by the ancient setting (Howells 72).
The Camus plays examined here were, however, composed at a greater distance from the events that inspired them and take a more general stance toward the struggle for liberty and the evils of totalitarianism. Although Camus' personal participation in the events was necessarily different there is no doubt that he was fully engaged in the broader struggle addressed by these two works. The Just Assassins was based on historical events of the nineteenth century, as Camus noted in the preface to a collection of plays, and was given "dramatic tension through classical means" (Preface ix). But its points were meant to be generally interpreted and commented not only on the struggles of the past but the failure of subsequent revolutionaries to keep moral limits in view. State of Siege referred more directly to current affairs even though it dealt with the mistakes made in the Spanish Civil War. The play--which was written at the request of Jean-Louis Barrault, who produced it--was "a disturbing and painful reminder
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