The theatre of the second half of the century, following the indecorous failure of the Teatro Español, builds upon the growing middle class's insecurity about its political and economic situation. Issues which might previously have been discussed at home were now being debated in the public forum of the theatre, and the public discussion helped to raise the consciousness (and the demands) of this segment of Spanish society. Middle-class tastes were eclectic, which will account for the multiplicity of themes, genres, styles, and language which rush breathlessly onto the stage. In fact, the alta comedia comprises one of the best series of documents we possess about the Spanish middle class, that is, the upper middle class, since the plays capture not only the anxieties but also the manners, customs, look, frailties, and strengths of this newly privileged segment of society. For that reason they are frequently referred to as comedias de costumbres (costumbrismo burgués) as well as altas comedias. The plays were considered documents by the dramatists who consciously set out to reflect that class - their class - in their plays. Tomas Rodriguez Rubi insisted that the scholars of the twenty-first century will have to turn to the plays of his contemporaries if they wish to understand in depth what Spanish nineteenth-century society was all about, and he was right: