The ministry of education of the republic of azerbaijan university of

Scientific innovation of Dissertation. In the historical literature of Azerbaijan, dissertations almost do not exist which analyzing Shaw’s creative features and resources of them, reflecting Shaw’s views having been put forward with regard to socio-political problems, revealing his contributions and innovations brought by him to the World and European theatre and drama as a director, and showing Bernard Shaw’s approach to “Intellectual Drama”. In this respect this master dissertation can be considered as a first step in this realm.
Theoretical and practical importance of the Dissertation. This dissertation can be benefited in scientific lectures and seminars in colleges and universities to give information and enlighten students studying on literature of foreign countries. This dissertation could be also useful for research activities in literature field that might be carried out in the future.
Structure of Dissertation. With 75 pages, this dissertation consists of introduction, chapter I, chapter 2, conclusion, and bibliography.
In the first chapter, dissertation gives a plenty of information about Bernard Shaw’s life, touches creativities of Strindberg, Chekhov, and Ibsen who have important role in Shaw’s creative activity and creative work, and talks about his creativity until he is rewarded with Nobel Prize and later period, and amplitude of subject is specified.
In the second part, we talk about Shaw’s directing activity, setting, structure, and specifications of his plays which brought him an award of Oscar are taken up, dicuss his Intellectual drama concept and characteristic features of
his satire, humor, irony, paradox, discussion, and remarks used in his plays, and give information about secularization of the themes which he touched.
Finally, at the end of this dissertation, conclusion and bibliography were included.

CHAPTER I

MAIN ASPECTS OF BERNARD SHAW’S LIFE AND CREATİVE WORK

George Bernard Shaw, the one and only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature and an Oscar award for his contributions to filmmaking, is known as the most outstanding playwright after Shakespeare. In general, his writings mainly include logical dialogues related to religion, politics, marriage, music, and arts. In spite of a vein of comedy, his works were written with serious endeavours to influence thoughts and attitudes of readers, listeners, and audience. He was able to shock and surprise his audience and readers by frequent modification of traditional views and overturn of events in his plays. In addition to his excessive focus on views and thoughts, Shaw created a collection of the most memorable dramatic characters known from the seventeenth century till nowadays. Shaw is noted as the most prolific playwright (53 plays known so far), the best theatre critic of his generation, the most readable music critic and the most productive letter writer.

Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, on June 26, 1856, as the third child of a poor genteel family of Protestant ancestry. His father, George Carr Shaw, was an unsuccessful grain merchant. He also worked as a high sheriff of Kilkenny in south-west Ireland but was rather poor and had restricted authorities. Although classified as a middle class in England, “high sheriff” is still considered a high-rank title in Ireland. Shaw’s alcoholic father later married Elisabeth Lucinda Gurly, who was born in Country Carlow and was a daughter of a big land owner in Carlow, Walter Bagenal Gurly. This marriage gave them three children: Lucinda Frances, Eleanor Agnes and George Bernard Shaw. Financially, the family was not well-off. The young wife,
however, had a nice voice and started to work as an amateur Mezzo Soprano singer. After she had met her music teacher George John Vandaleur Lee, she continued her music career with him. Although financial standing of the father was bad, the children managed to get music education owing to their mother’s opera skills. Bernard Shaw, the only son of the family, started his education at a Protestant school. In 1867 he returned to the school, where he had studied just for three months in 1865. As he gained no success here, he moved in 1868 to another school, where Catholic students also attended. In 1870 he entered another protestant school called English Scientific and Commercial Day School, where he built up a life-long friendship with Edward Mc. Nalty, a student famed as a novelist, dramatist, and bank manager. Shaw took linguistic classes from the governor of St. Bride’s Church, William George Carroll. Like all other students of the Church, he was then transferred to Dublin’s Wesleyan Connexional School, which is nowadays recognized as Wesley University. Shaw was usually the last student in his class for his success rate. In 1927, he was asked such a question by the journal Schoolmistress: “Do you want to go back to school years?”. Shaw’s reply: “Oh my God… No! Who would like to go through a severe prison life for the second time? But my cell was not a prison. The children who love school are those who are afraid of their mothers and fathers more than their teachers.” (8, 282).
It should also be noted that Shaw gained a perfect knowledge of music thanks to composers visiting their house. When he was fifteen and yet very young, he knew thoroughly at least one piece of famous music masters such as Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Rossini Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdy. At the National Gallery of Ireland, Bernard Shaw studied art pieces and by the age of fifteen he was skilled enough to recognise at first glance the works of many artists.
After attending Protestant and Catholic schools, Shaw did not continue his education but kept learning on his own. This fact helps to clarify the reasons
of why he had independent and original thoughts. In 1871, aged fifteen, he did not attend any university influenced by his uncle and instead started to work at Dublin estate agent’s office for an annual earning of 18 pounds. At the age of sixteen, one of the clerks unexpectedly resigned and Bernard Shaw permanently took over his position as a senior clerk. In 1876, when he was twenty, he quitted this position, as he always found it very boring, and went to London. Because of alcohol addiction and impoverishment of Shaw’s father ending up with family collapse, his mother took her daughters and moved to London. Later Shaw characterised his mother as a cold and merciless woman. Shaw had his first contact with press before he went to London. Moody and Sankey, a travelling preacher, gospel singer, and a missionary from America, were once visiting Dublin on some occasion and Shaw attended the event in order to hear songs derived from the Gospel Bible, believed to be a real Bible. After he had heard them, he sent an “S” marked letter to the journal “Public Opinion”. In his letter he mentioned about his faith and that all their thoughts and statements about faith have nothing to with religion. He admitted that he is a godless atheist as long as the religion is what the gospel singers tell us. This letter made people and critics recognise Shaw as an atheist and godless person with quite clear thoughts. Even nowadays Shaw is recognized as an atheist by some people who fail to understand his views and goals. Apparently, first impression is very important as it remains in the minds of people for years. This first speech of Shaw in contacting with press introduced him to the public as an atheist.
Supported by his mother and sister, Shaw spent most of his time reading books at the reading hall of British Museum. In the evenings he was attending as an observer to conferences and debates of middle class intelligentsia. Shaw first started to write critiques by ghost-writing for Lee's music column in journal “The Hornet”. He lived his first years in England in poverty and facing numerous troubles. At that time he used to wear old and ugly clothes, because publishers usually rejected him and he could not earn money at all. A total sum
of his earnings during these years was only six pounds. All these years (1876- 85) he was striving to earn his living as a music critic and continued writing his play “Passion” using long sentences. However, he did not manage to finish this play. Times later, for a tiny payment he wrote one article for “One and All”, editor of which was George R. Simms. Then he earned five pounds writing an article about medicines, notes on textbooks, and editing five novels. Throughout these years he was financially supported by his mother and partly by his father, who was in the struggle for survival doing grain business, which was still of significance in Dublin. Shaw recounts the living conditions in that period as follows: “I didn’t throw myself into the struggle for life. I threw my mother into it. I was not a labourer in the last days of my father. I was grasping the tail of my father’s coat. I behaved as I thought. I steadily wrote my five pages a day and made a man of myself instead of a slave.” (39, 884).
Between 1879 and 1883 Shaw wrote one 5 novels i.e. one per each year. In addition, he wrote “A Practical System for Moral Education for Females”. This work was published as “My Dear Dorothea” after his death. His first novel was “Immaturity”. This novel was rejected by all publishers, including Chapman and Hall. It was eventually published in 1930. A reader, George Merit wrote a “No” headlined article about this novel. The article cited: This work was thrown aside and sentenced to gnawing by mice. But even the mice failed to complete gnawing.” (68). The other novels such as “The Irrational Knot”, “Love Among the Artists”, “Cashel Byron’s Profession” and “An Unsocial Socialist” were also rejected and remained unpublished until Shaw gained a number of friends in political circles. These novels were later published in a serialised form in the journal “Propagandist”. Shaw’s late statement about these novels: “I wrote them because I knew I had to do something and was in capable of doing anything else. I hated them and felt ashamed of them afterwards, for they reminded me of the dreadful years when I walked the streets of London in shabby clothes without a penny in my pocket. But they taught me my job.” (67).
In 1882, Shaw, aged 26 and an author of four unpublished books, attended a public meeting held at the Memorial Hall, Farrington Street, London and organised by Henry George for land nationalization. Shaw believed that social problems of the society could be solved by nationalization of the country, simplification of taxes, and investment of all funds in reliable private ownership of land. Shaw decided to attend George’s debate campaign thanks to which he gained a life-long friend and a colleague, Sidney Webb. But after he read “Das Capital” by Karl Marx, he became a socialist longing for nationalization of all main properties and capital. In fact, Shaw’s human nature was contrary to this desire. Through this campaign Shaw made close friendships with James Leigh Joynes, Sidney Olivier (then Lord Olivier), Henry Hyde, the Rev. Stewart D. Headlam, Henry S. Salt, his future wife, William Morris, Annie Besant, Edward Carpenter, Sidney, and Beatrice Webb. Following the closedown of “Today”, Shaw started his work at “Fabians Society” and in the meantime Shaw’ friend Mrs. Besant issued a new journal called “Our Corner”. In these days Shaw had a keen interest in sports. He did boxing at London Athletic Club and showed up on rings during amateur contests.
“Cashel Byron’s Profession” did not succeed very well though it had specific artistic features. Years after Shaw himself ironically parodied this novel in his piece “Admirable Cashel”, written as a freestyle poem. Written in a style other than that of the eighteenth century writers, his novels seemed to have used a language which did not best describe Shaw. Instead of description and prose, he used a dialogue method, where characters had lengthy talks. Shaw had difficulties in expressing his views and thoughts by these novels. Therefore later he shifted from novels to plays.
Nevertheless, novels served him an exercise for writing plays. In his plays he returned to topics previously addressed in his novels. The topics which migrated from his novels to his plays include the hatred of hypocrisy, fake
respect, illogical social disparities, laws, politics, church, and any kind of clergy that considered poverty to be an ordinary case.
Finally fortune smiled upon Shaw. He wrote book critiques for the newspaper “Pall Mall Gazette” and painting critiques for “The World”. Shaw started to work as a music critic at “Star” writing under the pseudonym “Corno di Bassetto”. While working here, Shaw undertook to edit “Fabians Essays in Socialism”. Later on he wrote for the journal “The World” under the pseudonym with initials of his name, G.B.S, (Geroge Bernard Shaw) and worked for the journal “Saturday Review” as a play critic. In addition to criticism, Shaw continued his work on political propaganda, though it was difficult combine both. Although he spent too many years on writing about differences between science and religion, Henry George’s journal, “Progress and Poverty” diverted his attention to political economy. He devoted his years working on “Das Capital” by Karl Marx. This book which he read in French led to collapse of his views about capitalist culture. In this period Shaw was surprisingly busy expressing his opinions and thoughts at least three times a week in front of a big crowd. Over ten years he gave nearly a thousand lectures in parks, circles, schools, and universities. He dedicated himself to making continuous appeals to audience representing all classes of the society from a student at university to laundry lady. From 1883 to 1885, every weekend, twice or more times, he joined the people and made speeches in a question-and-answer or debate format. On November 13, 1885, he even took part in a protest act organised in London, “Trafalgar Square” in order to condemn police restriction of marches and gatherings open to public. However, the marchers were ruthlessly split before they reached the square and this incident was marked in the history of England as “Bloody Sunday” (39, 884).
In 1884, as a frequent visitor and an author of three books of “Fabian Society”, Shaw became an active member of it. He had his chair in the governing board of the “Fabian Society” between 1885 and 1891. “Fabian
Society” was a social group movement representing middle class. This group believed that capitalism created an unfair and unequal society and it was possible to gradually convert from capitalism to socialism. Members of this Society played a significant role in formulation and improvement of British government and society. Shaw wrote critiques on the music works of foremost German composer, Richard Wagner, and made criticism of the plays of Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen. At that time Richard Wagner was presented to the public as a crazy man and Ibsen’s pieces were introduced to have no power of attraction and value. Shaw helped a lot to change attitudes towards these two writers. In 1898, he wrote “Perfect Wagnerite” in support of Wagner. In 1891, he wrote “Quintessence of Ibsenism” to extol Ibsen. Shaw valued Ibsen’s works as they aimed to exterminate and challenge accepted traditional perceptions. He praised and applauded paradoxes and contrasts used by Ibsen. In 1898 Shaw’s health suffered as it could not resist the impacts of hard work. In the same year he married Charlotte Payne-Townshend. Although this marriage helped his health to recover, he was no more energetic and active in the tribunes as before. Instead, he spent most of his time writing an article called “Common Sense of Municipal Trade”. He attended elections for taking his seat in Country Council. However, election results revealed that conservatives and liberals voted against him. It was just an open nomination to elections. Shaw’s major political activity was associated with the committee of “Fabian Society”. At this particular period of time he was less famed as a book writer. Nevertheless, he was a good critic and a struggler with perfect sense of humour. He wrote “The Sanity of Art” in response to Dr. Max Onordau’s “Degeneration”. This work was published in an American journal. Shaw began to write theatre critiques in the journal “Saturday Review”, where he expressed his thoughts of modern theatre by demolishing traditional concepts.
He finished his first play seven years after he had started to cooperate with William Archer. The reason for this delay was that William Archer left
Shaw alone. Shaw could write unique and matchless dialogues and conversations but he was not very good at forming and structuring. And William Archer was not very strong in writing dialogues. He believed that he had been endowed with skills of setting and structuring. They decided to combine their skills and write a play. Archer wrote a comedy, “Rhinegold”, which was full of nonsense and foolish statements. Shaw considered this piece as an insult to theatre. Shaw had no way but to modify the structure. He did so and they separated. Archer was not willing at all to see the finalised version of the play. Seven years later, considering the urgency of financial support to the “Independent Theatre”, he finished his play which is a scientific research about property right. The play was first staged in December, 1892 at “The Royalty theatre” under direction of Mr. Grein. In the meantime Archer was writing for “The World”. He wrote articles aiming to force Shaw to resign from being a playwright. In one of his notes he wrote: “He does not have a specific ability to be a playwright and he fails a little bit in forming and structuring.” (67). In 1893, Shaw wrote another actual and local comedy, “The Philanderer”, which was about modern women and Ibsenism for the same theatre hall but the play technically did not match the requirements of Mr. Grein’s company. Aiming to find a substitute for this play, Shaw wrote “Mrs. Warren’s Profession”, which had also been refused and censured for a license by Lord Chamberlain and were not be able to performed until this play was staged remarkably on October 5, 1902 at “Stage Society theatre” and “The New Lyric theatre”. The actors of Arnold Daly, who staged this play in 1905 in New York City, were later sued to a law court. Shaw wrote “Widower’s Houses”, but this play was also censured. This play was produced borrowing devices and aims from Ibsen’s pieces. The above three works were classified by Shaw as “Plays Unpleasant”.
“Arms and the Man” was introduced to the public in April 5, 1894, Florence Farr, who gained experience at “Independent Theatre” and by Mr. Richard Mansfield who worked at “Herald Square”. Events described in this
play take place in Bulgaria. The play’s target is to condemn romantic falsifications and make a tough and mortal criticism of prevailing military mood in that period. “Candida” was written in 1894 and highly succeeded in Germany with Agnes Sorma acting in the role of Candida. This piece earned Shaw many friends, for it was aimed at proving innocence and rightness of house woman. In 1895 he wrote “The Man of Destiny” and “You Never Can Tell”. The above four plays were published in 1898 under the title “Plays Pleasant”.
Furthermore, from 1894 onwards he gained a rapid and sound popularity across the world. He already proved to be a dramatist who could get his plays published for universal circle of readers with carefully written prefaces (it was an innovation in London at that time) on political, social, religious and biological problems. Shaw had remained as a playwright with no access to stage until his plays received a license for London stage in 1904. However, he had gained popularity in New York City and Germany six years before he did in London. Shaw’s prefaces were closely related to his plays. He commented on his own prefaces in the following way: “Why should I look for the others to extol me if I can do it myself?” (8, 270). His response to a reporter: Every play and every preface I write is a messenger of new information. I am a postman of modern times….” (8, 270). “Sunday Graphic”: “Why do you feel obliged to write long prefaces to your plays?” Shaw: “There will be two prefaces and three plays in my new book. If you buy it, you will get what you paid for. When you get tired of reading the plays you favour, you may read the prefaces that will improve your minds.” (8, 295).
In 1901 Shaw wrote a collection of works known as “Three Plays for Puritans”. This collection contained the plays “The Devil's Disciple“, “Caesar and Cleopatra“, and “Captain Brassbound's Conversion“. “The Devil’s Disciple” served as a parody of the feelings and passionate drama experienced during American Rebellion in 19^th century. In America, however, the play reached huge success owing to Shaw’s repost and wit endowed, funny dialogues and
smoothly presented events. This play was the first work that Shaw earned money.
Shaw’s next play was “Man and Superman”. Shaw transformed “Man and Superman” to Don Juan legend. It was like play within a play. This play turns the traditional Heaven belief into Hell. The Devil prefers to escape from life’s woes, but contrary to him Don Juan presents reasons and ideas for improving of life in the world.
In 1898, when the second edition of his “Plays Pleasant and Plays Unpleasant” were published, he could not find a constant English audience and therefore the plays were performed at “Royal Court Theatre” under direction of
T.E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville Barker. Thanks to T.E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville Barker these plays gained admiration of audience. “Man and Superman” was published in 1903. The play was put on the stage in 1905 at the same theatre by Granville Barker, who was the author of “Revolutionist’s Handbook” and “Memory Book” published as an additional input to Shaw’s “Man and Superman”. In 1902 the Fabianists achieved the attendance of H.G. Wells to the inner circle of “Fabian Society”. However, Shaw and The Webbs realised the self-confidence of Wells as being in much closer relationship with the workers and ceased his desire to take over “Fabian Society”, directed by left- wing supporters. In his novel “The New Machiavelli” published 1912, Wells showed his reaction especially to The Webbs by jesting at them. “John Bull’s Other Island”, which implied a criticism of Ireland, highly succeeded before the independence. Shaw wrote “Major Barbara” in 1905 and “Doctor’s Dilemma” in 1906. With “Major Barbara” and “Doctor’s Dilemma”, Shaw continued to write through high comedies, to explore religious consciousness and to point out society's complicity in its own evils. In “Major Barbara” he exalted volunteers and dedicated members of the “Salvation Army”, while on the other hand he criticised the ethics which allowed neglect of deeds and “laws” of an munitions manufacturer. Shaw thus expressed his views on the movie version of “Major
Barbara” produced for the United States of America in 1940: “You gave us old navy ships and in return I sent you films produced on the basis of my old works.” (8, 300).
