234- ] English Literature
George Bernard Shaw
Plays
Shaw published a collected edition of his plays in
1934, comprising forty-two works.[215] He wrote a further twelve in the
remaining sixteen years of his life, mostly one-act pieces. Including eight
earlier plays that he chose to omit from his published works, the total is
sixty-two.
Early works
Shaw's
first three full-length plays dealt with social issues. He later grouped them
as "Plays Unpleasant". Widowers' Houses (1892) concerns the landlords
of slum properties, and introduces the first of Shaw's New Women—a recurring
feature of later plays. The Philanderer (1893) develops the theme of the New Woman,
draws on Ibsen, and has elements of Shaw's personal relationships, the
character of Julia being based on Jenny Patterson. In a 2003 study Judith Evans
describes Mrs Warren's Profession (1893) as "undoubtedly the most
challenging" of the three Plays Unpleasant, taking Mrs Warren's
profession—prostitute and, later, brothel-owner—as a metaphor for a prostituted
society.
Shaw
followed the first trilogy with a second, published as "Plays
Pleasant". Arms and the Man (1894) conceals beneath a mock-Ruritanian
comic romance a Fabian parable contrasting impractical idealism with pragmatic
socialism. The central theme of Candida (1894) is a woman's choice between two
men; the play contrasts the outlook and aspirations of a Christian Socialist
and a poetic idealist. The third of the Pleasant group, You Never Can Tell
(1896), portrays social mobility, and the gap between generations, particularly
in how they approach social relations in general and mating in particular.
The
Three Plays for Puritans—comprising The Devil's Disciple (1896), Caesar and
Cleopatra (1898) and Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1899)—all centre on
questions of empire and imperialism, a major topic of political discourse in
the 1890s. The three are set, respectively, in 1770s America, Ancient Egypt,
and 1890s Morocco. The Gadfly, an adaptation of the popular novel by Ethel
Voynich, was unfinished and unperformed. The Man of Destiny (1895) is a short
curtain raiser about Napoleon.
1900–1909
Shaw's
major plays of the first decade of the twentieth century address individual
social, political or ethical issues. Man and Superman (1902) stands apart from
the others in both its subject and its treatment, giving Shaw's interpretation
of creative evolution in a combination of drama and associated printed text.
The Admirable Bashville (1901), a blank verse dramatisation of Shaw's novel
Cashel Byron's Profession, focuses on the imperial relationship between Britain
and Africa. John Bull's Other Island (1904), comically depicting the prevailing
relationship between Britain and Ireland, was popular at the time but fell out
of the general repertoire in later years. Major Barbara (1905) presents ethical
questions in an unconventional way, confounding expectations that in the
depiction of an armaments manufacturer on the one hand and the Salvation Army
on the other the moral high ground must invariably be held by the latter. The
Doctor's Dilemma (1906), a play about medical ethics and moral choices in
allocating scarce treatment, was described by Shaw as a tragedy. With a reputation
for presenting characters who did not resemble real flesh and blood, he was
challenged by Archer to present an on-stage death, and here did so, with a
deathbed scene for the anti-hero.
Getting
Married (1908) and Misalliance (1909)—the latter seen by Judith Evans as a
companion piece to the former—are both in what Shaw called his
"disquisitionary" vein, with the emphasis on discussion of ideas
rather than on dramatic events or vivid characterisation. Shaw wrote seven
short plays during the decade; they are all comedies, ranging from the
deliberately absurd Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction (1905) to the satirical
Press Cuttings (1909).
1910–1919
In
the decade from 1910 to the aftermath of the First World War Shaw wrote four
full-length plays, the third and fourth of which are among his most frequently
staged works. Fanny's First Play (1911) continues his earlier examinations of
middle-class British society from a Fabian viewpoint, with additional touches
of melodrama and an epilogue in which theatre critics discuss the play.
