1|Page
G B Shaw and following poet P. B. Shelley’s example, he
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was born in turned into a vegetarian. After he heard the
Dublin. American economist Henry George speak, he
Shaw was a dramatist, novelist, an essayist, became a socialist and when he met his Fabian
pamphleteer, music and drama critic. friends Beatrice and Sidney Webb, he joined
In the year 1876, fearing that he would never the Fabian Society. He read Karl Marx’s Das
achieve his ambitions as a musician or a Kapital to understand socialism in depth and
painter, he left Ireland to join his mother in to expand his knowledge. Shaw was also
London. There he first began work as a music greatly influenced by the German thinker Karl
critic in a weekly paper in which he was Marx (1818–1883) who developed his socialist
successful and also began freelancing in theory after observing the lives of the factory
writing. In London, he resided with his mother’s workers in the north of England.
partner George John Vandeleur Lee who He came to be well received in the literary
organised operas and concerts and used Shaw’s circles with his publication of The Quintessence
musical talents. Shaw got from his mother the of Ibsenism (1891). The playwright who had
love for music, which became useful for him in the most influence on Shaw was the
London. He became a music critic on the Star, Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen, who wrote
a London evening newspaper. He often visited realistic and intellectual dramas about pressing
public libraries and particularly the reading social issues that had never before been
room at the British Museum. It was in his discussed on the stage. Shaw details his debt to
reading room that he began experimenting Ibsen, in the context of Shaw’s own socialism,
with the form of novel and wrote several in The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891, rev.
novels in between the years 1880 to 1883 but 1913). Immediately after Shaw’s time, his
they were not well received by publishers. influence on drama was eclipsed by the more
Shaw was inspired to become a member of symbolic, avant-garde, and impressionistic
the Fabian Society a new socialist organization (although no less politically challenging) work
established in 1884 and became a dedicated of Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) and Samuel
Socialist. In London, he joined several debating Beckett (1906–1989).
team in his bid to fight his self-consciousness
2|Page
Shaw believed in a universal Life Force, an Byron’s Profession (1886) and An Unsocial
energy which, when combined with progressive Socialist (1887).
social awareness, improved the natural man. Among the short story collections to his credit,
Shaw had refused a knighthood in 1923, but at the ones that deserve mention are One of the
the request of his wife had accepted the Nobel Lesser Tales is The Miraculous Revenge (1885)
Prize for literature in 1925, requesting that the and The Black Girl in Search of God and Some
prize money be used as the fund for the Lesser Tales (1934). The latter resembles the
translation of the playwright August allegory form in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s
Strindberg’s works. Progress, in which a Christian convert sets on a
Shaw was also the co-founder of the London quest to find God. Shaw, who is better known
School of Economics and Political Science in for his plays, had penned 63 plays, which were
1895, along with his fellow Fabians, Sidney and first performed on stage in the 1890s.
Beatrice Webb and Graham Wallas. In collaboration with William Archer, Shaw
Bernard Shaw took from Victorianism its moral began writing his first play Widower’s Houses
earnestness and commitment to social reform, which was an attack on the slumlords in 1880s
but he left behind its nationalism and its and was performed at London’s Royalty
confidence that core British values would steer Theatre in 1892. The play was included in the
a sure path to a brighter future at home and collection Plays Unpleasant (1898) along with
around the world. The Philanderer (1898) and Mrs. Warren’s
Shaw is more in line with the “naturalism” Profession (1898). Shaw’s collection titled Plays
movement which began in late 19th century Pleasant (1898) included the plays The Man of
France, culminating in the novels of Guy de Destiny (1897), Arms and the Man (1894),
Maupassant (1850–1893) and E´mile Zola Candida (1898) and You Never Can Tell (1897).
