Metzger is a professional writer who specializes in literature and drama. In this essay she discusses Inge's exploration of social preconceptions regarding marriage and success in postwar America. She concludes that Inge was ahead of his time in addressing inequities in the expected social roles of men and women.

When Come Back, Little Sheba made its first appearance on Broadway, many reviewers dismissed it as a boring domestic soap opera. Others focused on the psychological complexities of the two lead characters. But Jane Courant argued in Studies in American Drama that audiences should, instead, appreciate Inge' s drama for Its revolutionary exploration of social and cultural ideas. Courant noted that Inge "confronted sexual stereotyping, social conformity, and especially the cultural media that reinforced these values." Earlier, when Inge was still a drama critic for the Saint Louis Star-Times, he had criticized Hollywood films for creating only passive...