Family As Metaphor in the 20th Century American Drama: an Analysis of Domestic Theme

The Arrival of Modernism in America is coincided with the emergence of American drama. American drama was virtually still born in the Nineteenth Century,partly because of reliance on European playwrights and partly because of the Puritan influence which did not allow it to grow. The American drama emerged with the secular and realistic society. Eugene O'Neill is supposed to be the fountain head of American drama who explored the personal theme that laid within the context of family life. Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Touch of the Poet and The Iceman Cometh are the plays that deal with intense personal themes. Later Tennessee Williams carried out similar themes in The Glass Menagerie and The Streetcar Named Desire. Similarly Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and All My Sons are effective presentation of the writer's biographical account. Edward Albee's Who Is Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? is said to be the story of Albee's own career as a playwright. Towards the end of 20th Century, Sam Shepard recaptured this theme in Buried Child and Marsha Norman's Night Mother, focused upon the same issue within the feminist context.