“The conflict between virtuous mediocrity and thoughtless genius has seized my imagination” (“Shaffer, Peter 1926”). The quote from Shaffer himself helps explain the reasoning of his pieces; both the good and the bad. Over the past decades, Sir Peter Shaffer has brought numerous plays to the stage, each of which challenged society to be open to change. Sir Peter Shaffer has always had an impact on 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 using stage plays as a means of helping him answer many of his own questions about life. Shaffer used his own family structure in his first play to challenge what society thought the family ideal was. Shaffer felt he had to show society the flaw in a joint family structure. In his play Finger Exercise, he depicted a typical British family and their conflicts to help make his feelings more real. He felt that it was his way of “expressing [his] social protest” (“Peter Shaffer 1926-”). He was able to show his broken childhood since his parents' divorce, which he thought was unacceptable. He thus “invokes a tortured past” (Seigel), which helps him to emphasize his discontent. Overall, it showed the theater world how false 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 childhood experience during World War II and the challenge to his faith that it brought as a basis for many of his plays. Throughout his childhood, Peter Shaffer was forced to move several times during World War II due to his life in Nazi Germany, and at one point he was even captured by the Nazi army and mistreated...... middle of paper... ...to encourage society to talk about adult topics that were previously left aside, in order to challenge the typical opinions of a narrow-minded society. Shaffer was able to describe "the true metaphysical status of humanity" (Giana Karis) as being more than society believed it could be by forcing them to see their faults and correct them; and for that he should be revered. Works Cited Galens, David. “Peter Shaffer. » Drama for students. Vol 5. 1999; Gale: Detroit. Print.Giana Karis, CJ “The artistic trajectory of Peter Shaffer”. Peter Shaffer A collection of cases. Ed. CJ Giana Karis. Garland Publishing, Inc., 1991. 3-23. February 28, 2010. Online. Kaye, Helen. “Theatre 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-”. Quest literature. 2002. February 12, 2010. Online.