Drama as a vehicle for making a comment on an aspect of society.

Drama is a vehicle for making comment on an aspect of society. Through writing a play such as The Perfectionist, the playwright can raise issues and position the audience to respond to these issues in a certain way. This can be done through many different dramatic effects. The play "The Perfectionist" by David Williamson is a perfect example of drama working as a device to comment on aspects of society. In this case the aspects of society were the study of gender equality and of perfectionism in all aspects of life.

David Williamson brings up the issue of gender equality by exploring the marriage of Barbara and Stuart Gunn. By examining this marriage we can see that the roles of men and women are definitely changing and that Barbara is obviously not happy with the role she has in her marriage. She tells this to Erik, however when he questions her, asking why she has not confronted Stuart, Barbara replies "...Because

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Barbara Stamm

Barbara Stamm

I am the last of the Victorian wives..." here she makes it quite obvious that there is a definite problem in the marriage and something needs to be done about it.

David Williamson chooses many dramatic elements to show us this marriage and its troubles such as in the setting, language and actions used, structure, Barbara as a raisonneur and he concludes with a well chosen ending.

The play is set in two separate places. They are almost opposite, different weather, different lifestyle, different people, different language and a different hemisphere. These two places are of course Australia and Denmark. When Barbara and Stuart move to Denmark there are already seeds of destruction in their marriage but the problem does not improve. Denmark seems to act as a catalyst to the problems and their relationship deteriorates.