History ValuesDissonance / Theater

*** Interestingly enough, in the most recent production at the Globe Theatre, Hero herself is played by a black woman. The production this Troper saw indeed left out the offending line.
* Everyone remembers ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' for the (then) controversial interracial marriage of its hero and Desdemona. Nowadays people are far more likely to take issue at the fact Desdemona can only be sixteen at the very most... and Othello's roughly the same age as her father (who was once his friend). It's disturbing that so many characters speak so lustfully about her, considering how young she is.

* ''[[GilbertAndSullivan Princess Ida]]'' treats feminism as an acceptable target for satire.

** [[UpdatedRerelease Revivals]] have them tie.

* Shakespeare's ''TheTamingOfTheShrew'' contains so much values dissonance that this troper's grade ten class did an assignment about whether or not Kate's final monologue (about how a woman should be subservient to her husband and obey his every wish, because he works every day so she can eat) should be included in the classroom reading of the play. Not to mention the whole idea of a woman who dared speak up for herself being a "shrew" who needed to be made "proper"...

* Shakespeare's ''TheTamingOfTheShrew'' contains so much values dissonance that this troper's grade ten class had a debate about whether or not Kate's final monologue (about how a woman should be subservient to her husband and obey his every wish, because he works every day so she can eat) should be included in the classroom reading of the play. Not to mention the whole idea of a woman who dared speak up for herself being a "shrew" who needed to be made "proper"...

* Put simply, in the ancient Greek play ''{{Antigone}},'' the title character wants to bury her brother, against the wishes of her uncle the king. In ancient Greece, they would see Antigone as caught between two horrible options; not honoring the dead, or defying her rightful ruler. Thanks to liberalism, individualism, feminism and the separation of church and state, a modern reader would see Antigone as rebelling against a corrupt and authoritarian state, with the only problem being the possibility of getting caught doing it.

* Most modern productions of Shakespeare's ''Much Ado About Nothing'' leave out one of Claudio's lines near the end of the play. To make amends for his part in Hero's supposed death, he agrees to marry her cousin, but is told that he can't see her face until he swears it before the friar. He replies that he would take her in marriage even if she were "an Ethiope" (that is, an African).

* Everyone remembers ''{{Othello}}'' for the (then) controversial interracial marriage of its hero and Desdemona. Nowadays people are far more likely to take issue at the fact Desdemona can only be sixteen at the very most... and Othello's roughly the same age as her father (who was once his friend). It's disturbing that so many characters speak so lustfully about her, considering how young she is.

* TheMagicFlute: To the extent that the opera has An Aesop, it's about how you shouldn't trust or even listen to women, and how women need a man to guide them lest they become too uppity. (On the other hand, it doesn't hurt that all the parts about the brave and noble men overcoming every challenge are [[YourMileageMayVary complete]] [[GoodIsBoring snooze fests]], while the villainous [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen of the Night]] gets [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome the two]] [[EvilIsCool best arias]] in the whole opera, including one of the most famous in the entire genre.) With a side of "black men are too ugly to get any, so they'll resort to [[ScaryBlackMan raping white women]], to whom they are [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt irresistibly attracted]]."

* TheMagicFlute: To the extent that the opera has AnAesop, it's about how you shouldn't trust or even listen to women, and how women need a man to guide them lest they become too uppity. (On the other hand, it doesn't hurt that all the parts about the brave and noble men overcoming every challenge are [[YourMileageMayVary complete]] [[GoodIsBoring snooze fests]], while the villainous [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen of the Night]] gets [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome the two]] [[EvilIsCool best arias]] in the whole opera, including one of the most famous in the entire genre.) With a side of "black men are too ugly to get any, so they'll resort to [[ScaryBlackMan raping white women]], to whom they are [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt irresistibly attracted]]."

* Similar to the above, Nancy's staying by Bill Sikes even in the face of his abuse in [[OliverTwist Oliver!]] comes across as overly submissive and lacking regard for her own well-being to modern audiences, but there were no abuse hotlines in Dickensian London.

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**** However, in some adaptations (most notably the 1968 movie), the reason her father was hesitant was because it was implied that he married Juliet's mother too young and had grown to regret it.

** Ibsen was way ahead of his time in his other writings, too -- think of ''Hedda Gabler'' and ''Ghosts'', to name but two. The first shows an angry upper class woman who is miserable and depressed, desperate to seek an outlet in any way possible, [[spoiler: inciting a man to kill himself, and committing suicide when her role in his death is discovered]]. At the time critics considered Hedda to be monstrous and the entire play squalid; while Hedda still isn't very sympathetic, modern audiences can appreciate why she behaves the way she does. Even a seemingly secondary character is allowed to ditch her husband to be with the man she loves. ''Ghosts'' deals with VD and [[spoiler:has a character suffer a syphillitic breakdown on stage]]; this would have been outrageous when it was first shown. The heroine Mrs. Alving was lambasted, not least for encouraging BrotherSisterIncest. Contemporary audiences view her in a much softer light, though adaptations still insinuate she's too close to her son, IfYouKnowWhatIMean.

**** However, in some adaptations (most notably the 1968 version), the reason her father was hesitant was because it was implied that he married Juliet's mother too young and had grown to regret it.

* ''[[GilbertAndSullivan Princess Ida]]'' treats feminism and evolution as acceptable targets for satire.

* ''The Merchant of Venice'' has a happy ending, as the villain has been forgiven for his attempted judicial murder and has even become a Christian, thus giving him the chance to go the Heaven. At least, that is what the original audiences would have thought. Modern productions are more likely to sympathize with Shylock: the Royal Shakespeare Company once put on a production where most of the cast were dressed as [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped Nazi stormtroopers.]] (One critical essay pointed out that for a woman who speaks so movingly about "mercy," Portia is a vindictive bitch: she forces Shylock to renounce his religion and give his property away to the daughter who betrayed and stole from him.)