The Rover
Opening of Behn's The Rover College
It is imperative for drama to require much more consideration regarding the intended audience than other literary forms, since in the end, a play is meant to be a performance. In drama and its theatrical depiction, the spectators experience the authorial vision in a defined form unlike when they’re made to read and rely on their own visualization and imagination. As a result, playwrights are often seen to incorporate popular tastes and perspectives while penning their scripts. Whether they are actually influenced by these, or they happen to be simply commenting upon them, objectively or otherwise, the relationship between theatre and the relevant epoch is undeniable. Moreover, it is a mutual process, for just as natural it is for the writer to be swayed by social factors, similarly, it is inevitable that at some level, the writer should endeavour to give back to the society his own individual insights on the prevailing circumstances. The extent that a writer might go to for this purpose, apart from his own determination and character, depends on his estimate of the perceptive ability of his audience, the general cultural atmosphere and relevant restrictions such as that of censorship.
Therefore, for Aphra Behn, as a female...
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