Student Essay on The Changing Relationship Between Individual and Society in Modern Drama

A look at the changing relationship between the individual and society through analysis of Henrik Ibsen, Bertolt Brecht and Arthur Miller.

Teaching through story telling, and later on stage, was - and indeed still is although perhaps less so now - the most effective passage to the education of the masses, regardless of race, religion, age or class distinction, drama is more than mere mindless entertainment; it's the guidelines to an entire world of philosophical ideologies and political insights meant to shape society and help it along the path to... enlightenment? Playwrights, however, need not necessarily follow the current sways of politics or the en vogue intellectuals, they write what they believe is the most valuable message to mankind; theirs is the role of observing, criticising and evaluating. A common theme visited by playwrights in modern drama, was the question of the relationship between the individual, and the society in which he lived. The Norwegian playwright, Henrik.....