Editing Problem play (section)

==19th-century drama==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1983-1118-005, Berlin, "Gespenster".jpg|thumb|left|A performance of Ibsen's ''[[Ghosts (play)|Ghosts]]'', one of the defining problem plays, in Berlin, 1983]]
While social debates in drama were nothing new, the problem play of the 19th century was distinguished by its intent to confront the spectator with the dilemmas experienced by the characters. The earliest forms of the problem play are to be found in the work of French writers such as [[Alexandre Dumas, fils]], who dealt with the subject of [[prostitution]] in ''[[The Lady of the Camellias]]'' (1852). Other French playwrights followed suit with dramas about a range of social issues, sometimes approaching the subject in a moralistic, sometimes in a sentimental manner. Critic Thomas H. Dickinson, writing in 1927, argued that these early problem plays were hampered by the dramatic conventions of the day: "No play written in the problem form was significant beyond the value of the idea that was its underlying motive for existence. No problem play had achieved absolute beauty, or a living contribution to truth."<ref>Thomas H. Dickinson, ''An Outline of Contemporary Drama'', Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1927, p.48</ref>

The most important exponent of the problem play, however, was the [[Norway|Norwegian]] writer [[Henrik Ibsen]], whose work combined penetrating characterisation with emphasis on topical social issues, usually concentrated on the moral dilemmas of a central character. In a series of plays Ibsen addressed a range of problems, most notably the restriction of women's lives in ''[[A Doll's House]]'' (1879), sexually-transmitted disease in ''[[Ghosts (play)|Ghosts]]'' (1882) and provincial greed in ''[[An Enemy of the People]]'' (1882). Ibsen's dramas proved immensely influential, spawning variants of the problem play in works by [[George Bernard Shaw]] and other later dramatists.