The Real Inspector Hound - Critical Analysis

Critical Analysis

The play deals with the nature of reality, the lack of a fourth wall, the relationship between real life and art, the role of the audience, and the metafictional idea of a 'play within a play'.

The barrier between the critics and the actors onstage is blurred from the beginning when the audience "appear to be confronted by their own reflection in a huge mirror". The audience is subtly brought into the play without its consent playing a vital role in the upcoming scenes. After several scenes of the "play" have taken place, the audience can notice a more precise divide. The annoying ringing of the phone onstage, which according to Inspector Hound has been cut, instigates Birdboot to jump onstage to answer the phone. After Birdboot finally picks up the onstage phone, completely crossing the audience-stage barrier, we find out that Myrtle, Birdboot's curious and untrusting wife, has been the one calling looking for him. At the moment Birdboot crosses into the realm of the stage to answer the phone, the barrier vanishes as he now becomes part of the plot and assumes the role of Simon, as his love life parallels that of the Casanova. Soon, Moon follows and transforms into the role of the investigator, whereas Simon and Hound occupy the critics' positions in the audience. The disappearance of the barrier is finalized as the audience discovers the unknown body is that of Higgs, and assumes that the real murderer must be Puckeridge.

A happy juxtaposition between fantasy and reality is observed in The Real Inspector Hound as Birdboot and Moon are able to live out their fantasies through their involvement in the play. Birdboot becomes the handsome young dapper who promiscuously gallivants about the stage in the role formerly occupied by Simon, while Moon finally transforms into the first-string critic and is able to play the role of the leading man when he puts on the shoes of Inspector Hound. Both critics become the characters of their dreams; they no longer are the husband that sneaks around behind his wife's back and the man who desperately wants to be recognized and admired. They in essence become the characters of the play, further blurring the line between a "stage world" and reality.

Stoppard also satirizes the profession of theater critics by exploring the hierarchy of society, particularly the role of fill-ins, second-strings, and substitutes in relation to their "betters". Nowhere else is this more evident than in the fretting of Moon over the existence of Higgs, the main critic, as well as Puckeridge's ultimate usurpation of Higgs' and Moon's positions by killing them both, perhaps as a reflection on the effects that ignominy has on characters.

The play also explores the cynical approach that critics take to plays and appears to deliver a message claiming that all critiques are subject to their own biases. While Moon and Birdboot are understandably extreme examples, Stoppard uses these characters to show how self-aggrandizement can muddle the true purpose of a play through Moon (who uses the play as an attempt to show off his skills in the brief period where Higgs, the person he is standing in for, is absent) or how other interests can jeopardize the integrity of a play through Birdboot, who pens lavish reviews as long as there are visually pleasing female leads in the play.