Abstract
When Betti's Time of Vengeance was given its off-Broadway production, Harold Clurman wrote (The Nation, Jan. 2, 1960) that the central theme of the play is “evil as a means to satisfy a need for good of which the besmirched mortal does not seem capable.” This is true not only of this particular play but of all the “serious” plays Betti wrote. There is still, however, the task of clarifying the paradox contained in such a statement—a task which until now has been shirked by Betti's critics both in his native Italy and abroad.The paradox is a faithful reflection of Betti's notion of life's absurdity, or “incongruity.“ In fact, he revealed his own awareness of this paradox and suggested that it stands at the core of his drama:We are all poor, restless creatures, and we would like at least to understand the tremendous, bewildering incongruity that we see between our existence and what it ought to be according to the aspirations of our soul; to understand why life is the marvelously tranquil iniquity that it is.
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