20th Century English Drama

20th Century English Drama

There was a great decline in drama during this age.Most of the romantic poets attempted to write drama but they were not successful.There were some reasons which can be assigned to the decay of drama.Garden and Drury established a monopol on other private and small playhouses.They grew in debt.The actors left their work.This greatly affected the drama of the 19th century. The prosperous middle class society had no real appreciation of drama as an art.The work of an actor were usually regarded as a dishonorable thing in society.The novel form was at its real in this age both in england and europe.Victorian life greatly favoured the form of novel in the 19th century.Victorian middle class preferred to read novels reflecting their own desires, attitudes and morals. Drama as a form was unrelated to the life of the time.There appeared many changes with industrialization.This affected social picture of england and mentality of english people.The greatest attempt to bring drama closer to life is found in the work of Robertson's "David Garrick".This play has elements of realism and it is a bit occasional play.

Bernard Shaw=his intelligence and intellectuel equipment were much more profound than his contemporaries.He was greatly influenced by Ibsen.He understood the greatness of Ibsen best and was determined that his own plays should also be a vehicle to reflect Ibsen's ideas.His characters were diversified and he knew all the ills of the world and tried to reflect these with clarity.He had a wonderful management of his characters.In the early plays, his originality lied in the conception of character.Arms and The man.He tried to write in the spirit of Ibsen and believed that each play should present a problem.In this way, character never comes first, he have importance to the plot.The common characteristics of his plays is that he used his plays for discussion and accompanied them with prefaces.T.S.Eliot wrote Sweeney Agonistos.His dramatic intuitions reflected in his plays.He was not interested in theatre, and it became a free occupation for him.Murder in the Cathedral is his famous play.John Osborne wrote Look back in Anger.With it, he called the imagination of the 20th century generation.He introduced different characters such as Jimmy Porter, model for angry young man.Osborne wrote "the entertainer".It is remarkable with its symbolism and it portrays a great decay of English society.Samuel Becket wrote his plays with a different genre.It was called Absurd Drama.There is no regular plot.He wanted to reflect modern men who became just like a machine.Waiting for Godot is a very popular play of his. Oscar Wilde wrote the importance of being earned in the spirit of Congreve.