and even simple interpretation. Our natural surprise at the discovery is expressed in laughter.
In the scenes which comedians present upon the stage, these double interpretations and instantaneous transitions of feeling are artfully provided for, and the success of the comedy is proportioned to the skill and plausibility with which they are worked up. "When the play turns upon complicated situations and the mistakes and blunders of the character, we first perceive the absurdity of the whole as seen from our position; then instantly recognize that with the actors the matter is a serious one, and that what they are doing is correct from their point of view. The point of the joke lies in this double perception.
Some persons are slow in perceiving this point, and come in with their laughter after all the others are done. Their minds work more sluggishly, and they require more time to discover the duplex element.
Many conjurors' and circus tricks seem absurd and interest us without exciting laughter, because only the unaccustomed side of them is presented to us, and we fail to perceive wherein they have a natural side; and we are more puzzled than amused by them.
Laughter is favored by various circumstances and conditions—as a good state of physical being, infancy and youth, exultation over success, the buoyance we feel after having escaped danger, and cheerful moods. Some writers have sought the causes of laughter among these conditions; but we think they are only incidents, and simply help it by promoting freedom and agility of the mind. Children, who have no fixed habits and are vastly more susceptible to impressions than their elders, perceive the different sides of objects and their contrasts more speedily than they, and are more prone to laughter.
Mental dullness, physical trouble, disappointment, mistakes, anxiety, or mental pain are restraints upon laughter, or prevent it. Thus the more a thing appears to us at once unusual on one side and familiar on the other, the greater is the tendency to laughter; and the less pronounced the contrast the less we are amused at it.—Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes.
