“The conflict between virtuous mediocrity and inept genius has taken possession of my imagination” (“Shaffer, Peter 1926”). The quote from Shaffer himself helps explain the reasoning behind his works; both good and bad. Over the past few decades, Sir Peter Shaffer has brought numerous plays to the stage, challenging each society to be open-minded to change. Sir Peter Shaffer forever influenced the world of theater by bringing to the stage topics such as sexual choices, religion and family values ​​that challenged the ideals set by society through the use of plays as a means to help him answer many of his questions on the topic. life.Shaffer used his own family structure in his stage debut to challenge what society thought was the ideal of the family. Shaffer felt he had to show society the flaw in a common family structure. In his play Finger Exercise he depicted a typical British family and its conflicts to make his feelings more real. He felt it was his way of “expressing [his] social protest” (“Peter Shaffer 1926-“). He was able to show his broken childhood since his parents divorced, which he thought was not acceptable. Through this he “invokes [a] tortured past” (Seigel) which helps him emphasize his discontent. Overall it showed the theater world how wrong family values ​​had become when people allowed themselves to believe that verbal abuse and divorce were common and acceptable in today's families. Shaffer used his experiences growing up during World War II and the challenge to his faith that it brought as a basis for many of his plays. During his childhood, Peter Shaffer was forced to move numerous times during World War II due to his life in Nazi Germany, and at one point was even captured by the Nazi army and mistreated......half of paper... ...forcing society to talk about adult topics that were previously left aside as ways to challenge the typical views of a narrow-minded society. Shaffer was able to describe “humanity's true metaphysical status” (Giana Karis) as something more than what society believed it could be, forcing them to see their own flaws and fix them; and for this he should be venerated. Works Cited Galens, David. "Peter Shaffer." Dramaturgy for students. Vol 5. 1999; Gale: Detroit. Print.Giana Karis, CJ “The artistic trajectory of Peter Shaffer”. Peter Shaffer A casebook. Ed. CJ Giana Karis. Garland Publishing, Inc, 1991. 3-23. February 28, 2010. Online.Kaye, Helen. “Theatrical review”. Jerusalem Post. December 11, 2008. February 5, 2010. Online.Seigel, Naomi. "Gifted, yes, but not enough." The New York Times online. June 8, 2008. February 5, 2010. Online "Shaffer, Peter 1926-". Proquest literature. 2002. 12 February 2010. Online.