CHARACTER SKETCH OF PROF.

HENRY CORRIE
Introduction:
St. John G. Ervine presents the sensational
drama “PROGRESS” in, which the story rotates around
the characters of Professor Henry Corrie and his only
sister Mrs. Meldon. Prof. Henry Corrie is about sixty
years of age. He live in a remote village of North
England. He is happy in isolation because he can
concentrate on his secret research work.
Appearance:
Corrie has cold humourless eyes. There are
cruel lines on his face but they are hidden behind the
thickish beard. He is very dangerous but apparently he
does not seem to be so. He is a symbol of tyranny,
destruction, selfishness and materialism.
Intelligence:
Corrie is D.Sc. and a highly educated and
qualified scientist of England. He is completely
absorbed in his research work. After a life long struggle,
he has been successful in discovering a terrible formula
of a devastating bomb. It will devastate a district. It will
release a powerful, spreading poisonous gas, without
color or smell. Those who will inhale it, their bodies will
rot and rust and nothing will save them. Happily he
says:
“Ah! At last by heaven
I have done it, at last.”
Materialism And Unpatriotic:
Corrie is the complete representative of
today’s materialistic world. Although his bomb will kill
thousands within no time, and will wipe out big cities
like Manchester yet he feels proud on his invention and
says:
“This will bring fame and fortune
to me. I shall be rich now, but more
than that I shall be famous.”
He is mad after wealth. Greed and lust of
wealth has turned him not only materialistic and selfish
but also unpatriotic.
“If they won’t pay my price,
I’ll offer it to somebody else.”
This is the height of treachery. The great
scientist fails to visualize that if the enemy uses that
bomb, his own country – men would be eliminated.
Unsocial and uncourteous:
Corrie is not a social man. He is so lost in his
work that he has lost all interest for the human beings.
Although he makes a promise to go to the station to
receive his only sister yet he does not go. It is the third
death anniversary of Eddie, Mrs. Meldon’s only son. She
is sad, instead of sympathizing with her, he proudly,
talks about his sinister bomb. He is cruel and selfish. He
forces her to rejoice at the dreadful invention. He asks
her:
“But look at the matter form a board
point of view. Put your
 own feelings aside!”
Hatred for women:
Corrie lacks aesthetic sense. He is a
misogamist. He is disinterested with the finer values of
life. That is why he has not married as yet. He hates
women and his sister is no exception to his hatred. He
says:
“Oh how women do fuss! No application.
No concentration.
That’s why no women have Ever
been great artist or scientist.”
Proud and Cunning:
Corrie is a wolf in a sheep’s clothing. He is
doing nothing to reduce poverty or hunger. Rather he
has been busy in inventing a dangerous bomb for this
own selfish motives. In his own words: “With a single
bomb we could wipe out the population of a city as big as
Manchester. Single bomb,
Charlotte!”
Conclusion:
Mrs. Meldon asks him time and again to
suppress his evil invention. But he pays no head to it.
Rather he becomes angry and calls her morbid, fool of a
women.
He makes fun of her ideas, laugh harshly and
finally says:
“Well, I shan’t. Give up
 my invention for a lot of
damned sentiment! Not
likely!”
In her desperate step to save the world
from destruction, she stabs him to death. In fact he
was the symbol of vice, destruction and enemy of
mankind. He suffered in a deserving way

CHARACTER SKETCH OF MRS.

MELDON
Introduction:
St John G. Ervine presents the sensational drama
“PROGRESS” in which the story rotates around the characters
of Mrs. Meldon and Prof. Henry Corrie.

Mrs. Meldon is also called Charlotte. Her heart brims

with the love of mankind and is against wars and war
mongers. She symbolizes love and affection, peace and
tranquility, modesty and humanity.

“To love others and love

For others is real

life.”

Appearance:
 Mrs. Meldon is a middle aged widow about forty three.
She is dressed in black partly because she is a widow, but
chiefly because of her son’s death. She is a grief stricken lady,
But when in the course of the play, she speaks of her loss, she
does so with grace and beautiful dignity.

A Sensitive Woman:
Mrs. Meldon is a highly sensitive lady. She feels herself
“cruelly alone in this world”. The First World War has hit her
heart when her only son Eddie, “a young boy, new from
school”, just when his life was beginning to open out, “was
mercilessly killed in action”. Her husband also died of a broken
heart. She is justified in expressing her profound feelings of
lamentations and agony. She is dejected at the death
anniversary of her son. Her pangs of sorrow are more
intensified on coming to know about the pitiless manner in
which Eddie was reduced to ashes.

“There was nothing to bury. The shell

came and there was nothing.”

Peace Loving Lady:

Mrs. Meldon, by nature is a peace loving lady. She
believes in “live and let others live”. After this great tragedy
she turns against wars and develops a hatred for wars and war
mongers. Her brother Corrie is no exception to her hartred ,
and says:

“You don’t realize how deeply women

like me feel about this….this organized
 butchery of boys. Look at me! I had a
husband and a son when the war began.
I had neither it was over.”
She is against her brother’s invention of devastating bomb
which will annihilate life. She tries her best to stop him from
going on with his selfish and ambitious plan of achieving
wealth and fame by inventing the deadly bomb. She says:

“Someone life me not clever

creates a beautiful thing like my
son, and you, with all your
cleverness, can only destroy it”

A Loving Wife And An

Affectionate Mother:
Mrs. Meldon is a loving wife and an affectionate mother.
She brings her son in an excellent manner. She wanted to make
him great. Therefore, she takes cares to educate him, to make
him strong and healthy and to create in him the quality of
moral values and self respect. She shares the innocent pleasures
of her son. A mother she proves to be simply wonderful.
Believing in values she says:

“with nothing in my life but my love

for my husband and my son.”
Difference in Opinion:
Mrs. Meldon is filled with the milk of human kindness.
She has an affectionate nature. But her brother Corrie is quite
cruel and cunning fellow. As she herself has suffered from the
brutalities of war, she can well understand the grief of others.
Contradicting her brother’s views she says:

“I can’t get any pleasure out of

the thought that some poor
German woman is suffering
Just as I’m suffering.”
When Corrie seeks her advice as to how much he should
demand for his invention, she taunts him:

“Wht not say thirty pieces of Silver?”

When Prof. Corrie ask her to take “a broad statesman like
view” about war, she again taunts him:

“If Eddie had been a statesman. he

would not have gone to the war.