Economic Determinism and Its Implications in David Lindsay Abaire’s Good People

The research article expounds on a fundamental concern of economy in the human society. David Lindsay-Abaire, a versatile modern writer of the twenty first century, has to his credit the penning of Good People, which has been expediently celebrated in the literary circle as a play that is suffused with aspects of human nature that are simultaneously tender and tough to digest. The themes, on which the internal action of the play rests, range from miscellaneous concerns of race to economy. The latter plays a significant role as the backdrop against which the central figure of Margaret is left suspended in her struggle to achieve financial security. The impact which the forces of economy play in curbing Margaret’s endeavors to futility and compelling the characters to exhibit inconsistency of character, breach in ethical allegiances and shifts in loyalties, becomes the subject of this research. Through a thematic analysis of the text, which made use of the theory of economic determinism, this inconsistency in the behaviors of Abaire’s major characters was justified.