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Overview
Synopsis
In 1936, the scholar and poet A.E. Housman died at 77 years old. Now he is on the banks of the River Styx, waiting to be ferried into the afterlife. But before his journey is complete, AEH reflects on the people and events that shaped him as a poet and person. He relives his early days at Oxford, his unrequited love for a classmate, and his admiration for Oscar Wilde, the figurehead of the Aesthetic Movement. Throughout his reminisces, AEH examines the nature of love as it appears in poetry from the early Roman elegists to his own publication of A Shropshire Lad. Most importantly, AEH considers love as it exists between men: platonic, romantic, brotherhood, forbidden. Full of esoteric references and witty inside jokes for Victorian era scholars, The Invention of Love is Tom Stoppard’s philosophical masterpiece for the ages.
Show Information
- Book
- Tom Stoppard
- Category
- Play
- Age Guidance
- Thirteen Plus (PG-13)
- Number of Acts
- 2
- First Produced
- 1997
- Genres
- Drama
- Settings
- Period, Multiple Settings
- Time & Place
- The River Styx, Oxford University, Victorian era
- Cast Size
- large
- Licensor
- Samuel French
- Ideal For
- College/University, Large Cast, Mostly Male Cast, Professional Theatre, Regional Theatre, Star Vehicle Male, Includes Elderly, Adult, Mature Adult, Young Adult Characters
Context
Tom Stoppard’s The Invention of Love is a dramatization of the life of A.E. Housman, English poet and scholar best known for his poetry collection A Shropshire Lad. Housman’s life still has some mystery, which Stoppard uses to dramatic effect--namely, Housman’s unrequited love for schoolmate Moses Jackson and his failure on his final Oxford exams. Like many of Stoppard’s plays, The Invention of Love is a philosophical exercise on knowledge and truth, most closely resembling
to read the context for The Invention of Love and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Plot
Act One
In 1936, Alfred Edward Housman (called AEH) realizes that he is dead and waiting on the banks of the River Styx. Charon poles his boat into view, and AEH climbs aboard. The boatman of the Underworld is expecting “a poet and a scholar”; believing that these are two different people, he waits. AEH says he is the poet and the scholar, and while they wait, he monologues on Greek and Latin scholarship, and the first time he heard his professor mispronounce Greek.
This memory
to read the plot for The Invention of Love and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Characters
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Songs
A song with an asterisk (*) before the title indicates a dance number; a character listed in a song with an asterisk (*) by the character's name indicates that the character exclusively serves as a dancer in this song, which is sung by other characters.
Monologues
Scenes
Key Terms
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Videos
Quizzes
Themes, Symbols & Motifs
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Quote Analysis
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Guide Written By:
Cindi Calhoun
Theatre teacher, director, writer, and seamstress