sported; and when at noon I gathered the
sheep beneath the shade, and played upon the shepherd’s flute,
there was a friend to join me in the pastime.... One evening, my
grandsire, an old man, was telling of Marathon and Leuctra, and
how, in ancient times, a little band of Spartans, in a defile of
the mountains, had withstood a whole army. I did not then know
what war was; but my cheeks burned, and I clasped the knees of
that venerable man, until my mother, parting the hair from off
my forehead, kissed my throbbing temples and bade me go to rest,
and think no more of those old tales and savage wars. That very
night the Romans landed on our coast. I saw the breast that had
nourished me trampled by the hoof of the war-horse, and the
bleeding body of my father flung amidst the blazing rafters of
our dwelling!--_Spartacus._ KELLOGG.

O Rome, Rome, thou hast been a tender nurse to me! Ay, thou hast
given to that poor, gentle, timid shepherd lad, who never knew a
harsher tone than a flute note, muscles of iron and a heart of
flint; taught him to gaze into the glaring eyeballs of the fierce
Numidian lion, even as a boy upon a laughing girl.--_Ibid._

The shouts of revelry had died away.-_Ibid._

The roar of the lion had ceased.--_Ibid._

You all do know this mantle: I remember
The first time ever Caesar put it on;
’Twas on a summer’s evening in his tent,
That day he overcame the Nervii.
Look! in this place ran Cassius’ dagger through.

--_Julius Caesar_, Act iii., Sc. 2.

The selection entitled the “Choric Song,” a part of Tennyson’s _The Lotos-Eaters_, is a fine study in contrast. The speakers are the followers of Ulysses, who are debating whether they shall remain in this new found land of the Lotos or return to their homes. The first, third, fifth, and seventh stanzas are in striking contrast to the others. The feelings of the sailors as they alternately contemplate their life as it is and has been, in contrast with what it might be should they remain here, are strikingly depicted.

The subject of contrasts may be presented to the class in some such manner as the following:

Have you not noticed how much brighter the sunlight seems to
be after a thunder-shower? how keenly we enjoy a victory after
defeat seems certain? Why is this? Because the clouds by their
blackness make us appreciate the sunlight; and the fear of losing
the contest makes us doubly glad when we win. If we had sunshine
all the time, how monotonous it would be, and how little we
should notice it! And you must see that if the other side in
a contest were very weak, we should not derive much pleasure
from the outcome. All nature is full of these contrasts: joy
and sorrow, light and darkness, success and failure, are always
around us. So literature, which deals with nature, contains these
contrasts, too.

In literature, the contrast is used to impress upon us some
idea or picture more completely than could be done by merely
describing it. This is done by placing before us the idea and its
opposite: it is like placing a dark screen behind a white marble
statue. This being so, we can easily see how necessary it is for
us to recognize these contrasts in order that we may present them
with our voices to the listeners.

Let us take a few simple examples. Our grandparents tell us
that it took them sixty days to cross the ocean from England to
America; and now, we know, it takes but six. The best way to show
how great an advance this century has made in boat-building would
be by contrasting the past and the present. We might say: “It
took my grandparents sixty days, in a sailing vessel, to cross
the ocean, but now we go by steam in six.”

Again: “Last week I was sleighing and skating in Minneapolis;
but to-day I am plucking violets and japonicas in the gardens of
Savannah.”

In both examples you observe that the concluding idea of the
sentence is made more striking because of the contrast it makes
with the first part. Be sure to bear this in mind. A contrast is
made up of two ideas, and you must have both of them in mind or
your reading will be a failure. Do you not see that this is true?
If you were to say “I am plucking violets in Savannah to-day,”
there would be very little emotion shown in your voice: you would
be making just an ordinary statement. But if you were thinking of
the great change you had made; how strange it was that you should
be in the midst of winter one week and in the midst of spring the
next, then the contrast would be such a pleasant one that your
voice would be full of joy, and your joy would be largely the
result of the contrast. If you had violets all the year round,
perhaps you would hardly notice them.

Here are two more examples of contrast, more difficult to
express, but more beautiful than the others.

Imagine a noble warrior whose whole life is devoted to good
deeds. Imagine him as he speaks the following words descriptive
of the old time tournament. Then imagine how grateful he would
feel for the relief after the fierce struggle, a relief so
beautifully described by the author:

My good blade carves the casques of men,
My tough lance thrusteth sure,
My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure.
The shattering trumpet shrilleth high,
The hard brands shiver on the steel,
The splintered spear-shafts crack and fly,
The horse and rider reel.
They reel, they roll, in clanging lists,
And when the tide of combat stands,
Perfume and flowers fall in showers,
That lightly rain from ladies’ hands.

--_Sir Galahad._ TENNYSON.

In this next example, we have the picture of a king who is
punished for his pride by being deprived of all his power,
wealth, and friends. See how powerful the contrast he makes as
he, who should be master, rides in mock state amid the splendor
of his courtiers. The word “he” in the first line does not refer
to the king, but to another.

Then he departed with them o’er the sea,
Into the lovely land of Italy,
Whose loveliness was more resplendent made
By the mere passing of that cavalcade,
With plumes, and cloaks, and housings, and the stir
Of jeweled bridle and of golden spur.
And lo! among the menials, in mock state,
Upon a piebald steed, with shambling gait,
His cloak of foxtails flapping in the wind,
The solemn ape demurely perched behind,
King Robert rode, making huge merriment
In all the country towns through which they went.

--_King Robert of Sicily._ LONGFELLOW.

Let us remember that contrasts are of two kinds: logical and emotional. The former are largely antitheses, such as “I said John, not Charles,” and will need but casual attention. The pupils will perceive them without difficulty. The other class need much care. Perhaps the most important fact that the teacher must bear in mind concerning these, is that their successful rendition depends upon the pupils’ keeping both parts of the contrasts in mind, _the first serving as a background, or relief, for the second_. Just as contrasts in literature afford variety and relief, so the reading aloud of contrasts gives great variety in vocal expression.