Individual and Society in the Early Plays of John Arden

Abstract

CRITICS HAVE BEEN WARY in their attempts to come to terms with the works of John Arden. The majority of them, in fact, confine themselves to an astonished description of his several works, with tolerant comments on their "diversity," "unpredictability," "uncommitedness," "amorality" and so on. Only two or three have approached the works in tentative analysis — among them John Russell Taylor and J.D. Hainsworth. And Hainsworth's article springs from a minor disagreement with a statement by Taylor. Taylor's criticism of Arden in Anger and After seeks to validate his contention that this writer changes his ground continually, seeking in every fresh playa fresh viewpoint: "There seems to be brooding one basic principle: not exactly the obvious one that today there are no causes — that would be altogether too facile, and in any case just not true — but that there are too many."