John Gay's 1728 comic opera, The Beggar's Opera, served as inspiration for Brecht and provides an excellent basis for comparison. The contrasts between these two works highlight the differing ideologies of their creators.

Franz Kafka's works, The Metamorphosis and The Trial, creatively capture the sense of futility and pervasive anxiety during Europe's pre-World War I era. From a British viewpoint, T. S. Eliot's 1922 poem "The Waste Land" conveys a feeling of spiritual emptiness, using imagery that echoes the destruction left by World War I.

The 1972 film Cabaret, directed by Bob Fosse and featuring Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, and Michael York, vividly depicts the indulgence, decadence, and spiritual quests in post-World War I Germany around 1931, a time when Hitler was beginning his rise to power.

Brecht significantly influenced the literary figures who followed him. His epic theater paved the way for the "theater of the absurd," expanding on his concept of alienation. In Samuel Beckett's 1952 play Waiting for Godot—which Brecht had seen and intended to respond to with another play before his death—four characters await salvation through the arrival of Godot, who never comes; like Brecht, Beckett explores themes of expectation and fulfillment.

Jean Genet's 1956 play The Balcony is another modernist work that centers on a brothel that transforms into a courtroom, a battlefield, and a slum, with the characters undergoing similar changes.

Harold Pinter's 1957 play The Birthday Party tackles the disruption of ordinary life by the bizarre, examining the sanctuaries people create to shield themselves from reality. Pinter's disjointed and illogical plot prompts audiences to question their perceptions of "normality."