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Unit 2: Literary Terms: Problem Play, Kitchen Sink Drama, and Angry Young Man

(c) the social class playwrights Notes
(d) the high class playwrights.

23. The Angry Young Men were a new breed of intellectuals who were
(a) 1940s working class playwrights
(b) mostly of lower middle-class or of high class origin
(c) mostly of working class or of lower middle-class origin
(d) mostly of working class or of lower high class origin.

Fill in the blanks:
24. Angry Young Men were various ......... and playwrights who emerged in the 1950s.
25. The angry young men were a group of mostly ......... and middle class British
playwrights.
26. The term angry young men was applied most notably to ..........
27. John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger was first performed in ..........
State whether the following statements are true or false:
28. The angry young men group’s leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley
Amis.
29. Among the other writers embraced in the term angry young men are the novelists
John Braine, Alan Sillitoe, and the playwrights George Bernard Shaw.
30. The angry young men shared an outspoken irreverence for the British social system.

2.4 Summary

• The problem play is a form of drama that emerged during the 19th century as part of the
wider movement of realism in the arts.
• It deals with contentious social issues through debates between the characters on stage, who
typically represent conflicting points of view within a realistic social context.
• The critic F. S. Boas adapted the term to characterise certain plays by Shakespeare that he
considered to have characteristics similar to Ibsen’s 19th-century problem plays.
• While social debates in drama were nothing new, the problem play of the 19th century was
distinguished by its intent to confront the spectator with the dilemmas experienced by the
characters.
• The most important exponent of the problem play, however, was the Norwegian writer Henrik
Ibsen, whose work combined penetrating characterisation with emphasis on typical social
issues, usually concentrated on the moral dilemmas of a central character.
• The earliest form of problem play are found in the work of French writers such as Alexandre Dumas,
who dealt with the subject of prostitution in The Lady of the Camellias in 1852.
• The problem play (also called "thesis play," "discussion play," and "the comedy of ideas") is a
comparatively recent form of drama. It originated in nineteenth-century France but was
effectively practised and popularized by the Norwegian playwright Ibsen.
• The concept of problem plays arose in the 19th century, as part of an overall movement known
as realism.
• According to Henrik Ibsen, a problem play is a type of drama that presents a social issue in
order to awaken the audience to it.

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