Political and Social Significance in Selected Drama of Henry Fielding

The purpose of this thesis are to show that Fielding's dramas reflect the social and political abuses prevalent in England during the first four decades of the eighteenth century; to show through careful delineation of specific drams that those dramas led to repeated attempts by the Walpole Ministry to pass a licensing act; and to show that Fielding was seriously concerned about the political and social deterioration which he felt was occurring during the decade of the 1730's