Drama: Inner Seas in the Tragedies of Baillie and Harpur

In this chapter, I present a new theory of Romantic tragedy with the contingent self as its basis. The modern theory of Romantic tragedy has been strongly influenced by Hegel, who argued that Romantic (or Shakespearean) tragedy was essentially ‘subjective’, as opposed to the ‘objective’ tragedies of Ancient Greece. The theory of subjective tragedy contributed to the neglect of Romantic tragedy by scholars in the twentieth century. According to the influential account of George Steiner, the subjectivity of Romantic tragedy ‘closed the gates of hell’ and killed tragedy for the modern stage. Since the 1980s, scholars have renewed their attention to Romantic tragedy, but the old theory of subjective tragedy inherited from Hegel has not been adequately critiqued. I perform this critique, drawing on the theory and practice of Joanna Baillie and Charles Harpur, two of the most inventive tragedians of the Romantic period. In Sect. 5.1, I examine their theoretical writings on tragedy, comparing them with the tragic theory of Arthur Schopenhauer. I demonstrate that the distinction between ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ tragedy was internal to Romanticism and demonstrate the connection between subjective tragedy and the contingent self. In Sect. 5.2, I examine the settings of Baillie’s Orra (1812) and The Dream (1812) and Harpur’s The Bushrangers (1853, orig. 1835). Using character network analysis, I show how Baillie and Harpur construct their settings to portray different kinds of contingent selves. In Sect. 5.3, I analyse Baillie and Harpur’s imagery to reveal the ‘metaphysic of passion’ that underlies their subjective tragedies. In sum, Harpur presents his protagonist as a multiplicity who inhabits a multiverse of social worlds, while Baillie portrays her protagonists as monsters whose passions exceed the logic of representation. I conclude that Romantic tragedy is far more various than the standard theory allows. Romanticism is not inherently comedic—in fact, Romantic writers experimented with many different kinds of tragic writing, including an ‘objective’ kind that represents the necessary self.