Mirror Images: A Comparison of the Early Plays of Vaclav Havel and Tom Stoppard with Special Reference to Their Political Aspects

The early plays by Vaclav Havel and Tom Stoppard show a number of important parallels. In the present study, six plays by Havel and Stoppard are regarded as works which satirize, in different ways, the totalitarian system. The comparison shows that the treatment of the political themes and the dramatic devices the two playwrights use can be described as mirror images.