The Dog it was that Died

The Dog It Was That Died is a play by Tom Stoppard.

Story

Rupert Purvis works for 'Q6', a department of an unnamed espionage agency of the British Government. As the play begins, he is in the process of committing suicide by jumping off Waterloo Bridge into the Thames. However, the attempt goes wrong when he falls not into the water but onto a passing barge, breaking his legs and killing a dog which was on the deck at the time.

Related Topics:
Espionage - British - Waterloo Bridge - Thames

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Over the course of the play, the reasons for this emerge. Some years ago, Purvis was approached by a Soviet spy named Rashnikov, who asked him to work as a double agent. Purvis reported this to his British superiors, who told him to pretend to work as a Soviet double agent whilst really working for them. However, Purvis also recalls that Rashnikov had told him to tell his British masters that he was being recruited, effectively setting up a double bluff ahead of time. Purvis also told this to the British - but is worried that when he did so, it was because Rashnikov also told him to do so. The upshot is that the British and the Russians have been using Purvis to shuttle false information between each other; but in order to allay the other side's suspicions, each has been giving real information to the other as well.

Related Topics:
Soviet - Double agent - Double bluff

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The result of this is that Purvis is no longer sure who his employer is - is he really working for the Russians or the British? Blair visits Purvis at Clifftops, a rest home on the Norfolk coast which is maintained by the agency for its staff. In the process of finding Purvis, Blair encounters not one but two inmates, both of whom pose as officials. The result is that when he finally meets the real administrator, Doctor Seddon, he is highly suspicious, and when Seddon tries to interest him in the guano he has found from a colony of bats in the bell tower (Blair: Bats? In the Belfry?! Seddon: Mmm. Had 'em for years and never realised..), he makes hasty excuses and runs away, bumping into Purvis as he does so.

Related Topics:
Norfolk - Guano

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They discuss Purvis's problem, and Blair, in the course of attempting to make Purvis feel better, inadvertantly shows him that his entire life has been pointless. Purvis is actually greatly calmed by this, and he and Blair part on good terms. The next scene opens at Purvis's memorial service - he has succeeded in committing suicide by rolling his wheelchair off a cliff at the rest home. Blair ponders: 'One asks oneself, with the benefit of hindsight, was Clifftops the ideal place to send someone with a tendency to fling themself from a great height to a watery grave? Of course at the time one didn't realise it was a tendency...'

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In the closing scene, the whole structure is explained by the agency's unnamed chief, although even this explanation remains dizzyingly complex. The chief sums up by saying 'Purvis was acting as a genuine Russian spy in order to preserve his cover as a bogus Russian spy. In other words, if Purvis's mother had been kicked by a donkey, things would be very much as they are. If I were Purvis I'd drown myself.'

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In a second suicide note delivered to Blair after his memorial service, Purvis explains that whatever side he was really on, at the end he decided he felt more sympathy to the British side and is almost convinced that they were in fact his employers. He concludes: 'I hope I'm right. Although I would settle for knowing that I'm wrong'. He also adds that he has learned that Rashnikov was recalled to the Soviet Union on suspicion of having been duped by the British. 'Rashnikov said there was a perfectly good reason why this should have been the impression given; but unfortunately he died of a brainstorm while trying to work it out. You could say that the same thing happened to me.'

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