This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... VI THE FAMILY IN MODERN FICTION The question of the real value of the problem novel and play will evoke a variety of opinions. Especially is this true of the drama. It is our opinion that the drama, which deals with social problems, tends to produce excitement and prejudice of a not very healthy kind ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... VI THE FAMILY IN MODERN FICTION The question of the real value of the problem novel and play will evoke a variety of opinions. Especially is this true of the drama. It is our opinion that the drama, which deals with social problems, tends to produce excitement and prejudice of a not very healthy kind rather than cool and serious thought. A large audience may pass from the theatre with their spiritual temperature far below zero, after listening to Hauptmann's Weavers, or The Sunken Bell, as a result of having received the impression that people are almost powerless in their fight against the forces of heredity and environment. Yet this is only an impression. The play has not solved the problem which is still in the boiling crucible of conscience. Men who seriously study the question of heredity to-day are not nearly so certain about it as were the men of a generation ago, yet the play, by means of an impression, has sent the audience away feeling that they were in bondage to this ghost, who has crept down from their ancestors to haunt them. Maeterlinck in one weak play, The Blind, would brush away all the results of the study of comparative religions, and Ibsen, by introducing us to a few neurasthenic and hysterical women, mated with weak and abnormal men, would bankrupt the institution of the family. At best the problem play can only awaken prejudice, divorced from intelligence, and as such can contribute nothing towards the solution of great social questions. It is a hindrance rather than an aid to this end. The novel may contribute more towards the solution of social questions for the simple reason that it has more space in which to reveal facts and mass arguments. When it does this, however, it is no longer literature with an...
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