It is natural for us to desire a happy ending in stories, as we desire satisfying solutions of the problems in our own lives.  And whenever the forces at work are such as make it true and possible, naturally this is the best ending for a story or a play.  But where powerful and terrible influences have to be combated, only a poor dramatist will make use of mere chance, or compel his characters to do what such people really would not do, to bring about a factitious “happy ending.”  With the relentless, mighty arms of England engaged in hunting the defeated Highlanders after the Battle of Culloden, a play like “Campbell of Kilmhor,” in which we sympathize with the ill-fated Stewarts, cannot end happily.  If they had yielded under pressure and betrayed their comrades, we might have pitied them, but we could not admire their action, and there would have been no strong conclusion.  In “Riders to the Sea,” where the characters are compelled by bitter poverty to face the relentless forces of storm and sea, and in “The Biding to Lithend,” we expect a tragic end almost from the first lines of the play.  We recognize this same dramatic tensity of hopeless conflict in many stories as well as plays; it is most powerful in three or four novels by George Eliot, George Meredith, and Thomas Hardy.

One of the best ways to understand these as real stage plays is through some sort of dramatization.  This does not mean, however, that they need be produced with elaborate scenery and costumes, memorizing, and rehearsal; often the best understanding may be secured by quite informal reading in the class, with perhaps a hat and cloak and a lath sword or two for properties.  With simply a clear space in the classroom for a stage, you and your imaginations can give all the performance necessary for realizing these plays very well indeed.  But, of course, you must clearly understand the lines and the play as a whole before you try to take a part, so that you can read simply and naturally, as you think the people in the story probably spoke.  Some questions for discussion in the appendix may help you in talking the plays over in class or in reading them for yourself before you try to take a part.  You will find it sometimes helps, also, to make a diagram or a colored sketch of the scene as the author describes it, or even a small model of the stage for a “dramatic museum” for your school.  If you have not tried this, you do not know how much it helps in seeing plays of other times, like Shakespeare’s or Moliere’s; and it is useful also for modern dramas.  Such small stages can be used for puppet theatres as well.  “The Knave of Hearts” is intended as a marionette play, and other dramas—­Maeterlinck’s and even Shakespeare’s—­have been given in this way with very interesting effects.