Stoppard, Tom The Real Inspector Hound

Stoppard, Tom The Real Inspector Hound The Arrogance of Reality Heidi-Jo Fonley English 254 Dr. Ken Pellow 5 March 2002 The Arrogance of Reality In his stage play, The Real Inspector Hound (1968), Tom Stoppard criticizes western society's inheritance from logical positivism and Aristotelian philosophy that claims it is possible to know what is real and what is illusion. He sets up a definitive boundary between reality and make-believe then destroys it, thereby throwing his audience into uncertainty. He does this by using the play-within-a-play method of absurdist drama but then adds a twist; he changes the identity of the players. Thus, Stoppard illustrates that reality is not the fixed boundary that Aristotelian philosophy has taught modern, western society to believe, but it is rather a fluid, conditional quality, and illusion is more difficult to distinguish than originally thought.As would happen in any realist play, Stoppard begins by allowing the audience to compartmentalize his two main characters.1998 Programme.