From Victorian Melodrama to the End of the Twenties

Abstract

An important cultural shift in the first decades of the twentieth century is the decline and eventual demise of Victorian melodrama. In order to account for this development, critics have often related the decline of melodrama to the simultaneous rise of cinema. However, detective fiction also established itself as a major popular art form during the same period. While melodrama lost its attractive feature of spectacle to the newly evolving medium of film, it lost its attractive theme of crime and punishment to detective fiction. The dominant form of drama that was to replace Victorian melodrama was the well-made play. Within this framework of cultural shifts and trends, the crime play began to form, influenced by Victorian melodrama and detective fiction as well as by the well-made play.