Write an Essay in Which You Explore the Interplay of the Traditional and the Innovative in the Real Inspector Hound.

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Write an essay in which you explore the interplay of the traditional and the innovative in the Real Inspector Hound. As humans trying to survive in an increasingly complex world, we naturally desire order. This can be achieved through the traditional, logical conventions in a crime fiction, such as Agatha Christie’s “Mouse Trap”. Upon subverting these conventions and featuring absurdist themes, Tom Stoppard creates a satirical creation of a traditionally rational crime fiction such as “the Mouse Trap” with his play, “The Real Inspector Hound”. This is to challenge an audience’s expectations of the play; accumulated due to genre theory. The convention of the detective having superior powers of observation (e.g. a rationcinative detective) is the common expectation from an audience for the detective of a crime fiction novel. Tom Stoppard subverts this convention by making the detective a bumbling, incompetent detective who doesn’t understand what’s going on and at one point exclaims “I’ll phone to police!”. After another character, Cynthia points out to Hound “But you are the police…”, Hound responds to this replying “Well thank God I’m here!” The satirical subversion of this convention ridicules the audiences desire for a capable hero in the role of the detective and mocks the expectation gathered by genre theory and our wish for order. A convention of a Golden Age classic crime fiction is that of the characters bring of upper middle class and some lower aristocracy. Stoppard manipulates this convention by juxtaposing the two ideas of an upper class formal dress and attitude to that in which one would have when playing tennis and their dress code. Cynthia is “A beautiful women in her 30’s. She wears a cocktail dress, is formally coiffured, and carriers a tennis racquet.” The manipulation of this convention is also apparent when the mere maid speaks in a formal

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