Androcles and the Lion (1912), which Shaw began writing as a play for children,
became a study of the nature of religion and how to put Christian precepts into
practice. Pygmalion (1912) is a Shavian study of language and speech and their
importance in society and in personal relationships. To correct the impression
left by the original performers that the play portrayed a romantic relationship
between the two main characters Shaw rewrote the ending to make it clear that
the heroine will marry another, minor character. Shaw's only full-length play
from the war years is Heartbreak House (1917), which in his words depicts
"cultured, leisured Europe before the war" drifting towards disaster.
Shaw named Shakespeare (King Lear) and Chekhov (The Cherry Orchard) as
important influences on the piece, and critics have found elements drawing on
Congreve (The Way of the World) and Ibsen (The Master Builder).
The
short plays range from genial historical drama in The Dark Lady of the Sonnets
and Great Catherine (1910 and 1913) to a study of polygamy in Overruled; three
satirical works about the war (The Inca of Perusalem, O'Flaherty V.C. and
Augustus Does His Bit, 1915–16); a piece that Shaw called "utter
nonsense" (The Music Cure, 1914) and a brief sketch about a
"Bolshevik empress" (Annajanska, 1917).
1920–1950
Saint
Joan (1923) drew widespread praise both for Shaw and for Sybil Thorndike, for
whom he wrote the title role and who created the part in Britain. In the view
of the commentator Nicholas Grene, Shaw's Joan, a "no-nonsense mystic,
Protestant and nationalist before her time" is among the 20th century's
classic leading female roles. The Apple Cart (1929) was Shaw's last popular
success. He gave both that play and its successor, Too True to Be Good (1931),
the subtitle "A political extravaganza", although the two works
differ greatly in their themes; the first presents the politics of a nation
(with a brief royal love-scene as an interlude) and the second, in Judith
Evans's words, "is concerned with the social mores of the individual, and
is nebulous." Shaw's plays of the 1930s were written in the shadow of
worsening national and international political events. Once again, with On the
Rocks (1933) and The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles (1934), a political
comedy with a clear plot was followed by an introspective drama. The first play
portrays a British prime minister considering, but finally rejecting, the
establishment of a dictatorship; the second is concerned with polygamy and
eugenics and ends with the Day of Judgement.
The
Millionairess (1934) is a farcical depiction of the commercial and social
affairs of a successful businesswoman. Geneva (1936) lampoons the feebleness of
the League of Nations compared with the dictators of Europe. In Good King
Charles's Golden Days (1939), described by Weintraub as a warm, discursive high
comedy, also depicts authoritarianism, but less satirically than Geneva. As in
earlier decades, the shorter plays were generally comedies, some historical and
others addressing various political and social preoccupations of the author.
Ervine writes of Shaw's later work that although it was still
"astonishingly vigorous and vivacious" it showed unmistakable signs
of his age. "The best of his work in this period, however, was full of
wisdom and the beauty of mind often displayed by old men who keep their wits
about them."
Music and drama reviews
Music
Shaw's
collected musical criticism, published in three volumes, runs to more than
2,700 pages. It covers the British musical scene from 1876 to 1950, but the
core of the collection dates from his six years as music critic of The Star and
The World in the late 1880s and early 1890s. In his view music criticism should
be interesting to everyone rather than just the musical élite, and he wrote for
the non-specialist, avoiding technical jargon—"Mesopotamian words like
'the dominant of D major'". He was fiercely partisan in his columns,
promoting the music of Wagner and decrying that of Brahms and those British
composers such as Stanford and Parry whom he saw as Brahmsian. He campaigned
against the prevailing fashion for performances of Handel oratorios with huge
amateur choirs and inflated orchestration, calling for "a chorus of twenty
capable artists". He railed against opera productions unrealistically
staged or sung in languages the audience did not speak.
Drama
In
Shaw's view, the London theatres of the 1890s presented too many revivals of
old plays and not enough new work. He campaigned against "melodrama,
sentimentality, stereotypes and worn-out conventions". As a music critic
he had frequently been able to concentrate on analysing new works, but in the
theatre he was often obliged to fall back on discussing how various performers
tackled well-known plays. In a study of Shaw's work as a theatre critic, E. J.