In his following work, “The Doctor’s Dilemma”, Shaw seriously surveyed people’s pains and torments for which he criticised stage creativity, characters and, professions. The works he wrote afterwards included “Getting Married” (1908), which was short of action and contained only several debates and “Misalliance” (1910) , and “Fanny’s First Play” (1911). “Misalliance”, like some of Shaw’s other works, deals with child attitudes in problematic families. It was not a random motif for him. In some cases he even recalled the troubles between his parents and the loneliness he suffered after her mother had gone to London having left her alcohol addicted husband. “The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet” (1909) is reflective of Shaw’s mysterious characteristics. This work is devoted to horse-thief’s talks about religion and ethics. “Androcles and the Lion” is about a Roman slave, Androcles. It is the retelling of the tale of Androcles, a slave who once helped a lion in the woods and was saved for hostage by the same lion. At the same time Shaw dealt with true and false religious exaltation in a philosophical play about early Christianity.
Shaw's comedic masterpiece, and certainly his funniest and most popular play, is “Pygmalion” performed in 1913. “Pygmalion” is a didactic play about phonetics. Shaw derived the motifs of this play from a Roman legend. It is a legend about a sculptor who falls in love with a female statue made by himself. The sculptor’s name was “Pygmalion”. “Pygmalion” deals with public power and problems among classes. The play reflects a power imbalance between a Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle and a Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins. Henry Higgins bets to pass Cockney into a flower girl, Eliza, as a duchess by teaching her a nice speech. However, Higgins does not even devise of what this bet will cause to Eliza. After Higgins turns Eliza into a duchess, Eliza realises that she had become a slave deprived of her freedom. Eliza objects to Professor
Higgins and regains her freedom. In 1939 Shaw was awarded an “Oscar” for film production of this play.
In 1917 Shaw published his following work called “How to Settle the Irish Question”. In 1917 Shaw expressed the following in respect of the Irish question: “It is not a question of good or bad government as long as one nation is unwillingly being ruled by another nation. It will remain as a bad government even if it ensures a perfect discipline and welfare of everybody….. It is terribly painful to force one nation to unnatural behaviours….. I do object to being ruled by a race which is believed to be dominant. English folk may perceive this statement of mine as they want. It doesn’t matter whether their status is higher, lower or equal; I object to being governed by English folk.” (8, 279).
During the war Shaw and H.C. Wells held debates on the subjects of war and peace. Shaw kept writing and making speeches on creating a more reliable world after the war. He opposed sentencing people to death. During general elections in 1918 Shaw joined the promotion campaign of Ramsey Mc. Donald, who was one of the leaders of Labour Party of England. He wrote warning notes on child death cases in the huts across Dublin. As a supporter of peaceful world, Shaw defended the idea of establishing a leading United Nations community after the World War I. For mothers’ healthcare he also suggested giving the right of euthanasia to mothers, whose pregnancy check-up and treatment was impossible.
Shaw had succeeded in European countries and America much earlier than he did in England. He gained popularity in Russia after he had sent Lenin his play “Back to Methuselah” putting his signature on it. Lenin made notes on the pages he had received and this work became one of the most readable ones in Soviet Union during half a century.
He lectured at Fabians Summer Schools in 1922. He wrote “The Worst Journey in the World” to reflect impressions of Apsley Cherry Gerard, the only
survivor of Captain Scott’s three-person expedition to the North Pole. It was the same year when “Back to Methuselah” was first put on stage in America.
During the war Shaw preferred to be on the neutral side, which caused a considerable undermining of his reputation in England. He had to face disregard and insult by press and people. In 1920 Shaw finished his play “Heartbreak House”, where deeply pessimistic play was Shaw’s response to the war, and it exposed the spiritual bankruptcy of the generation just before the war. Its characters represented England’s educated and leisured classes, whose weakness and futility symbolize the decay of civilization. This work had as sub-title of “A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes” and implied an appraisal and appreciation of the creativity of Russian writer Anton Chekhov. The following quote demonstrates Shaw’s attitude towards to the start of the war by England and France against Russia: “It is our duty to prevent this horrible war from hiding underneath Tolstoy’s coat….When we fight for the Tsar we are not fighting for Tolstoy and Gorky, but for the forces that Tolstoy thundered against all his life.”(8, 276). After the war had finished Shaw was in search of a way of getting rid of pessimism. In 1921 he wrote his play titled as “Back to Methuselah”. The play discovers the reasons of human pessimism and provides explanations on how to obtain optimism.
Shaw finalised his late work “Saint Joan” in 1923 after Vatican had declared Joan of Arc a saint in 1920. Shaw gave Joan an image of a charming holy woman and a genius with ecclesiastical skills. Shaw drew attention to the fact that society always ignores moral values. Shaw was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1925v for “Saint Joan”. But he did reject the monetary more than 700 pounds award requesting it to given to English-Swedish organisation for dissemination of Swedish literature in English speaking countries.
It is also known that majority of Shaw’s work written and performed after he was forty and the best plays of Shaw, “Heartbreak House”, “Back to Methuselah”, and “Saint Joan” were written after he was sixty.
Apart from above works, Shaw wrote “The Cassone” in 1890, “Passion, Poison and Petrifaction” in 1905, “The Glimpse of Reality” and “The Fascinating Foundling” in 1909, “Overruled” in 1912, “The Great Catherine” and “The Music Cure” in 1913, “The Inca of Jerusalem” in 1916, “Annajanska” in 1917, and “Augustus Does His Bit” in 1919.
After getting a Nobel Prize, Shaw continued his following years by writing “Apple Cart”. This work gives an alert of new crises likely to cover Europe and provides people with best hints on how to deal with problems and make utmost use of their capabilities. Shaw’s feedback to 1929 critiques on “Apple Cart”: “Any criticism of my works with outdated and superficial approaches can never be reliable. Such approaches will give you what you are after and you will get no feedback of the money you paid.” (8, 286).