(1840–1902). Among these plays Arms and the Man and
Literary Career Candida were more popular. Arms and the
Man is an anti-romantic comedy with the twin
At the beginning of his literary career between
themes of love and war in the background of
1879 and 1883, Shaw wrote five novels titled
the Serbo-Bulgarian War. Shaw questions the
Immaturity October (1887), The Irrational Knot
reality of Romantic love and highlights the
(1905), Love Among the Artists (1881), Cashel
3|Page
futility of war and violence. A musical Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891) highlighting
adaptation of the play was called The the works of the Norwegian playwright Henrik
Chocolate Soldier (1908), performed by the Ibsen. Here he stated the quintessence of
German Operetta. The World War I had shaken ‘Ibsenism’ was that “there is no formula”.
Shaw’s faith in humanity and it found a Among his well known later plays are Man and
reflection in the play Heartbreak House (1919) Superman (1903), Major Barbara (1905),
written after the war. Pygmalion (1913) and Saint Joan (1923).Based
The collection Three Plays for Puritans on the Don Juan theme, Man and Superman is
published in 1901 contained The Devil’s about the romance between two rivals John
Disciple (1897), Captain Brassbounds Tanner and Ann Whitefield, in which Shaw
Conversion (1900) and Caesar and Cleopatra famously focuses philosopher Friedrich
(1901). The Devil’s Disciple is an interesting Nietzsche’s idea of the ‘Superman’ (one who is
play about an outcast from his family and a self- responsible for the creation of values in a world
proclaimed devil’s disciple, Richard “Dick” where God is dead).
Dudgeon, which is set in colonial America. While the woman-centric play Major Barbara
Another collection of Shaw’s plays titled Back is about an officer of The Salvation Army Major
to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch) Barbara Undershaft and her changing
(1921) begins with a preface and a series of five convictions of providing true salvation. This was
plays In the Beginning, The Gospel of the followed by Pygmalion a major success on the
Brothers Barnabas, The Thing Happens, stage and which was also adapted most
Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman and As Far as successfully as the musical film My Fair Lady
Thought Can Reach. These plays are based on earning Shaw an Oscar. The play critiques the
the two principles of ‘Creative Evolution’ and rigid British class character centering on a
‘Life Force’ in which Shaw believed in and the Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle who is
series traces the beginning from the Garden of trained by a Professor of phonetics Henry
Eden to that of a futuristic time. Higgins in fluent speech and etiquettes/
Shaw revolutionised drama and the dramatic manners to pass for a duchess at an
art by highlighting the moral, political and ambassador’s garden party. Shaw is believed
socio-economic issues. He had written The to have been considered for the Nobel Prize in
4|Page
Literature for his play St. Joan, based on the A British socialist organisation whose purpose
canonised saint, Joan of Arc was to advance the principles of socialism via
Shaw had also written criticism on music and gradualist and reformist, rather than
drama, several letters and polemical essays revolutionary, means. It is best known for its
such as “Maxims for Revolutionists” (1903), initial groundbreaking work beginning late in
“On Going to Church” (1905), “How to Write a the 19th century and continuing up to World
Popular Play” (1909), “Treatise on Parents and War I. The society laid many of the foundations
Children” (1910), “Common Sense about the of the Labour Party and subsequently affected
War” (1914), “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide the policies of states emerging from the
to Socialism and Capitalism” (1928), “Essays in decolonisation of the British Empire, especially
Fabian Socialism” (1931), “Our Theatres in the in India.
Nineties” (1932), “Dictators – Let Us Have Iconoclasm:
More of Them” (1938), “Everybody’s Political George Bernard Shaw is well known for his
What’s What?”(1944) and “Sixteen Self “iconoclasm”. An iconoclast is one who attacks
Sketches” (1949) among other works. He was a popular beliefs or established values and
journalist and an art critic and wrote for practices. In his time, Shaw was convinced of a
newspapers such as The Pall Mall Gazette, The necessary moral revolution in the social order
World, The Star, The Saturday Review until he and through his works satirised conventional
had been well established as a playwright. social ideals and institutions.
From 1904 to 1907, Shaw had entered into a
successful theatrical partnership with Barker
and John Vedrenne at the Royal Court Theatre
which accounted for seventy percent of his
staged works. Shaw always encouraged
amateur playwrights and also encouraged
Harley Granville Barker who was twenty one
years his junior, with whom he shared one of
his closest friendships.
Fabian Society:
