The Duchess's Plays and the Imperial Theatre

This flow follows the disagreement over theatrical rules and the possibility of bringing the Duchess's plays to a different audience.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Disappointing Theatre

A Disappointing Theatre Spectacle Observed The Empress attends a play and finds the scenery, dancing, and music more engaging than the dramatic action. Aesthetic Question Her response challenges the assumption that accepted theatrical conventions necessarily produce the strongest experience.

The Duchess's Defense

The Duchess's Defense Rules and Judgment The Duchess explains that fashionable critics reject her plays for failing to follow established rules, even when she believes their descriptions have merit. A Different Standard The exchange separates artistic value from conformity to the current mode.

A Natural Theatre

A Natural Theatre The Emperor's Request The Emperor asks for guidance in creating a theatre and values natural descriptions of human action over artificial method. Opportunity Offered The Duchess considers bringing her own plays to a court willing to judge them by different standards.

The Duchess's Promise

The Duchess's Promise Future Work The Duchess offers to help arrange plays and farces for the imperial theatre on a later visit. A Delayed Outcome Her promise remains unrealized in the narrative, but it marks a possible meeting between her writing and a receptive audience.

An Alternative Audience

An Alternative Audience Beyond Fashion The Blazing-World is presented as a place where the Duchess's dramatic designs might be staged outside the conventions that limited them at home. Creative Recognition The theatrical subplot extends the book's defense of invention into literary form and performance.

During the Empress and Duchess's visit to the native world

Immediately after the performance

During the Emperor's later conversations

Before the Duchess returns home

Near the book's end