Conclusion

Abstract

This discussion has analysed the plays of Peter Shaffer from several points of view and has presented a variety of ways in which they can be interpreted. The concern throughout, however, has been to emphasize the point that Shaffer is a writer both for and of the theatre, producing ideas and words which rely on the theatrical environment for the achievement of their full emotional, psychological and intellectual effect. Here, this point will be enforced for a final time through a brief analysis of the adaptation of Shaffer’s stage work to the cinema. In this discussion it will be argued that the transfer of this drama into another medium fails aesthetically purely because it belongs quite specifically to the theatrical arena and to nowhere else.