In what ways can the co-operative principle help us to understand antagonism or misunderstandings between characters in A View from the Bridge and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?
Speech act theory is an innovative branch of pragmatics, developed by J.L. Austin in the 1950s. It examines the power of language in communities, and its social processes rather than the formal structures described by conventional linguistics. The co-operative principle was the work of H.P. Grice several years later. It is concerned with the interplay between and presuppositions of participants in a normal conversation. Unsuccessful or antagonistic exchanges can be examined according to the co-operative principle to see where the problem or misunderstanding arose. Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge and Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof are both plays involving social tension and verbal conflict that leads to irreversible changes in attitudes and relationships; as such they are suitable subjects for study using the theories of speech acts and the co-operative principle.
Austin demarcates two types of speech in his lectures How to Do Things with Words: words for saying, which describe the world (this he calls the constative) and words for doing, which become part of the world and even change it (the performative). For example, "I bet you ten pounds" is a performative, as the wager comes into existence by virtue of those words being said. John Searle further subdivides the category, and his terminology can be useful. He distinguishes directives (to order, to beg), commissives (to promise, to pledge), expressives (to apologise, to thank) and declarations, which are institutional exercises of verbal authority, such as the wedding ceremony.
Performative language derives its force from collective acceptance; all participants in the speech act must recognise and adhere to the conventions laid down for it. The performative utterance must also be made by someone with the authority to do so if it is to be successful. A wager can be made by almost anyone, but very few members of society are qualified to state truthfully, "I now pronounce you man and wife." As is often found in literary contexts, language can be performative of social being as well: if someone always breaks their promises, then his utterance of "I promise…" will no longer be taken as performative, and his social standing is damaged because of it.
The co-operative principle is based on certain tacit conventions, which are extrapolations of Grice's primary statement:
Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk-exchange in which you are engaged.
This he expands into four conversational maxims, although aesthetic, social and moral ones also play an important part. The first maxim is one of quality: the speaker should say only what he believes to be true. The maxim of quantity states that the contribution should be as informative as is required by the conversation; neither too much nor too little information should be given. That all contributions to a conversation should have a bearing on its topic is encapsulated by the maxim of relevance, while the maxim of manner says that all contributions should be orderly, concise, unambiguous and not obscure.
A participant takes it for granted that his interlocutor knows these maxims, is trying to follow them, and expects the same of him. Deliberate flouting of them is indeed rare, occurring only as part of sarcasm, lying or malice. Inadvertent violations are more common, based on misunderstandings about mutual knowledge or a failure by the listener to pick up on the implications of the speaker's utterances. Clarifying and cross-checking between participants can amend conversation breakdown of this sort. Successful conversations are also marked by clear signals of conversational turns, that is, who should speak next. Participants need to make their roles clear, for example, whether a female is speaking as a wife, a mother, or a woman. There are safe topics that are kept to, and unsafe ones such as sex or death are tackled only when necessary; in addition, there are accepted rituals for entering and leaving a conversation and for changing the subject. In English silence is taken as an embarrassment and speakers will break other conversational rules to ensure that it does not occur.
Silence is an especially potent force in drama as it allows the audience to fill in for themselves the sort of things that are described in the narrative of novels. Miller in particular uses it to make the audience aware of tension between characters which would not be obvious from the words that they exchange:
Catherine They went to Africa once…And I was never even in Staten Island.
Eddie You didn't miss nothin'. ( Pause.)
Here Eddie pauses partly because the mention of Marco and Rodolfo makes him uncomfortable and partly because Catherine's comment reminds him of how confined he has kept her and how he now regrets it. At the tensest moments of the play there are long silences, in which the audience observes the tableau of the actors. If played well these pauses can convey more conflict than words alone.
There is less silence in Cat because, as is explained in the play, it is a big house with thin walls and many noisy occupants. Even what could be planned dramatic pauses are interrupted by mundane household noises:
Brick Why do I drink?…DISGUST!
[ The clock chimes softly, sweetly. Big Daddy gives it a short, outraged glance.]
Now how about that drink?
Brick, one of the central characters, also has an unusual attitude to silence: for most it is an embarrassment, but for him it is essential as it facilitates his drunken 'click':
I'd better sit by my self till I hear that click in my head, it's just a mechanical thing but it don't happen except when I'm alone or talking to no-one….
