Remember, a Central Theme is not the same as An Aesop; a theme is a question, idea, topic or concept that the text explores, while an Aesop is a conclusion the author reaches about the theme or a lesson they wish to impart to the reader. As such, you should avoid phrasing your examples as conclusions.
- 12 Angry Men: How personal issues and hangups can cloud one's judgment.
- 1776: The American Revolution was started by flawed humans, not creatures of enlightened perfection, and it was not a Foregone Conclusion in the slightest.
- Assassins: The American Dream and how it can be warped to suit an agenda.
- Cabaret: Hiding away from the world.
- Cats: Second chances, the value of community, and the importance of showing compassion toward people who've been marginalized and left behind by society.
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013 musical): The transformative power of imagination. How cultivating one's creativity and sharing it with others is a path to true happiness, a path even the humblest soul can take.
- Chicago: The fleeting nature of fame.
- Alternatively, the criminal as celebrity.
- A Chorus Line: Musical theater, and what it means to pursue your passion.
- The Crucible:
- Religion can destroy people. Religion can turn someone to the side of the Devil. But it can also find the true goodness of a person that has been hidden.
- Also, people are bound and driven to find a scapegoat to avoid facing their own problems.
- Dear Evan Hansen: Having personal problems is no excuse to treat your loved ones badly. You are always responsible for your actions.
- Death of a Salesman: Is being ordinary a bad thing? Is success the only measure of a man?
- Evita: The one thing showbusiness and politics have in common: showmanship.
- A Few Good Men: Avoiding responsibility.
- The Flies: One's true freedom starts at the absolution of guilt.
- Glen Garry Glen Ross:
- Persuasion.
- No one stays on top forever.
- What it takes to make it in modern business, even if this means losing your soul in the process.
- Hamilton: Ambition, impulsiveness, and legacy measured against time.
- Heathers: High school, and on a larger scale the world, is a cruel place, but it can get better if people just stopped making fun of each other's insecurities.
- Henrik Ibsen's plays:
- A Doll's House: The inequalities and delusions between a man and a woman within marriage, and what effect these can have on the relationship between them.
- Ghosts: The ideals of the old will come to haunt to new. Also, the sins of the father haunt the sons.
- Hedda Gabler: Freedom from societal and moral constraints.
- The Wild Duck: Some people live a lie but sometimes the lie is all they have.
- Inherit the Wind: The dangers of letting you religious beliefs cloud your judgement, and that you should open your mind to new ideas even if you don't agree with them.
- Into the Woods: "Wishes come true, not free."
- The Last Five Years: Dishonesty, personal flaws, and miscommunication can tear apart relationships if left unchecked, no matter how strong the relationship may seem
- Little Shop of Horrors: The consequences of giving in to temptation and letting others dominate you.
- The Man Who Had All The Luck: Luck's guilt.
- Medea: A Woman Scorned with nowhere to seek justice will turn to revenge.
- Merrily We Roll Along: Friendship and how relationships with others change depending on your life choices.
- Oedipus Rex: Should we pursue the truth even if it leads to our doom?
- Antigone: What is more important: your duty to the state, or familial bonds? And how far will people go for each?
- The Oresteia: The Cycle of Revenge, to what extent Revenge is justified and how does one break out of the cycle.
- The Phantom of the Opera: People cannot be controlled.
- A Raisin in the Sun: Is the American Dream worth chasing?
- Ride the Cyclone: Life isn't a game to be won, but a ride with huge ups and downs, so enjoy it while it lasts.
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Is man just a victim of his fate?
- Shrek: The Musical: How stories interact with real life.
- The Sound of Music: Which problems you can run from and which ones you should face.
- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Love, and the (sometimes horrible) lengths people will go to because of it.
- Madness, and how it can consume people.
- Tennessee Williams' plays:
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: What's left for a man with no one else to look up to?
- The Glass Menagerie: Living in a fantasy world versus living in the real one.
- A Streetcar Named Desire: Clinging on to traditions and delusions in the face of the corruption of modern life.
- West Side Story: Hatred and prejudice will always lead to tragedy.
- Wicked: Good intentions can still have terrible ramifications, and true friendship can be found in the most unlikely of places.
- William Shakespeare's plays:
- All's Well That Ends Well: The role women play in young mens' transition to adulthood.
- Antony and Cleopatra: Every great man dies twice.
- As You Like It: "All the world's a stage, and we are merely players."
- Coriolanus:
- Democracy can be corrupted by any asshole who chooses to do so.
- When society moves on, it leaves behind some truly amazing people.
- Hamlet: The clash of thought and action. A complex mind finds simple actions such as Revenge hard to appreciate whereas more pragmatic simple people can live with themselves by easy justifications.
- Henry IV: The relationships between fathers and sons. The clash between frivolous youth and responsible adulthood.
- Julius Caesar: The conflict between personal honor and the greater good. Whether a honorable man can retain honor after committing betrayal and in the face of defeat.
- King Lear: How madness can corrupt and give wisdom.
- Macbeth: The cost of the pursuit of power.
- The Merchant of Venice - The price one must pay for one's deeds.
- A Midsummer Night's Dream: Love can be difficult, but also magical and beautiful.
- Othello: Jealousy.
- Richard II - Do the ends justify the means?
- Richard III - How villainy promises nothing but death and destruction.
- Romeo and Juliet: The price of young and reckless love.
- The Taming of the Shrew: What is the real role of women in marriage?
- Timon of Athens: It is much better to be a misanthrope; you won't be hurt in the end.
- Titus Andronicus: When a man acts upon revenge, and become part of its vicious cycle.
