New-York tribune., 1921-08-13
Bv

Conrad, that you have really no cor
rect conception Of tragedy, and that
you are unqualified to judge the works
of Eugene O'Neill. In a recent article
you wish that every young American
playwright had seen the Dempsey
Carpenter fight and 90 on to say
tragedy does not lie in the fsct that
man is small and helpless in the hands
Of fate. The tragic fact is that man
is good enough to win in his inspired
cannot down it,
Seriously, is this not awful bunk
In the first place rocking fate with
right hook to the jaw during inspired
moments is only a gesture, and a ges-
ture is not life, but merely an in
finitesimal part of it. Therefore, how
can a gesture be tragc?'
At this point we must interrupt to
indicate q conflict in opinion. Man
lives by gesture. All the moves by
which we hang on to the world while it
whirls are gestures.
Further" continues Conrad, "the
creation of great gesture depends
upon the creation of an exceptional
character, and Immediately, as my
former professor would say. you have a
false position. 'Camile,' 'Tosca' and
all the plays of Sardou are made of
such spurious stuff On the other
hand tho harOoe or Co~l., .,J w..
mann, Andreyev and ONcill are all
small and helpless in the hands of
fate. Carpenter was romance, Demp-
sey was actuality. Carpenter, the
petted son, went down to slow mum
bers and cheering, but he was still the
legend Too bad that he could not
win! Much pathos. But had the crude,
dislihed, Misunderstood, inarticulats
Dempsey fallen before his rival, that
would have been tragedy of life-not
the fact that he lost, but the sudden
realization that fate had once again
manhandled him, leaving him broken,
deserted and bitter. CARPENTER was
too artificial, prosperous and approved
to be tragic. He could not lose. He
had, of course, a will to win, but com
pared to Dempseys sullen, deliberate,
deep founded determination it was
mean. Here you had Owen Davis
versus the very pith of the drama"
Rudely interrupting again we must
take an exception and state that ac-
corGlng to our observation of
Dempsey he was the most cheerful
feavywelght who ever went into a big
fight. Nor will we abandon our con-
tention that there is a difference be-
tween tragedy and ten-pins This dis
tlnctlon, Of course, is not unknown to
O'Neill or he could hardly have written
THE Emperor Jones" or devised the
fine gesture which surrounds the clos
ing moments of the death of the sailor
IN Bound East for Cardiff" And has
Conrad forgotten that in the original
version of Beyond the Horizon" the
hnal scene was on the road TO the top
CT the hill un which the hero was
crawling when death overlook him
Gesture is universal among mankind.
1t has nothing on earth to do with
greatness OF character. 1t was a ges-
trre for Conrad to write his letter and
gesture fer us to print it, particularly
since he continues:
"As for reviews of O'Neill I confess
| find some of them almost com
ic. You are conscious of the
extraordinary quality of the man. you
are attracted by the raciness of his
dialogue and you are fascinated by the
f'ne charactcrization; vet, damn it, you
wish that he would not be 50 hopeless.
If he would only do morality themes
in the O'Neill manner. But after all
you cannot be expected to appreciate