In this second paper, I have decided to get down to three plays by Tom Stoppard. I have selected to analyse one of the most characteristic topics that I have considered of this author. The topic is the originality within each play and how the main characters are able to perform it, on top of its development in the three plays. One of the most relevant things that the author of these plays wants to transmit to the audience is incredulity and surprise with a good dose of humour, too. I will try to show how Tom Stoppard gets his audience to be impressed.

First, I am going to analyse the play "if you are glad, I'll be Frank". This play was written by Tom Stoppard in 1966. The main topic in the play is not politics, wars, high status, richness or poverty. What the author wants to point out is "time's progress". It is something new. He does not represent a social topic. He represents this topic, which is inside our society, our world, but it is something that we forget every day. It is like if people had assumed this fact, like if we depended on our own time. The sentence that affirms what I try to say is the following one, which is performed by Gladys:

-"...because they don't know what time is. They haven't experienced the silence in which it passes impartial disinterested godlike. Because they didn't invent it at all. They only invented the clock".

Gladys is "the speaking clock". She is the only one who is conscious of that. This is the reality: people do not think about time. Time passes, one day slowly, another day quickly, but it never stops, and she is caught inside this time clock. "Clock is made for a man, and not man for the clock".

Second, the next play is "The Real Inspector Hound".

This second play was written in 1968. Tom Stoppard deals again with another original aspect: two performers of this play are theatre critics. It is the theme of "a play within a play". These two performers are Moon and Birdboot. They are sitting among the audience. They are watching the play and suddenly, after a call, which Birdboot answers, he finds himself locked into the plot of the play. In this case, we can see the evolution that Tom Stoppard experiments. This plot is much more original. Here, It does not deal with the existence of the man. Furthermore, this originality makes the play to be loaded of intrigue. Therefore, it appears as a detective story. The dialogue of the rest of the performers is very familiar. They use colloquial expressions like this, said by Magnus:

-" There's an old Canadian proverb handed down from the Bladfoot Indians, which says: he who laughs last laughs longest ".

Third, the last play to be analysed is " Dirty Linen". This play was written in 1976. In this play, Stoppard wants to transmit to the audience a joke about politics. They are naked. He wants to bring out the corruption in this context. It has the best original plot to include one of the most important aspects in theatre: humour. It is the most original characteristic of the play. This characteristic can be found in the following conversation between Mcteazle and Maddie:

Mcteazle: The Coq d'Or and the Golden Ox, Not the Golden Cock and the Old Door.

Maddie: Not the Golden Cock and the Old Door but the Golden Ox and the Coq d'Or.

Mcteazle: And don't forget: Charing Cross.

Maddie: Don't forget Charing Cross.

Mcteazle: I mean forget Charing Cross.

Maddie: Forget Charing Cross.

Mcteazle: Plucky girl

Maddie: Plucky girl-Charing cross-Olden cocks.

Mcteazle: But not with me.

Maddie: Not with Jock at the Old Cocks.

It is totally a farce. We can point out its dynamism and its extravagance. It s quite funny to see how Maddie repeats what men say to her during all the play.

In conclusion, we can see some original characteristics in three plays and each one of them is different. From my point of view, they have got the essential to catch the audience's attention: originality, intrigue, humour and dynamism. Originality in each play is different, but they always have got something important to impress on and please their public.

Bibliography

The information of this paper has been obtained from the plays.