Dramatic Realism

Realism was an artistic and literary movement that reacted against the conventions of neoclassicism and romanticism and attempted to create a style that better reflected the facts of human existence. Influenced by the rise of modern science, realist writers sought to examine society and human behavior objectively and to delineate exactly what they discovered. Realism first had a great impact on novel writing and only later spread to drama, where, championed by such notable figures as Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, and August Strindberg, it revolutionized the construction of plays as well as acting and staging.

Written in a style that attempts to imitate the form and tone of everyday speech, realist works for the theater are generally prose rather than...