In times of struggle and hardship, people are constantly looking for ways to escape their reality. They have found release from their stress in practices such as exercise, therapy, and meditation. In the ancient times of Greece and Rome, life for the citizens was strict and sometimes harsh. During these times of struggle, people searched for ways to vacation from the laws that bore down upon them. One of the ways they accomplished this was through art. Art was a way to express true feeling and emotion and unite a sometimes-divided population. Drama served as one escape for the citizens in Greece and Rome. Attending the plays written by Plautus, gave the people time to get away from their worries and chores and drift into a world of drama. A world where laws can be broken, women can have intelligence and slaves outwit their masters. One of the reasons the plays written by the authors of this time were so popular was because people were able to leave reality behind and slip into a world where none of the truths they held proved to be true. .
Plautus was a playwright of ancient literature. His plays were comical as well, but his work had another aspect the people appreciated. By making his characters unreal and placing them in unlikely situations, made the audience once again feel as if they were in another world. At the time Plautus was writing and performing his plays, Rome was very conservative. There were moral laws and censorship on almost everything. The plays Plautus wrote broke these limitations and gave the people a sense of freedom. One of the limitations Plautus broke was allowing slaves in his plays to outwit their masters. This was unheard of and the mere thought of this happening was surreal. In Plautus" play, The Swaggering Soldier, this very event occurs. A conceited soldier, Pyrgopolynices, is deceived by own his slave, Palestrio. Palestrio, knowing his master is a woman-lover, tricks him into thinking he can have a married woman.