The New York herald., 1921-07-03

also lays bare the unavoidable pathetic mall
adjustments inherent in life itself
If we conceive of Liliom as a social misht,
out of key with his environment. wronged
by society from the very start, it will be
comparatively easy to pass over into the
reason for his emotional dumbness. Society
has thwarted and warped the normal ex-
preston of the man. Thus while he loves
Julie, he beats her.
Liliom's tragedy, leaving society far to the
rear, closes finally with life itself, and the
play scars to a pitch of high eminence be-
cause it's ironical commentary is not entirely
restricted to society but reaches out to
broader aspects of mans sojourn on earth.
This is made plain in the heavenly police
court where we see enacted the cynical
drama of mans unconscious wishes and. In
particular the wish for one more chance to
perform the deed that has been frustrated or
otherwise unfulflled We all know how
whimsicaly, how daintily Barrie treated this
Identical idea in Dear Brutus." But Mol
mar for once surpasses the inimitable Barrie
by his fiamelke vision and tender irony.
Barries people, when the second chance
comes, do not take advantage of their new
opportunities. They commit the selfsame
mistakes and tread the same regretful paths.
But note how Molnar handles practically
the same situation.
In the first place, according to the ruling
Of the heavenly police court, Liliom is sorely
in need Of purging by fire. He goes through
the ordeal and at last-the magistrate was
indeed godlike in the fulness of his vision
he emerges Strengthened out emotionally,
familiar with the soft purity of his inmost
feelings and thoughts and able now to afford
them crystal clear utterance. He cannot
forget that he is father; too long he has
been an ungrateful one. and so, to make
eternal amends, he purloins star from the
vault Of heaven to give to his little daughter.
A shining white star from heaven! At long
last the gutter born outcast, the social mis-
fit has mastered the highborn, swift language
of the heart; he has harmonzed his inner
most being; no sooner is the generous i'm
pulse born than 1t finds it's most apt investi
ture in action. The inner conflict is vanished
away.
Liom returns to earth and finds his
daughter and her mother dwelling quietly
alone. He offers his little girl, whom he now
sees for the first time. the silver booty which
hei daringly plucked from out of the blue
sphere while passing through. And his
daughter, growing afraid. retreats away
from him. failing to read his beautiful aspira-
tion What could be more tragic, more
moving than this scene? To the heart 1t
is achingly deep. to the mind shatterng in
its lofty conception The meaningless trag-
edy of it all. Here Liiom had gone through
we know not what agony of fiery purgation
that he might command, in all the beauty Of
its just correspondence of motive and be-
havor, the mother-tongue of brimming sem
timent. And he has achieved 1t at last!
But 1t Is In It's texture so pure, so subtle and
stripped of dross so delicately evanescent,
that no earthly being. not even his flesh and
blood daughter. can be made to understand
1t. And so she scorns that sanity phrase
the shining star which he takes out of his
pocket for her. Then follows the old throw
back in momentary access of anger he
slaps her as he had slapped his wife when he
was alive on earth. intellectually, I dare
say, the reader as we'll as the playgoer is left
in deep quandary at this point. But Molnar
offers us a clue out of the labyrinth.
Whether emotions are accurately expressed
or not, he seems to say, they are always
beautiful always exalted. jules last words
lnger in the mind. long after a good deal
else Is forgotten:
ut Is possible. dear, that some one may
beat you and beat you and not hurt you
at all"