CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN
DRAMA
MA English 3rd Sem
(Paper XI)
What is Modern Drama
Modernist Movement in England was much less
innovative in technique than it was its poetry and
novel.
The drama which had suffered a steep
decline during the Victorian Age was revived
with great force at the beginning of the
20th century and the course of six decades
has witnessed many trends and currents in
the 20th-century drama
Modern Drama Characteristics
Realism
• Realism is the most significant and outstanding quality of
Modern English Drama. The dramatists of the earlier
years of the 20th century were interested in naturalism
and it was their endeavor (try) to deal with real problems
of life in a realistic technique to their plays.
• It was Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian dramatist who
popularised realism in Modern Drama. He dealt with the
problems of real life in a realistic manner of his play. His
example was followed by Robertson Arthur Jones,
Galsworthy and G. B. Shaw in their plays
Problem Play
• The modern drama has developed the and there are
many Modern Dramatists who have written a number of
problem plays in our times. They dealt with the
problems of marriage, justice, law, administration, and
strife between capital and labor in their dramas.
• They used theatre as a means for bringing about
reforms in the conditions of society prevailing in their
days. Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House is a good
example of a problem play
Problem Play
• The problem play was a new experiment in the form and
technique and dispensed with the conventional devices
and expedients of theatre.
Play of Ideas
• Modern Drama is essentially a drama of ideas rather
than action. The stage is used by dramatists to give
expression to certain ideas which they want to spread in
society.
• Modern Drama dealing with the problems of life has
become far more intelligent than ever it was in the
history of drama before the present age.
• With the treatment of actual life, the drama became
more and more a drama of ideas, sometimes veiled in
the main action, sometimes didactically act forth.
Romanticism
• The earlier dramatists of the 20th century were Realists
at the core, but the passage of time brought in, a new
trend in Modern Drama. Romanticism, which had been
very dear to Elizabethan Dramatists found its way in
Modern Drama and it was mainly due to Sir J.M. Barrie’s
efforts that the new wave of Romanticism swept over
Modern Drama for some years of the 20th century. Barrie
kept aloof from realities of life and made excursions
into the world of Romance.
Poetic Plays
• T.S. Eliot was the main dramatist who gave importance
to poetic plays and was the realistic prose drama of the
modern drama. Stephen Phillips, John Drink Water,
Yeats, etc were from those who wrote poetic plays.
History and Biographical Plays
• Another trend, visible in the Modern English drama is in
the direction of using history and biography for
dramatic technique. There are many beautiful historical
and biographical plays in modern dramatic literature.
• Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra are historical plays of
great importance. John Drink Water’s Abraham
Lincoln and Mary Stuart are also historical plays.
Irish Movement
• A new trend in the Modern English Drama was
introduced by the Irish dramatists who brought about
the Celtic Revival in the literature.
• In the hands of the Irish dramatists like Yeats, J.M.
Synge, T.C. Murrey etc. drama ceased to be realistic in
character and became an expression of the hopes and
aspirations of the Irish people from remote ways to their
own times.
Comedy of Manners
• There is a revival of the Comedy of Manners in modern
dramatic literature. Oscar Wild, Maugham, N. Coward,
etc. have done a commendable job to revive the
comedy of wit in our days.
• The drama after the second has not exhibited a love for
comedy and the social conditions of the period after the
war is not very favorable for the development of the
artificial comedy of the Restoration Age.
Impressionism
• Another important feature of modern drama is
Impressionism.
• It is a movement that shows the effects of things and
events on the mind of the artist and the attempt of the
artist to express his expressions.
• In the impressionistic plays of W.B. Yeats, the main effort is
in the direction of recreating the experience of the artist
and his impressions about reality rather than in presenting
reality as it is.
• The impressionistic drama of the modern age takes into
consideration the impressions on the artist.
Expressionism
• Expressionism is another important feature of modern
drama. It marks an extreme reaction against naturalism.
• It is a movement that tries to express the feelings and
emotions of the people rather than objects and events.
• The movement which had started early in Germany
made its way in England drama and several modern
dramatists like C.K. Munro, Elmer Rice, J.B. Priestly,
Sean O’ Casey, have made experiments in the
expressionistic tendency in modern drama.
• THANK YOU!
