The Browning Version - Mr Crocker-Harris - one of the main themes in the play is how Englishness and national identity in England change over time.

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The Browning Version - a play about changing national identity in England

The Browning Version is a play written by Terence Rattigan. It is built around a public school, and one of the main themes in the play is how Englishness and national identity in England change over time. To show this change in Englishness Rattigan builds the play around Andrew Crocker-Harris, he represents "the old" pre-war Englishness that was fading away during the time when the play was written. In contrast to Andrew, the younger, Frank Hunter stands for what is to come, and what can be seen as "the new" post-war Englishness.

The play was written in 1948 and as scholars have argued the change in Englishness was as fierce as ever during this period. One factor that influenced the change in national identity was the change in political power, from The Conservatives to The Labour Party. The fact that England lost its position as the world's most powerful empire after the Second World War also influenced the rapid change in Englishness.

The unpopular Mr Crocker-Harris is a Latin and Greek master, both Latin and Greek were languages with decreased importance during this