What events important to this play occurred before the curtain
rises? Why does the author begin just here, and not earlier or
later? How does he contrive to let you know these important
things without coming before the curtain to announce them
himself, or having two servants dusting the furniture and telling
them to each other?
What happens _after_ the curtain falls? Can you go on picturing
these events? Are any of them important to the story--for
instance, in _The Beggar and the King_? Why did the author stop
before telling us these things?
Does the ending satisfy you? Even if you do not find it happy and
enjoyable, does it seem the natural and perhaps the inevitable
result of the forces at work--in _Riders to the Sea_ and
_Campbell of Kilmhor_, for instance? Or has the author interfered
to make characters do what they would not naturally do, or used
chance and coincidence, like the accidentally discovered will or
the long-lost relative in melodramas, to bring about a result he
prefers--a "happy ending," or a clap-trap surprise, or a supposed
proof of some theory about politics or morals?
Does the interest mount steadily from beginning to end, or does
it droop and fail somewhere? You may find it interesting to try
drawing the diagram of interest for a play, as suggested in
chapter X of Dr. Brander Matthews's _Study of the Drama_, and
accounting for the drop in interest, if you find any.