Stream of Consciousness Technique in James Joyce's Artist as a Young Man

THE NEW DRAMA The first half of the 19th century was a barren period for English drama. Though many major poets had tried drama, none of them had achieved any success. The professional theatre of this period was in a low state. The respectable middle classes held the theatre to be a place of vice. Melodrama, farce, sentimental comedies etc were the popular forms of drama. They had no literary qualities. They were poor in dialogue and negligible in characterization. They relied for their success on sensation rapid action and spectacle. The middle of the 19th century witnessed a significant development from the romantic and historical themes to more realistic themes. This movement towards realism received great impetus from the work of T.W Robertson. Robertson is inseparably connected with the modern revival of English drama. He introduced in his plays the idea of a serious theme underlying the humour characters and dialogue of a more natural kind. Robertson showed the way but could never completely free himself from the prevalent melodrama and sentimentalism. The same limitations affected the more serious work of Henry Arthur Jones and A.W Pinero. These dramatists endeavoured to introduce naturalism into the English drama. It was in the nineties when the influence of Ibsen was making itself felt and Shaw produce his early plays that the impetus was there to use serious drama for a consideration of social domestic or personal problems. It was a period that was keenly aware of social problems. In the closing years of the twentieth century opinions about many things were changing in Britain. The word ’NEW’ was often applied to denote a change of attitude and ideas. The ‘NEW WOMEN’ meant the women who wanted to vote at parliamentary elections and to earn their own living. The ‘NEW MAN’ is the description given by Shaw to the independent minded motor mechanic and driver, Hentry Straker in “Man and Superman”. The ‘New morality’ stood for the