In The Contrast (1787), Royall Tyler championed American authenticity over European pretense. But he also dramatized the social tensions and cultural dilemmas that threatened to tear the young republic apart in the years immediately following the Revolution. Through a series of juxtaposed characters, the play explores the proper relationships between parents and children, masters and servants, husbands and wives, and patriots and scoundrels. Taken together, Tyler’s “contrasting” characters pose broad questions about authority, deference, and equality in a republican society. What opportunities and dilemmas did the Revolution create? What does Tyler suggest that the Revolution accomplished and, just

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