Even though the four plays were written in four different eras, there are quite a few phenomena they have in common. Written in the 16th century, A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare is the oldest among the four dramas. Goldsmith wrote She Stoops to Conquer in 1773, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest was published in 1895, while Mrs Warren's Profession by Bernard Shaw was written in 1893. It is obvious that each era imposed a particular world view on the writer, therefore a brief historical outlook when talking about the plays is more than essential. On the other hand, it is also true that the subject matters these playwrights deal with are universal topics which are bound to happen any time and any place, with no reference to historical and social barriers. There is no doubt that the attitude of most human beings do not differ from each other when it comes to feelings such as love, hate, anger, jealousy, happiness. And these are the characteristics that make these comedies popular and imperishable.
The name of William Shakespeare is mostly associated with the title of being the father of English comedy. However, scholars investigating Shakespeare's narrative sources usually give the impression that he must have looked about for fresh material nearly every time he had to write a new play, and most of his ideas were inspired by particular in some respects it seems like as though the choice of the subjects was Shakespeare's personal choice, conscious and deliberate. Nevertheless, he could not free himself from the society he was living in, therefore the situations and the problems were that of his age.
It is not clearly stated when the plot of his play Midsummer Night's Dream takes place, but this question pales into insignificance since his art must have been shaped by medieval traditions first and only secondly by classical and renaissance conventions. The whole atmosphere of the opening scene of Midsummer Night's