Written between the autumn of 1890 and spring of the next year, "Spring Awakening" was the first major play in the modern era of theater. The play was banned due to its controversial subject matter; human sexuality, child abuse, suicide and homosexuality. Adapted in 2006 by Steven Sater, the play became a rock musical with some of the interior dialogue transposed into song. In "Spring Awakening," Sater alluded to some of the most important writers such as Homer, Baudelaire, Racine and Shakespeare. .
By referring to some of history's greatest writers, Sater cleverly reinforced the main themes of his play. Foremost, Shakespeare writer to be mentioned in this play. When Wendla told her mother that she wanted to know where babies come from, her mother answered that to conceive a child, a woman had to love her husband. With the song "Mama Who Bore Me," Wendla lamented that her mother did not wanted to tell her the truth. The young girl was upset about the lack of knowledge presented to her. This song was a reference to the play "Measure for Measure," by Shakespeare. Isabella was considered as one of Shakespeare's strongest female characters; a women of great virtue and purity. She was seen as the symbol of goodness and mercy set against a background of moral decay. Just as Isabella, Wendla expressed her conflicting feelings of love for her mother and the desire to know the truth. The play revealed the issues of mercy, justice and truth just as Wendla tried to figure out. She wanted her mother to help her to understand.
Secondly, another Shakespearean character was mentioned; Desdemona had been manipulated by her husband, Othello, and murdered because he said she was an adulteress. In "Spring Awakening," Hanschen discovered his femininity and he thought that she, his femininity, must died or be used for his pleasure. Hanschen was masturbating and he said to Desdemona: "One of us must go-it's you or me"(Sater 30).