merely farce.

VIII

THE MODERN SOCIAL DRAMA

The modern social drama--or the problem play, as it is popularly
called--did not come into existence till the fourth decade of the
nineteenth century; but in less than eighty years it has shown itself to be
the fittest expression in dramaturgic terms of the spirit of the present
age; and it is therefore being written, to the exclusion of almost every
other type, by nearly all the contemporary dramatists of international
importance. This type of drama, currently prevailing, is being continually
impugned by a certain set of critics, and by another set continually
defended. In especial, the morality of the modern social drama has been a
theme for bitter conflict; and critics have been so busy calling Ibsen a
corrupter of the mind or a great ethical teacher that they have not found
leisure to consider the more general and less contentious questions of what
the modern social drama really is, and of precisely on what ground its
morality should be determined. It may be profitable, therefore, to stand
aloof from such discussion for a moment, in order to inquire calmly what it
is all about.

I

Although the modern social drama is sometimes comic in its mood--_The Gay
Lord Quex_, for instance--its main development has been upon the serious
side; and it may be criticised most clearly as a modern type of tragedy. In
order, therefore, to understand its essential qualities, we must first
consider somewhat carefully the nature of tragedy in general. The theme of
all drama is, of course, a struggle of human wills; and the special theme
of tragic drama is a struggle necessarily foredoomed to failure because the
individual human will is pitted against opposing forces stronger than
itself. Tragedy presents the spectacle of a human being shattering himself
against insuperable obstacles. Thereby it awakens pity, because the hero
cannot win, and terror, because the forces arrayed against him cannot lose.

If we rapidly review the history of tragedy, we shall see that three types,
and only three, have thus far been devised; and these types are to be
distinguished according to the nature of the forces set in opposition to
the wills of the characters. In other words, the dramatic imagination of
all humanity has thus far been able to conceive only three types of
struggle which are necessarily foredoomed to failure,--only three different
varieties of forces so strong as to defeat in