『돼지처럼 살아라』에 나타난 존 아든의 딜레마

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to explore how John Arden deals with political and social issues such as the policy of housing schemes in his second play, Live like Pigs. Through the play, Arden tries to portray objectively the way in which the welfare state hinders an individual's way of life. For the purpose of this play, Arden contrasts two families with different values and alternative ways of life, families that represent various human deficiencies and offend conventional senses of civilized society. In Live Like Pigs, Arden raises the question of what happens when the state carries out a policy for people who want to maintain their way of lives against the authorities. The play demonstrates the inevitable truth that political problems cannot be solved simply by changing the environment, a change that may, rather, beget violence and tension between individuals and political society. In the play, Arden tries to show how the incompatible values between individuals and authorities stifle, disintegrate and transform the free vitalities of uncivilized people. In a sense, public interests are bound to encroach on the individual’s right to choose a way of life, which is a dilemma in Live Like Pigs.