But
remember that it is not sufficient to avoid "crime without motive;"
the motive must be one which will, after the crime has been committed,
leave no doubt in the mind of the spectator that the crime was
virtually inevitable, if not absolutely unavoidable. If it is the hero
of the story who commits the crime, the very greatest care must be
taken to show that he had a really powerful motive for his act, if he
is to have the sympathy--though not the approval--of the audience
after yielding to temptation.[29] This, of course, does not refer to
deeds of violence which are really not only excusable but actually
right, in the circumstances--like the killing of an attacking
desperado in self-defense.
[Footnote 29: To make this basic motive clear, natural and unforced is
what we call good motivation in fiction and drama.]
As an example of the point we are trying to emphasize, take a story
like "The Bells," the play in which Sir Henry Irving appeared so
often. Mathias the innkeeper, who later became the Burgomaster, was a
character, who, by reason of Irving's superb art, won and held the
sympathies of the audience from the start. Yet after Mathias had
murdered the Polish Jew and robbed him of his belt of gold, even the
art of Irving could not have made us sympathize with the character had
we not been shown that Mathias was urged on to his crime--a crime for
which he was constantly tortured ever afterward, and which occasioned
his tragic death--by two very compelling motives.
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