Abstract

Literature must serve the society by stepping into politics, and by intervention. To achieve these writers must not merely write to amuse or to take a bemused, critical look at the society role. Literature should be politically and socially committed. Any good story, novel or drama should have a message and a purpose. Moral decadence is a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabrics of our society. Bribery, corruption, fraud, embezzlement of public funds among others, is found in almost every sector of our society. It is seen from the politicians to the public servants, to the civil servants and also found among the youths. Owing to this, writers in Nigeria have taken upon themselves to address and expose the state of moral decadence in our society with the purpose of correcting and bringing about a change in the moral behaviors of the citizens of the country. Accepting that moral decay is a vice that has become part of our society may be a sure way of joining heads to fight this vice.

This study is particularly concerned with the theme of moral decadence in the emergent Nigerian drama and this will be realized by doing a critical study of two drama texts written by Emeka Nwabueze : A Parliament of Vultures and Esiaba Irobi’s Hangmen Also Die. The secondary method of data collection was used. Other useful sources included magazines, journals, articles, libraries, postworks and internet. The literary theory used in this study is the Marxist theory. The goal of Marxism is to bring a classless society, based on the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange. The theory is also built upon the socialist thinking which was produced in France Revolution and it inverted some of the early idea of economic and social benefits to the entire society.