"The stage but echoes back the public voice./The drama's laws the drama's patrons give./For we that live to please, must please to live"
             -Samuel Johnson
             The fundamental purpose of drama is to tell a story and to entertain. In order for this to take place successfully, however, a few precautions must be taken. The audience has to be ready for the subject matter, and the play has to be acted in a way that is properly sensitive. This is what allows black humor to flourish on the stage. Joseph Kesserling's Arsenic and Old Lace's success can be reasoned by Johnson's quote.
             A major theme in Arsenic and Old Lace is murder, a tragedy by all social standards. Murder has more than one victim. Families are destroyed, communities shattered. No one who has experienced the horrifying reality of murder could ever find it humorous, by any means. Kesserling understood that when writing a play about murder. He knew it was a touchy issue, and structured the play accordingly. The audience seeing the play or movie has to know what they are about to see so that they are not shocked or offended when murder is shown in such a comical fashion. Kesserling prevented such offense with witty character development and clever foreshadowing, making the plot more acceptable.
             Samuel Johnson states, "We that live to please, must please to live." For a character to gain acceptance by an audience, he or she must handle sensitive themes appropriately so as to maintain the audience's open mind towards the play. Kesserling did this by creating the character of Mortimer, the only sane Brewster in the house. Without his shock at the deeds of his aunts, the play would present senseless murder without representation of consequences or conscience.
             For a black humor play to be acceptable, the people receiving the play must be mentally prepared to take something normally deeme...