Context
Anyone who teaches literature or art - whether it be a novel, a play, a painting or a piece of music - will know that setting the scene for that piece of art is crucial in helping students to understand the world from which the art has emerged. In Drama we have bulky sections of notes titled 'Sociopolitical Context' which go with every play we study because one cannot understand the significance of a play if one doesn't know the world in which it was written. 'Waiting for Godot' only makes sense when the existential backdrop of trench warfare, concentration camps, atomic fallout and despair in humanity are applied to the general milieu. 'A Dolls House' becomes a tool for protest when one realizes that upper class woman at the time in which it was written were considered possessions handed from father to husband, they had no right to vote and were seldom educated. So when Nora walks out on her husband and three children we understand why original audiences w