Dramatists often criticize society through the characters and situations they depict on stage. When they do so, they may approach the subject by looking through the world in which they live to what they believe the world should be. They may be writing at a turning point, an era in which social change is in the offing but which is being resisted by the dominant order. They may merely be commenting on aspects of the human condition which persist into their age and which they see as detrimental to society. Whatever their particular situation may be, playwrights criticize society by having characters who represent some social class or ideological position and by using symbolism as well as direct statement to make the audience see something they believe to be wrong. The characters are shaped by the society in which they live and then behave in certain ways because of the conflict that develops between their psychology and their personality on the one hand and the demands and strictures of the society in which they live on the other. Both Nora in A Doll's House and Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman are products of their respective cultures. They can also be seen as victims of those cultures in that their lives have been determined and controlled to a degree by those cultures, cultures which contribute to their aspirations, limitations, and attitudes.
Henrik Ibsen is thought of as a social realist who embodied clear and direct criticisms of his society in his plays, and perhaps the most famous such critique reverberated through the theater with A Doll's House, cited today as a feminist play which prepared for the emancipation of women from the rigid social roles they once had. A number of influences helped shape Ibsen's point of view and his technique for presenting that point of view, including the major political events of his time, events which illuminated the conflict ridden nature of Norwegian class-society. In some plays,...