Having Staged in 1926, “Saint Joan” attained a tremendous success and consequently restored Shaw’s undermined fame. “Saint Joan” was performed in Germany and England. That same year, Shaw himself read “O’Flaherty V.C” at BBC.
Shaw’s encyclopaedic and political work, “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism”, was published in 1927. In three years it was transformed into a huge work with a vocabulary of two hundred thousand words. The following quote from Shaw reflects his appraisal of this work: “I could write a number of works at that time. But it would be a deep sorrow if I died without having written a textbook on socialism which I had taught all my life. (8, 14). Written in a language that could be understood even by ordinary housewives, “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism” refers to a country and a society as “a big house” and “a big family”, respectively. It provides a clear statement of the impacts of political situation and economy to peoples’ everyday life and specifies the problems of capitalism and socialism. Published in England and America, this work drew attention of a big audience and the number of sold out copies reached ninety thousand shortly.
Ramsey Mc. Donald named this work as the “the greatest work of mankind after the Bible”. In 1980 this work was praised by Margaret Walters as one of the most significant documents on women’s rights (8, 14).
Some time later Shaw attended the funeral of Thomas Hardy, an English poet and writer, whose heart was buried in the village where was born. There he met Frank Harris, who was planning to write about his life. While travelling with his wife to the French Riviera, Shaw visited the United Nations Organisation in Geneva. Opposing the book restrictions imposed by common libraries for different reasons, Shaw wrote a letter of objection which was signed by forty five writers, including T. S. Eliot, Virginia Wolf, E.M. Forster, and Julian Huxley. Shaw’s involvement in public and political matters along with literature expanded especially between 1920 and 1930. From time to time Shaw was giving interviews to various newspapers, journals, and radios of England, the United States of America and other developed countries. He also continued writing essays and letters about current problems.
The first volume of Shaw’s collection of works was published in 1930, while the 33^rd volume was published in 1938. For the first time in his life Shaw attended the studio production of the film called “How She Lied to Her Husband”, produced on the basis of one of his plays. Shaw had a chance to say nice words about Albert Einstein during a welcoming party arranged for him in London, Savoy Hotel. He also visited the holy lands in Jerusalem. In 1931 he started an anti-pollution campaign launched for preservation of the nature in Ayot Saint Lawrence, where he had been several times throughout his life. He met Stalin while he was visiting Moscow with his wife Mrs. Astor. He also met Stanislavskiy, Gorky, and Lenin’s widowed wife Mrs. Krupskaya. During these visit, he said the following words about the government of Russia: “Russia needs a five year plan for aesthetics rather than a five-year economic plan… You Russians are not good revolutionaries at all. The success of King Henry VIII was more than yours when he abrogated monasteries. And so did Cromwell
in Ireland…. The English accomplished revolution long ago. But you Russian passed the half way only….”. Shaw made the following comments when he heard about the horse race in Moscow bearing his name: “I suppose there will be only one horse in the race since there is no competition in a Socialist State.…" (8, 289).
On his way back from Russia, Shaw met Ghandi, an initiator of resistance movement for independence of India i.e. England’s former colony. After this meeting he gradually started to advocate liberation of colonies from England. When Ghandi was killed in January of 1948, he expressed his sympathy saying the following words: “Now you can see what threads can be borne by being a very good man….” (8, 311).
In the same year he attended “Arms and the Man” film production in England. He was elected the head of Literature Academy of Ireland. “The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God” was staged within the same year. “The Glimpse of Reality” was brought to stage first in Boston and later in Malvern. Afterwards Shaw went on a voyage across Italy and Greece.
The play “On the Rocks” was staged and performed in London in 1933 and 1934 respectively. In the same year Shaw worked on the scenarios of “The Devil’s Disciple” and “Saint Joan”. "Village wooing" was published and staged in the same year. “The Six of Calais” was also put on stage. Then he travelled to India, China, and Japan as part of his cruise to the Far East. He took a keen interest in the vision and religious beliefs of the East. He happened to visit the Great Wall of China. He was welcomed in Japan as a person of great interest. He criticised the country’s proliferation policy and investigated the Buddhist temples. Having travelled across the eastern countries he went to North America, when he met and was a guest of the king of press Mr. Randolph Hearst. When he was in New York, he delivered a speech at the Metropolitan Opera on behalf of the American Academy of Political Sciences. After his journey to America he travelled to New Zealand and made a speech at “Fabian
Society” in Wellington. There he emphasized that schoolchildren shall be supplied with milk by the government free of charge.
In 1935 Shaw was awarded a title of honoured representative of London. “The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles” was performed in Malvern Festival. In an effort to save his health from the effect of aging Shaw decided reduce his working hours and went on vacation to South Africa. There he proposed to create a favourable environment for promotion of marriages between whites and blacks in order to put an end to racial discrimination. “The Millionairess” was published in 1936. Shaw’s eightieth birthday was celebrated in Malvern during his trip to America. In 1933 Dr. Fritz Erwin Loewenstein came to London having escaped from German Nazis, and Shaw assigned him to review all his notes and writings and create “Shaw’s Literature”. Shaw’s “Cymbeline”, a play adjusted to Shakespeare’s identically named work, was put on stage in 1937, London. The play was published a year after. Following his visit to Webbs whom he helped in writing “The Soviet Communism”. The play “Geneva” was introduced to the world audience in Malvern, in 1938. Shaw prepared “Pygmalion” as a screenplay by support of Gabriel Pascal however it was considered a humiliation because of scenario by Shaw. In 1939 Gabriel Pascal developed a screen script for “Major Barbara”. The play “In Good King Charles’s Golden Days” was performed and published during the same year in Malvern. “Geneva” was published later. Then he published his protest book called “Common Sense about the War’'. When German fighter jets bombarded his house in London, he moved to a suburban house in Ayot Saint Lawrence. He named this house as “Shaw’s Corner”. He made a satiric comment on counter bombing of cities by English and German fighter planes in 1941: “The way to stop this bombing game is to throw pamphlets instead of bombs advising people of the fact it will take Germany 470 years to exterminate England as long as they can kill 233 persons every day and we will need even more time to exterminate them.” (8, 300). During his interview with an American journalist in
1941, he expressed his concern of the danger imposed by Hitler: “There is a very dangerous madman wandering in Europe… He needs to be immediately caught and rendered harmless….. Hitler is not only our headache but also yours. We want you to joint the hunting” (8, 299).
