الفهرس 
Chapter (I): Introductory Chapter - Drama and SocietyOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Victorian as well as Edwardian periods passed through certain
political, economic, social, scientific and intellectual changes. In the field
of agriculture, a great crisis took place in England. Despite the fact that
English agriculture was scientific and financially sustained, it could not
confront the cheap and simple means of American fanning. As an
outcome, English agriculture was destined to downfall and declination,
and Industrial Revolution, in turn, gradually replaced agriculture. As a
matter of fact, Industrial Revolution had a wide and a noticeable impact on
society as a whole; in the first place, it changed the economic and social
structure in England, and divided it into two classes or sections: one
owned power, money and possession, whereas the other was materially
deprived of all such privileges and was even left to live in an utter
destitution. The conflict between the two sections of society was
inescapable, the matter that was quite obvious in Galsworthy’s The Silver
Box (1906), Strife (1909) and The Eldest Son (1912). Moreover, the
increase of population, the birth of capitalism, and the emigration from
rural areas to new colonies or to cities, had a great impact on society as a
whole. Galsworthy’s The Silver Box examines the first type of emigration;
namely, the rural emigration to the new colonies.
Britain had moved into a new phase of industrialisation. In other
words, Britain had gone through a phase of technological and scientific
development that had profoundly affected the general ideology and the
pattern of education. Industrial Revolution played a great part in the
transformation in spinning and weaving that took place at that time.
However, such a technological progress had its bad and dangerous effect
on the poor, especially on the working classes who were financially
dependent on hand-weaving. Consequently, the poor labourers were either
deprived of this support or were obliged to move into manufacturing
towns and work in the factories for wages. The proletariat engagement in
manufacturing was clearly demonstrated in Strife.
Although Britain was prosperous due to its growing wealth and
scientific inventions, the working classes were getting poorer than before
by the Industrial Revolution. Indeed, the wealth of England increased
because of the industrialists’ adoption of Adam Smith’s principles of
Laisser-faire. The value of anything was measured by its utility or
usefulness, which they took as a way of life. Hence, materialism was the
prominent feature of that period. John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham
were the very exponents of the theory of ’utilitarianism’. However, the
state and the condition of the labourers did not improve. One of the
drawbacks of the theory of Laisser-faire was that the poor were forced to
work in the new factories or else they would starve, particularly after the
loss of their land in the enclosure movement. What made things worse was
that there were no Factory Acts guaranteeing the safety and health of the
workers. They worked too long hours without sufficient wages. The
workers also had no political rights like the right to vote, and they had no
Trade Unions as well. As a result, many opposing voices came into
existence; Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) and Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
were some of the prophets who appeared in England to oppose the
prevailing philosophy. In addition, a group of socialists emerged who
claimed that land and capital should be managed and owned by the state
not by individuals. Robert Owen, Ruskin and Morris were the main
founders of British socialism who believed that England could be
reformed by peaceful means; namely, by Trade Unions.