Throughout the history of drama, playwrights have appropriated the ideas of their predecessors for their own use, sometimes building on them and making the idea their own. American drama is no exception. American drama has its roots firmly entrenched in modern European drama, this is illustrated through the influence of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen on American playwright Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill once wrote, "Not long ago I read all of Ibsen's plays again. The same living truth is there. Only to fools with a superficial eye cocked to detect the incidental can they have anything dated or outworn about them. As dramas revealing the souls of men and women they are as great to-day as they will be a hundred years from now." (Manheim p.24). O'Neill and his contemporaries, in turn, influenced a...