West writes that Shaw "ceaselessly compared and contrasted artists in
interpretation and in technique". Shaw contributed more than 150 articles
as theatre critic for The Saturday Review, in which he assessed more than 212
productions. He championed Ibsen's plays when many theatregoers regarded them
as outrageous, and his 1891 book Quintessence of Ibsenism remained a classic
throughout the twentieth century. Of contemporary dramatists writing for the
West End stage he rated Oscar Wilde above the rest: "... our only thorough
playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama,
with actors and audience, with the whole theatre". Shaw's collected
criticisms were published as Our Theatres in the Nineties in 1932.
Shaw
maintained a provocative and frequently self-contradictory attitude to
Shakespeare (whose name he insisted on spelling "Shakespear"). Many
found him difficult to take seriously on the subject; Duff Cooper observed that
by attacking Shakespeare, "it is Shaw who appears a ridiculous pigmy
shaking his fist at a mountain." Shaw was, nevertheless, a knowledgeable
Shakespearian, and in an article in which he wrote, "With the single
exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom
I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespear when I measure my mind
against his," he also said, "But I am bound to add that I pity the
man who cannot enjoy Shakespear. He has outlasted thousands of abler thinkers,
and will outlast a thousand more". Shaw had two regular targets for his
more extreme comments about Shakespeare: undiscriminating
"Bardolaters", and actors and directors who presented insensitively
cut texts in over-elaborate productions. He was continually drawn back to
Shakespeare, and wrote three plays with Shakespearean themes: The Dark Lady of
the Sonnets, Cymbeline Refinished and Shakes versus Shav. In a 2001 analysis of
Shaw's Shakespearian criticisms, Robert Pierce concludes that Shaw, who was no
academic, saw Shakespeare's plays—like all theatre—from an author's practical
point of view: "Shaw helps us to get away from the Romantics' picture of
Shakespeare as a titanic genius, one whose art cannot be analyzed or connected
with the mundane considerations of theatrical conditions and profit and loss,
or with a specific staging and cast of actors."
Political and social writings
Shaw's
political and social commentaries were published variously in Fabian tracts, in
essays, in two full-length books, in innumerable newspaper and journal articles
and in prefaces to his plays. The majority of Shaw's Fabian tracts were
published anonymously, representing the voice of the society rather than of
Shaw, although the society's secretary Edward Pease later confirmed Shaw's
authorship. According to Holroyd, the business of the early Fabians, mainly
under the influence of Shaw, was to "alter history by rewriting it".
Shaw's talent as a pamphleteer was put to immediate use in the production of
the society's manifesto—after which, says Holroyd, he was never again so
succinct.
After
the turn of the twentieth century, Shaw increasingly propagated his ideas
through the medium of his plays. An early critic, writing in 1904, observed
that Shaw's dramas provided "a pleasant means" of proselytising his
socialism, adding that "Mr Shaw's views are to be sought especially in the
prefaces to his plays". After loosening his ties with the Fabian movement
in 1911, Shaw's writings were more personal and often provocative; his response
to the furore following the issue of Common Sense About the War in 1914, was to
prepare a sequel, More Common Sense About the War. In this, he denounced the
pacifist line espoused by Ramsay MacDonald and other socialist leaders, and
proclaimed his readiness to shoot all pacifists rather than cede them power and
influence. On the advice of Beatrice Webb, this pamphlet remained unpublished.
The
Intelligent Woman's Guide, Shaw's main political treatise of the 1920s,
attracted both admiration and criticism. MacDonald considered it the world's most
important book since the Bible; Harold Laski thought its arguments outdated and
lacking in concern for individual freedoms. Shaw's increasing flirtation with
dictatorial methods is evident in many of his subsequent pronouncements. A New
York Times report dated 10 December 1933 quoted a recent Fabian Society lecture
in which Shaw had praised Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin: "[T]hey are trying
to get something done, [and] are adopting methods by which it is possible to
get something done". As late as the Second World War, in Everybody's
Political What's What, Shaw blamed the Allies' "abuse" of their 1918
victory for the rise of Hitler, and hoped that, after defeat, the Führer would
escape retribution "to enjoy a comfortable retirement in Ireland or some
other neutral country". These sentiments, according to the Irish
philosopher-poet Thomas Duddy, "rendered much of the Shavian outlook passé
and contemptible".
