2. Royall Tyler's play the Contrast was meant to provide criticism in regard to people's tendency to focus on material values as the most important concept in society. Moreover, the playwright was frustrated as a result of the fact that many Americans were concentrating on reproducing attitudes that they observed in Englishmen. The play is thus generally meant to emphasize the contrast that actually exists between England and the U.S. The playwright most probably wanted to raise public awareness regarding the importance of national pride and the significance of accepting new customs as being more important that customs borrowed from the British.

Royall Tyler was one of the most important Americans who started to express interest in preserving American culture primarily because of the fact that it is different from English cultural values. Colonel Manly perfectly exemplifies...

He brings on a series of new concepts into a community containing upper class families that preserved English characteristics and manages to demonstrate that it would be best for individuals to abandon negative attitudes that stayed with them as a result of British influences. The other characters in the play risk falling victim to a devious individual because of their tendency to act in accordance with British principles. For example, Van Rough is unhesitant about giving his daughter away to a person that he barely knows simply because he made a contract with Billy Dimple's father.
Works cited:

"ROYALL TYLER (1757-1826) and the Contrast," Retrieved May 18, 2012, from the Wayne Turney Website: http://www.wayneturney.20m.com/royalltyler.htm

"The Contrast; a Comedy in Five Acts," Forgotten Books