Throughout history, artists have played many important roles in society.
Generally speaking, the role of the artist is defined by the society he is part of.
Indeed, there are as many ideas as to the role of the artist and, ultimately the purpose
of art in society, as there are types of art. This is, as a matter of fact, neither a new
question- the dialogue has been present within art for centuries- nor probably one
that will ever fully be answered.
Tom Stoppard came to prominence in the mid-sixties, when art and politics
were closely linked, and theatre sought to change the world. Stoppard would have
none of that: his work has no overt message, no political program. In fact, what
Stoppard has resisted both in his plays and in his interviews is any idea of the theatre
as an agent of change, as a form of art which is in any sense expressive and
contributory to the nature of the society of which it is a part. (Philip Roberts, p.85)
This is especially true of Stoppard's early dramatic works which, he told the Gambit
in 1981, "could best be seen in terms of his sense of alienation from the Osbornian
school of angry young men writing socially-engaged drama."(Neil Sammelles,
p.131)
This aspect in Stoppard's early dramatic career did not go unnoticed by the
critics who severely criticize him for his alleged indifference to contemporary
social issues; a tendency which turned his early plays, according to Roberts, into
apolitical opportunities for "wit, parody and metaphysical dalliance."(p.87)