He remains aloof from most of the exchanges in the play in his quest for silence. When he is forced to contribute by another's persistent attempts to engage him Brick gives an indifferent answer that is a parody and a breach of conversational rules:
Margaret Y'know, I'm fond of Big Daddy, I am genuinely fond of that old man, I really am, you know….
Brick [ faintly, vaguely:] Yes, I know you are….
In both plays characters make great use of repetition and reaffirmation. Big Mama needs to hear from Brick about her husband's illness; although she is partly seeking reassurance that he is not ill at all, she also insists on hearing the news from her "only son". It is as if only words spoken by someone who is loved and trusted can be believed, a theme found throughout Cat. Characters harangue one another, questioning the others' concentration and willingness to understand what they are saying, particularly on the part of weak characters or those whose authority is being eroded. Hence Beatrice's frequent appeals to Eddie of, "You hear me?" and, "Talk to me!" As she and Catherine cease to trust him Eddie, too, must back up what he is saying with reinforcements such as, "What, have I been talkin' to myself…Didn't you hear what I told you?" Maggie is always asking Brick whether he is listening to her and ordering he do things repeatedly, all of which he ignores because she has no authority over him. Even Big Daddy, the patriarch of the house, struggles to get his family to hear him because his presence has been diminished by his illness: "Quiet…I said, Quiet!…QUIET!" and to Brick, "What did you start to say?…FINISH WHAT YOU WAS SAYIN'!" This need to reinforce what they are saying shows the characters' lack of trust in their own ability to communicate and in each other.
In A View from the Bridge the surprising thing about performative language in how much of it is unsuccessful. Chronologically, the first speech act is Eddie and Beatrice's wedding vows, and as is seen in the course of the play their marriage is deteriorating both physically and emotionally, which sets the scene for the degradation of other speech acts in the play. Alfieri warns Eddie not to turn Marco and Rodolfo over to the Immigration Bureau: "I'm not only telling you now, I'm warning you," but he is disregarded despite being the most authoritative character that appears. Eddie's orders to Catherine not to get married and to Beatrice not to attend the wedding are unsuccessful because they lose respect for him when he "snitches." Rodolfo's attempt to apologise to Eddie fails because a performative must have audience uptake, that is, both parties must accept it, and Eddie turns it down. Most disastrously of all, Marco is not sincere about his promise "not to kill." In fact, most of the successful performatives in View also spell tragedy for the Eddie: Catherine's declaration that she will marry Rodolfo, his reporting of the brothers to the authorities, and Marco's denouncement: "That one! I accuse that one!"
By contrast, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play in which fact is realised or even altered by its vocal expression. This is most evident in the deception of Big Mama and Big Daddy over his illness. Big Daddy himself declares that his whole perception of the world has altered with the news of his good health: " The sky is open! Christ, it's open again!" Big Mama remarks that he ate better at his birthday party than he had when he thought he was dying. When the truth comes to her, she needs someone with authority to deliver it, as has already been noted. For the patriarch the certainty of his coming death brings with it the admission of pain, as can be heard from the offstage cries and his submission to morphine. It is Maggie, however, who accomplishes the most impressive performative: she takes the bald lie of her pregnancy and makes it true. In the Broadway version of the third act Big Daddy gives his authoritative declaration, which to the family is as binding as a pronouncement of marriage: " Uh-huh, this girl has life in her body, that's no lie!"
The dramatic implications of silence have already been explored. Sometimes during a conversation, however, participants must mentally supply what is not said just as much as when nothing at all is uttered. This is particularly true for the characters of Cat, whose guarded and complicated exchanges are loaded with veiled suggestions, accusations and insults. The importance of illocutionary force can particularly be seen in the second Act talk between Brick and his father which covers the highly taboo subject of homosexuality:
Big Daddy You started drinkin' when your friend Skipper died.
[ Silence for five beats....]
Brick What are you suggesting?
Big Daddy [ leaving a lot unspoken]: - I seen all things and understood a lot of them.
Effectively implying and inferring illocutions are skills that all native speakers possess, but they can be hard to simulate on stage, partly because they are unnatural conversations but also because the point of intimate suggestions such as these is that they cannot be easily understood by someone not directly addressed. It is for this reason that modern playwrights, and especially Williams, expand stage directions to guide their actors as to how to put across the personal ramifications of their words to the audience. In the conventional family scenes of A View from the Bridge the illocutionary force of what is said deals mainly with small household matters.
