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plan to fly off that night to Europe to be wed, the daughter invites to dinner his poor but respectable black parents, to break the news. They are equally shocked at the prospect of their son marrying a white girl; but his mother is similarly won round to supporting the match, leaving the two `unrelenting fathers' united in their opposition. A part in resolving the impasse is played by a wise, genial old Catholic priest, a friend of the family who is also invited to dinner. The denouement comes when the heroine's father announces that he wants to make a speech. Everyone expects him to reiterate his opposition to the match, but he reveals he has had a change of heart and now gives the marriage his blessing. Thus love triumphs over prejudice and all ends happily (although we are left only to guess whether the hero's black father has been similarly converted).

3. By a delightful twist of Hollywood unreality, both the speaking and singing voices of Debbie Reynolds, playing Kathy themselves had to be dubbed in the film by other actresses. By an even greater irony, her speaking voice was dubbed by Jean Hagen, the actress playing Lina.

1. Hence the true meaning behind the Greek notion of hubris, originally derived from hyper meaning `over. We shall look later at why the ancient Greeks saw the tragic pattern as one of hubris followed by nemesis. Although in the modern world the term hubris is often understood to mean a kind of cosmic arrogance or pride (of the type inviting a fall), its derivation shows how it was originally meant to convey precisely that idea of `stepping over the bounds' discussed here (see Chapter 20).

2. A story which perfectly reflects the pattern of how fantasy escalates out of control is the Sorcerer's Apprentice, made famous in modern times through the musical version by Paul Dukas (1897), based on a poem by Goethe (1779), and then used by Walt Disney for an episode in the film Fantasia (1940). The tale originated with the second-century Roman poet Lucian. An old sorcerer leaves his young apprentice to fetch water from the well. The boy remembers the spell used by his master to command a magic broomstick and orders the stick to do the work (Focus). For a while the stick fetches the pails of water and all goes well (Dream Stage). But when eventually enough water has been brought, the boy realises to his horror he does not know how to tell it to stop (Frustration Stage). As ever more buckets pile up, the boy in desperation takes an axe to the stick. This merely splits the stick in two, so that the two halves now fetch twice as much water as before (Nightmare Stage). The apprentice's use of the axe thus exemplifies how we so often in Tragedy see a hero or heroine driven to commit a second dark act in a desperate bid to avoid the consequences of the first. It is this which triggers off the Nightmare Stage and their eventual destruction. In this instance, the story does not follow the Tragic pattern to its conclusion because, just when it seems the house is about to be washed away by the flood, the Sorcerer returns and orders the broomstick to stop.

1. Another story in which a benign spirit uses a nightmarish vision to bring about the hero's rebirth is Frank Capra's post-World War Two movie It's a Wonderful Life (1946). When George Bailey (played by James Stewart) is faced with bankruptcy in a little American town thanks to a theft of money by the story's villain, he first turns angrily on his wife and children, then gets drunk and contemplates suicide. A guardian angel Clarence is sent to save him. We first see scenes from George's life in which he has featured positively, from saving his brother Harry from drowning when they were boys, to setting up a loving family home. Clarence then leads George through the town to show him just how different many people's lives would have been if he had never existed. As the hero walks through the familiar streets, unrecognised by his friends and family because they have never known him, he sees just how many sad and tragic things would have come about if he had not