Joanna Baillie: drama, morality, and passion

Scottish writer Joanna Baillie is perhaps best known for the series of dramatic works known as Plays on the Passions, in which she attempts to focus each play on one passion (e.g. Hate, Fear, etc.). In the Introductory Discourse to the first volume of these plays, Baillie outlines her psycho-dramatic theories, fully explaining her view that the purpose of Art is to teach morality and that by focusing on the progression of one passion in each play, she will be able to teach her readers to avoid the pitfalls of passion into which the protagonist falls. Several of Baillie's critics have challenged both her theories and plans for Plays on the Passions, charging that her dramatic ideas are cumbersome and ultimately unproductive. I have noted that the central problem, psychologically speaking, with Baillie's theories is that they fail to resolve the sympathy which she wants her audience to feel for the protagonist with the judgment of that character which the audience must make in order to learn from his mistakes. One source of this conflict in Baillie's theories and dramatic works concerns the question, "How much control does the protagonist have over his passion?" If the answer is "a great deal," then he must be condemned for failing to control that passion; if, on the other hand, the answer is "very little," then the audience is inclined to feel sympathy for the hero. In either case, it is virtually impossible for both answers to be right and for the audience to feel both full sympathy and complete judgment for the protagonist. I have traced this conflict in four of Baillie's plays, theorizing that in her last play, Henriquez, she finds some resolution to this problem by making her hero's passion. Remorse, a source of triumph rather than downfall for him, a solution which satisfies the audience's need both to sympathize with the protagonist and to see him as a moral figure. What he finally teaches the audience is that while one may not always be able to control passion, one is always responsible for one's actions.