Eddie What's all that about? Where's she goin'?
Beatrice Noplace. It's very good news, Eddie. I want you to be happy.
In this exchange Beatrice is imploring Eddie to be happy that Catherine has a job; the illocutionary force of her utterance is very pleading although the words seem casual. The implicature is, 'Please be reasonable, please be calm, please don't upset us,' though if Beatrice actually said these things she would appear very weak and Eddie would feel more inclined to disregard her. As is seen here, even the smaller matters can be full of conversational hazards, and it is much more so when delicate subjects are being touched upon. One example of this is when Mike and Louis are discussing Rodolfo's reputation at the docks:
Mike (grinning) That blond one, though. He's got a sense of humour. (Louis snickers.)
Eddie Yeah. He's funny -
Mike (starting to laugh) Well he ain't exackly funny, but he's always makin' remarks like, y'know? He comes around, everybody's laughin'. (Louis laughs.)
Here the references to Rodolfo being "funny" carry an illocutionary suggestion that he is homosexual, playing on the dual meanings of 'peculiar' and 'humorous'.
The conversational maxim most often broken in the difficult conversations between the characters of these plays is that of manner. The taboo subjects they nervously approach naturally lead them to ambiguity and obscurity, and this leads to requests for clarification from other characters:
Big Daddy Quit! - how'd that come about? Some disappointment?
Brick I don't know. Do you?
Big Daddy I'm askin' you, God damn it!
Brick also breaks the maxim of quantity when he hints to his father that he may be ill after all, simultaneously giving more information than he is supposed to and less than Big Daddy needs to understand him. It is conflicts and misunderstandings such as these that they are referring to when they agree that, "Communication is - awful hard between people."
Sometimes, however, father and son have a remarkably good communicative relationship, helping each other to think and answering each other point for point:
Brick They don't look peaceful, do they?
Big Daddy No, they sure in hell don't.
Brick They look as nervous as cats?
Big Daddy That's right, they look as nervous as cats.
Brick Nervous as a couple of cats on a hot tin roof?
Big Daddy That's right, boy, they look like a couple of cats on a hot tin roof.
Fully co-operative conversation of this sort in not found anywhere else in either play, which suggests that Brick and his father have a better relationship than they may think.
In the genre of drama linguistic theories cannot, of course, thoroughly analyse the work because much of importance happens without words; for example the co-operative principle has no application in the on-stage murder of Eddie Carbone. However, speech act theory could provide an insight in some situations: Marco's lifting of a chair over Eddie's head could be seen as a substitution for saying, "I have the strength to protect myself and my brother." The unmentionable subjects that reveal themselves in illocutionary implications can also be expressed through action.
A View from the Bridge is unusual in that it has a narrator, Alfieri, who directly addresses the audience and interacts with the other characters. His narration is frequently proleptic, giving the audience reason to believe in him as a witness of the play's events yet also separate from them, making them seem more real. As a lawyer he is authoritative, so that when he states gravely: "I knew where he was heading for, I knew where he was going to end," it seems like a performative, that his knowledge of Eddie's eventual death makes it inevitable. As a community leader his pronouncements on justice - "Most of the time now we settle for half and I like it better" - are generally followed and Eddie's downfall is caused by him going against these social conventions: his social being is damaged by failure to endorse communal speech acts.
A well-written and well-performed play can show better than anything the dynamic, powerful and interactive phenomenon of language. In A View from the Bridge insufficient and inefficient communication between reluctant and confused characters leads to murder, whereas in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof the characters persevere to break through their difficulties and have the conversations that are needed for truth and reconciliation. For most people speaking to one another seems like a natural and simple activity; these two plays show us just how demanding and complicated it really is.
Bibliography
David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, Cambridge University Press, 1997
Arthur Miller, A View from the Bridge, Heinemann, 1995
Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Other Plays, Penguin, 1976
Sandy Petrey, Speech Acts and Literary Theory, London: Routledge, 1990
Mary Louise Pratt, Towards a Speech Act Theory of Literary Discourse, Indiana University Press, 1977
