The ministry of education of the republic of azerbaijan university of

THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN
AZERBAIJAN UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES

Copyright

HAYRULLAH YANIK

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW AND EUROPEAN THEATRE

Specialization: HSM – 020003- (English literature)

MASTER DISSERTATION

ACADEMIC ADVISOR: Assoc. Prof. Nesir Khankishiyev

BAKU – 2008

IF YOU CITE ANY INFORMATION FROM THIS THESIS, PLEASE

INFORM ME VIA [e-mail]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages INTRODUCTION 3-7

CHAPTER I
Main aspects of Bernard Shaw’s life and creative work 8-36
CHAPTER II
George Bernard Shaw as dramatist and director 37-67
CONCLUSION 68-70
BIBLIOGRAPHY 71-75

INTRODUCTION

Theater is obviously one of the oldest methods used as a mean of communication by human being. As a result of research which have done by researchers, it is clear that people have used theatre to express their ideas and feelings for not only people whom they lived in their age but people also lived after them, and people who live today since ancient times. We can improve that claim by giving example of the figures and pictures which were drawn on the walls of caves and on stones. Therefore, we can perceive that human being has used theatre for ages.

As a matter of fact, theatre emerged as a result of imitation. Humans’ efforts to imitate each other causes by making fun of or modeling on each other. As everybody knows, marriage turned out to be game by being played by children reflecting and resembling parents’ action and behaviors. Most of us used to play this game in our childhood.
One point that should not be avoided is theatre hasn’t carried out imitation by performing only positive characteristics of society and individuals, but it has also put negative sides of society and individuals on stage. Of course, the ultimate purpose of the theatre is not only to display beauties and good things, but also to reveal the faults, falsifications, and deficiencies in society and individuals. However, the problem was that even till late 1800s, playwrights hesitated to express problems experienced by different individuals and existing condition in society. Most of the time they had taken the themes and subjects of the works from ancient Greek mythology or put plays on the stage fantasized by them. Works and plays of these playwrights were not conveyed to ordinary people, in other words individuals out palace. Written plays and novels either praised a king, sultan, and upper-class men or entertained them and were performed in theatres. Briefly speaking, people to whom these plays were
dedicated were the representatives of noble classes. Additionally, the themes that writers could work on were limited. This limitation was carried out by church which had authority and power considering either dominant or noble class or European Theatre. Displaying faults and mistakes of church was considered to be sin. The ones who tried to show faults of church and clergymen were severely punished. Therefore, writers hesitated and were of showing problems. For example, Christopher Marlowe was excommunicated from Christianity andThomas Kyde was tortured.
Although Romanticism and romantic novelists and playwrights who emerged after classicism age underlined problems of society and individuals, the themes and subjects of written works comprised mainly love, beauty, and nature. These works were not those which stated people’s problems. Themes and subjects of famine, unemployment, hypocrisy, injustice in politics and government, and war had become part of works only in late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. During 19^th century Chekhov in Russia, Strindberg in Switzerland, and Ibsen in Norway were the writers and dramatists who selflessly wrote problems of individuals and society. Theatre were not only satisfied with making people laugh and entertain, but it also started to make them reason, Especially Ibsen provided transition of theatre from romanticism into realism by highlightening major themes and using methods. Critics of that time called him the founder of modern theatre.
In late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Bernard Shaw who was prominent and remarkable writer, dramatist, film maker, stage manager, theatre and music critics, and orator, besides owner of other skills followed Ibsen’s way, too. Bernard Shaw clearly expressed himself to be the follower and the successor of Ibsen by extolling him in his work “Quintessence of Ibsenism””. He is one of the writers who lived longer, Shaw always emphasized on all problems of the society and continuously struggled against them all his lifetime.
Shaw not only expressed and put the problems on the stage, but he also made people laugh and think about them. The main point is that he also revealed ways of solution to these problems and put them forward. This concept of theatre having formed in Shaw’s creativity was called “Intellectual Drama”. To take all these factors into consideration, Shaw has become the only and first person in the world who was honoured by both Nobel Prize in literature and Oscar Award in film industry.