Two-Handers

Stories that actually contain only a single character are extremely rare. Even a monologue character play will usually contain at least one other virtual character, however slimly developed, in order to provide some sort of archetypal conflict. In rare cases, this character may not be a human being, but an anthropomorphised landscape, or disease, or some other inanimate object that takes on a bevy of archetypal characteristics that allow it to fulfill the functions ordinarily ascribed to human agents. This, however, is rare. Most stories involve at least two people (or two anthropomorphic frogs, or a Rat and a Mole who wear trousers and row boats.)

The simplest stories are those that involve only two characters. Often these stories occur outside of the literary genres – a dance duet, for example, might express the arhetypal relationship of the Hero and the Lover. This does not mean that the love duet in a ballet is doomed always to look more or less the same with minor variations: the dance of the Prince and the Princess will look very different from the dance of the Coward and the Whore.

Essentially, there are seven possible two-handed plots. The Romance: Hero and Lover; the Heroic Conflict: Hero and Villain; the Tragedy: Hero and Nemesis; the Friendship Story: Hero and Sidekick; the Tale of Unrequited Love: Hero and Hapless Lover; the Tale of Rivalry: Hero and Villain's Lieutenant; and the Story of Mis-matched Love. Obviously, the most common of these are the first three, and they are what we might call the High genres. In general, a story of Romance, Heroic Triumph, or Tragedy is more likely to be serious, and more likely to include epic tensions, than a story about two friends or a man who married the wrong woman.

A two-handed plot is going to be relatively straight-forward. It is rare to see these stories form the whole of a large-scale work – a folk tale, a ballad, a poem, or a child's story is much more suited to the scope of action afforded by only two characters. Porphyria goes out through the rain to see her lover, who strangles her in order to keep her forever as his own; The Lady of Shallot looks from her window, sees bold Sir Lancelot, and is thus condemned to die; Frog goes to Toad's house and tricks him into waking up in the spring; the Gypsy Rover goes whistling through the woods and wins the heart of a lady; Lean Liesl browbeats Lanky Lenz for wanting a drink of milk from a cow that they do not yet own.

Two-handed romances are extremely straightforward: boy meets girl, or visa versa, they fall in love, and they live, more or less, happily ever after. If both of the characters are right-handed, there will be very little conflict in the tale; there is nothing in the make-up of either lover that causes difficulties, and there is no external villain to complicate matters. A story where the Prince walks onto the scene, sings to the beauty of the sleeping Princess, bends over her supine form and bestows a chaste and knightly kiss, upon which she wakes, falls into his arms, and together they intone a duet on the glories of everlasting love would be an example of a right-handed romance. Needless to say, stories of two left-handed characters are generally more interesting: the tensions in the romance can arise from the interior lives of the characters, so you can have real conflict without a third party. The Shrew is proud and thinks she ought to be romanced by a Prince (or, as the case may be, not romanced at all), and the Rogue is a ragamuffin who is rough-around-the-edges and loathe to admit that romantic feelings could enter his roguish heart; romantic comedy ensues. The Adulteress believes that her past as a prostitute renders her unlovable, and they Avenger has become so used to being despised and outcast that he is scarcely able to trust or express his love; through their love they find forgiveness and relief from their loneliness.

Epic conflict is equally simple. These are the stories where the hero ventures forth to confront the villain in his lair, they face off, and the hero, after a grand confrontation, wins. Or, if you want to put a spin on it, the villainess stalks the heroine into her home, intending to destroy her there, but the heroine ultimately defends herself and wins. The classic knight vs. dragon (Warrior vs. Beast) tale is an example of the genre.

A basic Tragedy always concerns a relationships between a man and a woman who are in a nemesis relationship to one another. In a two-handed plot, this will look something like Nick Cave's “Where the Wild Roses Grow,” in which the Simpleton Eliza Jane is killed by the Cripple narrator, who remains obsessed with her even when she is dead. Or it will look like the simplest form of the classic Virgin Martyr tale, where the chaste virgin, sworn to chastity in Christ, is brought before the cruel Sun-King, who demands that she relinquish to him both her chastity and her faith. Naturally, she refuses, and her refusal condemns her to death, but it is a death which is her victory, and his undoing.

A Friendship story is the tale most likely to be featured in a book of cute stories for children, and makes its occasional appearance in the Chicken-Sap-for-the-Soul genre. The Prince goes on a nice adventure with his Knight at Arms, the Magus teaches a lesson to his Disciple, the Orphan finds a Mother – that sort of thing.

The Tale of Unrequited Love makes excellent fodder for the love-song genre; this is the story of a man, or girl, who has fallen in love, but who is condemned to pine away forever, unloved by their lover, or else to let their beloved go because they are too unworthy. Harry Chapin's “WOLD” spells out the sentiment exactly: “Okay honey I see, he's much better than me/ Okay gal I understand, you don't have to worry, he's such a lucky man.” Done seriously, it can be touching and heart-breaking; done comically, it bring out the fact, which everyone knows, that there is nothing in the world more ridiculous than a man hopelessly in love.

The Rival's Tale treats the conflict between a Hero and the character that would ordinarily be the Villain's Lieutentant. This is the most difficult of the various two-handed stories to accurately describe with a single word title, because it involves two fundamentally different kinds of stories, depending on how the power balance tips. In the case of a right-handed hero vs. a left-handed villain, it's simply a massacre: these are those stories where there is never really any doubt about who is going to win, and which really only serve to showcase how cool the hero is. The most common use of this is in children's shows for boys, where the hero goes out, every week, to confront the bad-guy, and the hero wins, and the bad-guy has no real chance. The best, and most fully archetypal, forms of the story are tales of redemption: the Priest redeems the Coward, the Magus cudgels the Disgrace into shape, the Judge leads the Cripple to confess his murders, the Martyr brings peace to the breast of the Beast, the Intercessor leads the Whore out of a life of sin. On the other hand, a left-handed hero against a right-handed villain will, unless other characters are involved, lead to a slaughter in the other direction; the valiant Warrior is crushed in the ruthless machinery of the Sun-King, the Orphan's life is destroyed by the cruel Medea, the Disciple falls prey to the wiles of the Wise-Man. These stories end in downfall – whether in the physical death of the hero, or in their moral destruction.

Finally, there is the Story of Mis-matched Love. This provides ample room for comedy, though it need not actually be farcical. A story about a Judge who is wed to a Mule will likely provide many laughs – he will be able to accurately name all of her faults, and bring them into the light, and she will constantly hen-peck him. In the end, truth will prove him right – and she will remain just as stubborn and stuck in her ways as ever. He will sigh over his small cigar, and the story will start again the next day. On the other hand, the matter can be much more serious, because the ultimate goal of the Ball & Chain, whether conscious or unconscious, is to bring the hero down to his or her own level. The Whore just might end up seducing the Priest, and thus deprive him of his courage and integrity; the Nymph may lure the Prince away from his one true love, and reduce him to lying and trickery to disguise his affair; the Sun-King might torture the Valkyrie until she becomes a hair-pulling Victim, and so on.

These are the simplest manifestations of character tension in plot; from them all of the more complicated variations are built up.

[Back to Main]  [Back to Aereopagus]  [Back to University]  [Back to NP201]