"Creative
evolution", Shaw's version of the new science of eugenics, became an
increasing theme in his political writing after 1900. He introduced his
theories in The Revolutionist's Handbook (1903), an appendix to Man and
Superman, and developed them further during the 1920s in Back to Methuselah. A
1946 Life magazine article observed that Shaw had "always tended to look
at people more as a biologist than as an artist". By 1933, in the preface
to On the Rocks, he was writing that "if we desire a certain type of
civilization and culture we must exterminate the sort of people who do not fit
into it"; critical opinion is divided on whether this was intended as
irony. In an article in the American magazine Liberty in September 1938, Shaw
included the statement: "There are many people in the world who ought to
be liquidated". Many commentators assumed that such comments were intended
as a joke, although in the worst possible taste. Otherwise, Life magazine
concluded, "this silliness can be classed with his more innocent bad
guesses".
Fiction
Shaw's
fiction-writing was largely confined to the five unsuccessful novels written in
the period 1879–1885. Immaturity (1879) is a semi-autobiographical portrayal of
mid-Victorian England, Shaw's "own David Copperfield" according to
Weintraub. The Irrational Knot (1880) is a critique of conventional marriage,
in which Weintraub finds the characterisations lifeless, "hardly more than
animated theories". Shaw was pleased with his third novel, Love Among the
Artists (1881), feeling that it marked a turning point in his development as a
thinker, although he had no more success with it than with its predecessors.
Cashel Byron's Profession (1882) is, says Weintraub, an indictment of society
which anticipates Shaw's first full-length play, Mrs Warren's Profession. Shaw
later explained that he had intended An Unsocial Socialist as the first section
of a monumental depiction of the downfall of capitalism. Gareth Griffith, in a
study of Shaw's political thought, sees the novel as an interesting record of
conditions, both in society at large and in the nascent socialist movement of
the 1880s.
Shaw's
only subsequent fiction of any substance was his 1932 novella The Adventures of
the Black Girl in Her Search for God, written during a visit to South Africa in
1932. The eponymous girl, intelligent, inquisitive, and converted to
Christianity by insubstantial missionary teaching, sets out to find God, on a
journey that after many adventures and encounters, leads her to a secular
conclusion. The story, on publication, offended some Christians and was banned
in Ireland by the Board of Censors.
Letters and diaries
Shaw
was a prolific correspondent throughout his life. His letters, edited by Dan H.
Laurence, were published between 1965 and 1988. Shaw once estimated his letters
would occupy twenty volumes; Laurence commented that, unedited, they would fill
many more. Shaw wrote more than a quarter of a million letters, of which about
ten per cent have survived; 2,653 letters are printed in Laurence's four
volumes. Among Shaw's many regular correspondents were his childhood friend
Edward McNulty; his theatrical colleagues (and amitiés amoureuses) Mrs Patrick
Campbell and Ellen Terry; writers including Lord Alfred Douglas, H. G. Wells
and G. K. Chesterton; the boxer Gene Tunney; the nun Laurentia McLachlan; and
the art expert Sydney Cockerell. In 2007 a 316-page volume consisting entirely
of Shaw's letters to The Times was published.
Shaw's
diaries for 1885–1897, edited by Weintraub, were published in two volumes, with
a total of 1,241 pages, in 1986. Reviewing them, the Shaw scholar Fred Crawford
wrote: "Although the primary interest for Shavians is the material that
supplements what we already know about Shaw's life and work, the diaries are
also valuable as a historical and sociological document of English life at the
end of the Victorian age." After 1897, pressure of other writing led Shaw
to give up keeping a diary.
Miscellaneous and autobiographical
Through
his journalism, pamphlets and occasional longer works, Shaw wrote on many
subjects. His range of interest and enquiry included vivisection, vegetarianism,
religion, language, cinema and photography, on all of which he wrote and spoke
copiously. Collections of his writings on these and other subjects were
published, mainly after his death, together with volumes of "wit and
wisdom" and general journalism.
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