| Sir Tom Stoppard, the early plays.8. Dogg's Our | | | | "plank" etc. Stoppard lifts this example straight out of |
| PetBefore looking at one of Sir Tom Stoppard's major | | | | Wittgenstein and puts it on stage. The builder is |
| plays, Travesties (1974), it is worth glancing at his short | | | | working at a school, his assistant being one of the |
| play Dogg's Our Pet (1971) (Revived to support | | | | schoolboys who have a private language of their own. |
| Cahoots Macbeth 1979) in which the basic idea of | | | | (The boys are public school types, and the builder is |
| Travesties is illustrated. Although a very short and | | | | working class, so they are people who 'do not speak |
| simple play Dogg's Our Pet is a useful landmark in the | | | | the same language in more ways than one. This social |
| evolution of Stoppard's ideas about language. His | | | | theme is not developed in this play, but is taken up |
| interest in the way different forms of language have | | | | again and expanded in Professional Foul).Sometimes |
| implicit meanings of their own, distinct from their | | | | when the builder calls out, "plank", "brick" etc. the |
| content, was evident in earlier works, for example, the | | | | appropriate items are thrown to him, but sometimes an |
| contrast between poetry and the speaking clock in If | | | | unexpected item is thrown. It is evident that the boys |
| You're Glad I'll be Frank (1966), and the contrast | | | | have the same words in their vocabulary, but they use |
| between Shakespearean and modern language in | | | | them in a different way. Hayman (R. Hayman: Tom |
| Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966). In | | | | Stoppard: Heinemann) provides a translation: Plank = |
| these cases the different languages reflected different | | | | Here, Slab = Ready, Cube = Thank you etc.The play is |
| 'mentalities' or different approaches to life, and this is | | | | essentially an entertaining puzzle to stimulate the |
| the starting point for Travesties. At the same time | | | | audience into thought about the way we use language. |
| Stoppard has an interest in the philosophy of the | | | | But it also has a significant meaning in that the boys |
| relationship between language and meaning, which is | | | | and the builder, working together, do actually manage |
| the subject matter of Dogg's Our Pet, indicated, for | | | | to construct a platform. Hence although each has a |
| example, by this speech of George's from Jumpers | | | | language of his own and is therefore, to an extent, |
| (1972):'This confusion, which indicates only that | | | | living in a world of his own, their languages and worlds |
| language is an approximation of meaning, and not a | | | | overlap enough for them to communicate and work in |
| logical symbolism for it.' (p.24.)This is the kind of | | | | an intermediary 'real world'. This is the central concept |
| problem Wittgenstein deals with in the first part of his | | | | for understanding Stoppard's major play |
| Philosophical Investigations, and Dogg's Our Pet is | | | | Travesties.Read the full version of this essay at: |
| virtually a dramatisation of the opening paragraph of | | | | Mackean runs the site which features a substantial |
| Philosophical Investigations.Wittgenstein starts by | | | | collection of English Literature Resources and Essays, |
| distinguishing between the meaning of a word, and the | | | | and where his sites on Books Made Into Movies, and |
| way a word is used. One of the examples he uses to | | | | Short Story Writing can also be found. He is the editor |
| illustrate his theory is a builder who is constructing a | | | | of The Essentials of Literature in English post-1914, |
| platform and calls out to his mate, "brick", "block", | | | | published by Hodder Arnold. |