In 1941 Shaw launched an international campaign targeting the prevention of bombing attacks to big cities and people. He criticised restrictions applied to press due to the warfare. He continued writing notes, letters and essays aimed at warning the states and societies of global problems. In 1943 Shaw opposes of revenge taking, criticised the arrestment of Ghandi, who struggled for establishment an independent Republic of India liberating it from England. He also favoured the idea that no other “Reich” can be established in Germany anymore. Shaw’s wife passed away shortly after the death of her close friend Beatrice Webb. In the same year Shaw finished his work called “Everybody’s political what’s what” Published in 1944; this work attracted a keen interest of readers. In 1944, after the end of the World War II Shaw made various proposals for creating a world that would be worth living for all people. “Caesar and Cleopatra” was modified for the purposes of film production. He attended the film production and selected music pieces to be performed. In 1945 Shaw gave messages on fatal consequences that could be caused by use of recently invented atomic bombs in wars. After the World War II was over, Shaw opposed the Nuremberg Trials as he was concerned that judgement of Nazis by hanging would turn them into heroes. Despite his respect for the Soviet Union, he was not pleased with the initial success of Communism in Russia and therefore stated that there is no democracy in the Soviet Union. In 1946, aged ninety, he was nominated as an honoured fellow of Dublin and Pancras and this nomination was solemnly celebrated. On July 26, 1950, after having read in “Times’' that he had spent a "restful" day, Shaw was ready to explode: “Restful!!! Restful, with the telephone and the door bell ringing all day! With the postmen staggering under bushels of letters and telegrams! With the lane
blocked by cameramen, television, photographers, newsreaders, interviewers, all refusing to take No for an answer. Heaven forgive “The Times”. I cannot” (8, 313). During the year 1947 he continued writing on various themes including the threats of atomic bomb, protection and enhancement of writers’ copyrights etc. In 1948 Shaw participated at the jubilee publication of “Fabians Essays in Socialism”. “Sixteen Self-Sketches”, devoted to Shaw’s private life, was published in 1949. His play “Shakes versus Shav”, written for puppet show, was staged in the same year for the first time. He also expressed his surprise when he found out about the willingness of the Soviet Union to start a new war just at the eve of development of cold war. He supported the work on the creation of 40- letter alphabet aimed at improving and easing English spelling. He changed his will in order to spare some money for the work on variation of English alphabet. When “New York World Telegram” spread news about his death on July 23, 1948, he gave the following response: "Your news is immature. I am more dead than alive. Please, correct your mistake (8, 311).
His reply to the question of London Evening News, “What inscription would you like to have on your tomb stone?”: Here sleeps Bernard Shaw... Who was this bloody man?” (8, 314).
His last works during a special broadcast by BBC were as follows: “Goodbye everybody! Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye….” (8, 314). The plays performed after Shaw’s death included “Dear Dorothea” (1956), “How to Become a Musical Critic” (1961), “Platform and Pulpit” (1961) and “An Exhibition” (1977).
Besides, Shaw kept writing disputable prefaces for his pieces. He sent his works to publishers one after another. He wrote strict letters to editors of newspapers. He had his thousands of private letters published. These letters were sent to famous writers of English stage as well as Ellen Terry and Mrs. Patrick Campbell. The other recipients of his letters included his close friends and other prominent persons such as Alma Murray, Miss Alma Murray, Beatrice
Webb, Florence Farr, Granville Barker, Siegffried Trebitsch, and Alfred Douglas. These letters, named as “Collected Letters”, were published in 4 volumes by D.H. Lawrence between 1965-1988.
On November 2, 1950 Shaw fell off a ladder while picking up apples in the garden on his property outside of the city. His injuries did not heal and he died, aged 94, in St. Lawrence.
As stated earlier, the name of Bernard Shaw in English literature stands next to that of William Shakespeare. Both were instrumental in development of English theatre and European theatre as a whole. Bernard Shaw opened a new stage of development in English drama, which had witnessed a thriving prosperity in the Period of Reconnaissance. As the sole and most deserving follower of Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw deserves the name of the creator of contemporary English drama. Endowed with best practices of English drama and the experiences of foremost theatre masters Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov, Shaw’s creativity was a new page in the drama of the twentieth century. Bernard Shaw’s creative work was instrumental in formulation of the principles for “Intellectual drama” initially reflected in the works of Ibsen, Chekhov, Gorky, Rolland, Hauptman, and Maeterlinck between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Shaw was not only a glorious English dramatist but he was also renowned as a master of satire, humour, and paradox. His works remain current. He started his theatre career just at the time when the English theatre was to face a crisis. He saved the English theatre from being led to crisis by entertaining and sentimental play shows of “commercial theatres” and laid a path for development of the theatre addressing social needs and problems. The first decade of the twentieth century was a remarkable part of the history of England as it had gained a number of dramatists who were striving to tell truths about social life in the country, disparity of women, injustices towards a labour class, and abnormal family relationships etc. All of them were to a certain extent influenced and inspired by Bernard Shaw (71).
Bernard Shaw’s drama activity was triggered by opening of “Independent Theatre” in London in 1891. The theatre was founded by a prominent English stage director Jacob Grein. Grein’s main goal was to familiarise English audience with contemporary drama. At that time the ambition of “Independent Theatre” was to introduce “a drama full of ideas” in response to abundant entertainment plays forming the repertoire of most English theatres in those days. The repertoire of “The Independent Theatre” mainly included numerous plays of Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, and Gorky etc. Bernard Shaw also started to write plays for “Independent Theatre”.
