What was the author trying to do in writing the play? It may have
been:--
Merely to tell a good story To paint a picture of life in the
Arran Islands or in old France or in a modern industrial town To
show us character and its development, as in novels like
Thackeray's and Eliot's (Of course, brief plays like these cannot
show development of character, but only critical points in such
development--the result of forces perhaps long at work, or the
awakening of new ideas and other determinants of character.) To
portray a social situation, such as the relation between workmen
and employers, or between men and women To show the inevitable
effects of action and motive, as of the determined loyalty of
Dugald Stewart and his mother, or the battle of fisher-folk or
weavers with grinding poverty.
Of course, no play will probably do any one of these things
exclusively, but usually each is concerned most with some one
purpose.
What effect has the play on you? Even if its tragedy is painful
or its account of human character makes you uncomfortable, is it
good for you to realize these things, or merely uselessly
unpleasant? Is the play stupidly and falsely cheering because it
presents untrue "happy endings" or other distortions of things as
they are? Do you think the play has merely temporary, or genuine
and permanent, appeal?