And the more we are interested in human
nature the more we want to understand the thoughts, emotions,
motives, characters, of the personages in action before us. Hence by
gradual steps have come our latest attempts at studies of complex
characters, in their struggle to solve the problems of life; or what
are objected to as "problem plays." Well, why object? Every play,
from _Charley's Aunt_ to _Hamlet_, is a problem play. It is merely a
matter of degree. Every play deals with the struggle of men and
women to solve some problem of life, great or small: to outwit evil
fortune. It may be merely to persuade a couple of pretty girls to
stay to luncheon in your college rooms, when their chaperon has not
turned up. It may be something more important.
The more interest the public and the dramatist take in human
nature--that is to say, the better developed they are as regards
dramatic sympathy--the more, rich, vivid, and subtle will be the
play of character and passion, in the drama demanded and produced.
In a word, the less wooden-pated and wooden-hearted they become, the
less mechanical and commonplace will their drama be.
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