Almost no significant contribution was made to English drama during the period between the late drama of Shakespeare and early works of Bernard Shaw. English drama had not reached its peak level since the times of Reconnaissance, when English drama had experienced its utmost prosperity. Even the English drama of the eighteenth century has no points of interest. To a certain extent only Sheridan and Goldsmith could excel and succeed at this period of time. Even the romanticists like Byron and Shelly, in spite of their perfect poetics drams, could not embrace the whole theatre. Their drama works were more intended for reading. Classic themes comprised almost the whole repertoire of English theatre until the twentieth century. Only trivial farces and idle melodramas were performed in the stages. The signs of the revival of socially significant English drama were evidenced only in the sixties of the twentieth century. For the first time in his life, Thomas Robertson described the realities of modern bourgeois society in his plays “Society” and “Ours” etc. Henry Arthur Johns and Arthur Pinero also traced this path. They gave rise to development of serious drama, which addressed the problems of modern times.
In general, the showing-up of Bernard Shaw in European drama and theatre was an unanticipated event. Why unanticipated? Because a genius theatre master Bernard Shaw unexpectedly showed up and gave a fresh breath of life to European theatre at the times when it suffered depression from the Period of
Reconnaissance and Shakespeare till the second half of the nineteenth century. When Shaw just found his way to drama, England, unlike France, and Germany, was much beyond the search for naturalistic themes and the struggle for development of new realistic and other creative trends.
Decisive and dynamic nature of Shaw’s drama caused revival of European theatre. Shaw was persistent about wiping out artificial “ideal masks” of bourgeois English society. A quote from his book “Quintessence of Ibsenism” reads: “Our ideals, like the gods of old, are constantly demanding human sacrifices.” (60, 29).
Shaw urged his contemporaries to renounce “ideals” that hindered development of the society and stop sacrificing themselves and others for such ideals. Shaw’s drama intended to affect and impel the perceptions of mankind, to save people from handcuffs of the society and raise their intellect.
As an educated person with profound knowledge of philosophy, aesthetics, religion, and natural sciences, Bernard Shaw perfectly addressed in his works the questions of how to better change the temper of society and to evoke the conscience of people. The essence of his views was that both the actors performing his plays and the audience shall be philosophers capable of perceiving and advocating his ideas. Shaw’s works represent a combination of poetry, socio-political journalism, and oratory. Bernard Shaw has also found his place in the history of music as a professional music critic. He also considered himself a professional economist and a connoisseur of other social sciences. Shaw’s work on theatre has been a phenomenon over centuries. Another reason for high appreciation of Shaw’s work on theatre is that Shaw’ drama, like that of Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, played an utterly significant role in the formulation of new trends of realism in the theatre of 19^th century.
Shaw tried to write about realities. Shaw demonstrated and constantly questioned in his plays the realities, social life, religion, moral values, law and
public, metaphysics, and materialistic events. While questioning he also tried to reflect his own views. He loved himself being called as an artist-philosopher.
Shaw wrote ironically about irresponsibility and hypocrisy of bourgeoisie. Unlike his contemporaries, his creativity provides a wider coverage of social problems. He used theatre as a medium for raising public awareness of the problems addressed in his works. Social problems served him as materials of theatrical importance.
Shaw’s works have a diverse nature in terms of description of social faults. For instance, his works respectively embraced the topics like life in the huts in “Widowers’ Houses”, act of perfidy in “Mrs. Warren’s Profession”, philosophical and religious inquiry in “Misalliance”, “Andcrocles and Lion”, and “Heartbreak House”, meta-biological prophecy “Back to Methuselah”, performing chronological order and records in history “Caesar and Cleopatra” and “Saint Joan”. Shaw provided in his works numerous illustrations of various sceneries in America, Bulgaria, France, Germany, and Ireland. For instance, descriptions of Bulgaria in “Arms and The Man” and descriptions of France and England are given in “Saint Joan”. Furthermore, he always paid attention to details such as timing and location of romantic events which deserved to subjects for clear and picturesque paintings.
In the context of religion, Shaw was not influenced by any faith. He was not a reformist like Luther and Calvin. Reflecting misconceptions of beliefs, he followed an innovative trend. Although he criticised religious believers, he never made any criticism of religion. He always had respect for faith. “It’s very strange that he criticised the church from all aspects and did not say any single word against faith.” (14, 21).
In fact Shaw was espoused to a belief that God, the Life Force, as he called it, is perfect but he did not believe in perfection of human beings. “I would support a thesis that all modern realities, whether old or new, come from
God but my inner and outer observations show that a toy of the life force may be sinful and make ridicule of his message.” (14, 21).
Several works of Shaw are written on religious themes. These works include “Saint Joan”, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize, “The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet”, “Man and Superman”, and “Back to Methuselah”.
He tried to express the following religious beliefs in his works. God, otherwise the Life Source, tend to manifest his excellence. As long as a father, whose children get sick, does his best in order to save the lives of his children from threats of illnesses and disasters, then God, the All-knower, Superior, and Almighty, will certainly not allow the consequences of fear and disaster to injure the lives of His creatures. The main reason why God gave life to his creation was that He willed to reflect His perfection on it. God will wipe out or crush these creatures and objects into piece if they remain useless and do nothing for years. This axiom could be a good explanation of why mammoths had been eradicated. Most probably, these creatures committed a sin against God and God, in turn, made them disappear, and instead created a human, who is still under trial. Hence, Shaw gives messages to the world and the mankind. If we, human beings, do not succeed in reaching the goal of God, then He may turn us into a useless particle as he did with mammoths. He kept emphasizing the point that religious men shall be very wise and their behaviours shall serve an example to others. In his opinion, what religious men taught people was different from what was written in religious books: “I was believed and impressed in my Irish Protestant infancy with the belief that every Catholic, including especially the Pope, must go to hell as a matter of divine routine. When I was seven years old, Pope Pius IX ruled that I, though a little Protestant, might go to heaven, in spite of my invincible ignorance regarding the Catholic religion (14, 22).
It is well known that Bernard Shaw is one of the founders of European theatre and contemporary social drama as a whole. Ideologically Shaw’s drama
is abundantly endowed. He criticised social views. His views of socialism are innovative and evolutionary. He believed in evolution, not revolution. His understanding of philosophy did not imply any compulsion. He constantly stated that if something is to be done, it is essential to convince the society of it. Also, it is the duty of literary and scholarly people to convince them as they are capable of changing the society with their appeals and writings. As per his philosophy, a movement is something that first strikes a mind. One has to believe in it first. He strictly criticised anarchy as well as customs, traditions, and laws of society. Nevertheless, he was aware that a change is something that requires time. Some people even accused him of doing it all for money. One day he gave an interesting response to such accusations. A Lord, who wrote him a play hoping to get his appreciation, said to Shaw that he had written it not for money, just for fame and honour. Shaw’s reply: “Both of us write for things we don’t have.” (14, 18).
Shaw’s also addressed political topics in his works expressing his views on all political matters. Shaw described lacks and flaws of capitalism and tried to offer solutions. He approved it by topics he had touched upon in his articles, statements and works. “Apple Cart” is the best work in terms of analysis and handling of political matters (extravaganza). “Apple Cart” is a story about a struggle for leadership between the King Magnus and the Minister Proteus.
Shaw constantly addressed the theme of poverty in his works. In his opinion, poverty is the cause for all evils and immoralities. And the main reason of poverty was that workers were not paid the price they deserved. His main argument was that workers did most of the work and their employers made a big profit of it. It was a huge injustice. He claimed that numerous problems of the society accompanied with poverty led to its spiritual collapse.
A quote from Shaw regarding the poverty reads: “All capitalists are disgusting. The poor and the wealthy really hate each other. I hate poverty and
want it to be eliminated with all my heart.” (14, 23). This quote reaffirms his hatred of poverty.
Shaw’s plays and other works not only demonstrate the problems of the society but also disclose their reasons. Shaw believed that poverty is the main reason for most problems of society. He claimed that poverty leads people to sins and evils. For instance, in “Mrs. Warren’s Profession”, Mrs. Warren chose to be sinful (prostitution) not because she willed so, but because of the social structure and subsequent poverty. Mrs. Warren chose to be so for her daughter Vivie to be able to get good education and enjoy a bright future.
In Shaw’s opinion, illiteracy was one of the main reasons of problems encountered in the society. Therefore, he believed that it is essential for the society to get educated and illuminated, so society are able to struggle most of the problems. He spent his lifetime trying to enlighten the society with messages and thoughts reflected in his work. Pursuing this goal, Shaw criticised the education of his times and underlined the need for changes in educational system.
A quote from Shaw reads: “I wonder if you have any hopes or dreams about education and development? I personally don’t have any” (14, 14).
Shaw emphasised in his writings that a bodily hunger and needs of a human can be satisfied, but a spiritual hunger and needs is somewhat difficult to deal with. The most essential point here to satisfy society’s spiritual hunger. Therefore, he emphasised the need for upgrading the quality of education as well as people’s reading and writing skills. As a result, he supported the idea that educated and literate society would not suffer any poverty.
In Romanticism, the artists defended the idea that “art is for art”. They did not pay enough attention on the themes like education. They treated arts as a path leading to God. Romantics isolated themselves from the society and put more stress on feelings rather than wits. Despite his sharp criticism of many aspects of romantics, his one particular feature was very similar to that of romantics. Shaw shared the same view with romantics stating that a romanticist
shall serve as a guide for society. This personal feature made him work hard. The audience or society was sick and tired of the themes like love and beauty. On the contrary, they were in need of artists and ideas that would address their problems and put forward the ways of solution. Traditional plays could not meet the demand of audience anymore. Ibsen and Shaw were very well aware of it.
Shaw was bound to society with a sense of great love. Each and every individual in the society was very important to him. In Shaw’s views, a human being survives with and exists for society. Therefore, Shaw gave more room in his plays and essays for describing the women’s status and the difficulties they face, and ways of fighting these difficulties. He was one of the prominent writers who wrote about these topics using a folk’s language instead of palace language. In “Pygmalion”, for instance, he passed off an illiterate Cockney flower girl as a duchess. The hero in “Saint Joan” is also a girl. “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” and “Heartbreak House” are devoted to woman problems and their loneliness in the struggle for life.
Shaw defended women’s rights all his life and tried his best to improve the position of women in the society. In his works he addressed and condemned the acts of violence and tortures in families against women. He emphasized the importance of sharing of equal rights both by men and women. In this respect, he wrote “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism”, called as the most significant book after “Bible”. A friend of Shaw thus described the situation of women in Victorian period:
“He pulled apart the curtains covering the secrecy of women of our times. I grew up without knowing that women are much brighter and more different than us. I was totally deprived of tenderness being ugly dressed and unattractive. When they were looking at me I had a feeling of social inferiority. Women were so mysterious to me. The first ten years of the century had had very bad influence on the women of Victorian Age. Women were not as they were created to be. They were considered as unapproachable and hence, fearful. This is
because they are covered and the cover they have increases their mysteriousness. Of course, their half-naked showing up during dinner time was an exception. In this time women were still covered. Perception of women as legless creatures could be well understood at the times when long skirts were in fashion. When I was ten, I realised that woman was as a creature with a pair of strength limbs, made of meat up to ankles.” (14, 48).
As we can perceive from above quote, social status of women was not at the place they deserved. Shaw saved the women from being in vulnerable situation and brought them to the status they deserved. Hence, it was possible to see women in any braches like politics, trade, and business. Women were always in a position that they were ruled and commanded by somebody. Step by step women succeeded in enjoying a life style that gave them a right to manage command and vote. Ibsen’s works also referred to a woman as moral value. Shaw, however, raised women to a level that enabled them to manage families, jobs, and country. For such views, Shaw was even recognised as a feminist, whereas his endeavour was just to praise women in a way they deserved. In fact, he addressed one of the critical problems of society i.e. disparity among people. In his opinion, possession of some rights was a natural right of a woman in society who was always ready to defend her country willingly and bravely. As a matter of fact, he never made any distinction of men, women, children, and elderly. As a result, his efforts for defending of all human rights.
Last but not least important, it should be noted that Shaw did not believe that any “-ism” would torch light on the problems of people and society. The way out only he could foresee was the entire change of public structure. The following quotes from Eric Bentley make it quite clear why Shaw thought so: “Show did not put much value in “-isms”. He thought that such doctrines are of no use for mankind. His attitudes make me confident about this point. Even though Shaw characterised himself as a propagandist and socialist, he used to say that he writes neither for strikes, rebellions nor for labourers. Regardless of
his socialist background, his views of the welfare of arts and society were not really associated with socialism, capitalism, feudalism or any other “-ism”. Neither he was a socialist angle nor a capitalist evil” (14, 55).