George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950)

George Bernard Shaw

Journalist

George Bernard Shaw

Journalist, music critic

George Bernard Shaw

Journalist, music criticPamphleteer

George Bernard Shaw

Journalist, music criticPamphleteerFabian society

George Bernard Shaw

Journalist, music criticPamphleteerFabian societyIntelligent Women’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism

George Bernard Shaw

Journalist, music criticPamphleteerFabian societyIntelligent Women’s Guide to Socialism and CapitalismMarx + Darwin

George Bernard Shaw

Journalist, music criticPamphleteerFabian societyIntelligent Women’s Guide to Socialism and CapitalismMarx + DarwinCo-founds London School of Economics

Dramatist, Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant

Dramatist, Plays Pleasant and UnpleasantPrefaces; afterwords; appendices

Dramatist, Plays Pleasant and UnpleasantPrefaces; afterwords; appendicesPrint; layout

Dramatist, Plays Pleasant and UnpleasantPrefaces; afterwords; appendicesPrint; layoutIbsen campaign: The Quintessence of Ibsenism

Dramatist, Plays Pleasant and UnpleasantPrefaces; afterwords; appendicesPrint; layoutIbsen campaign: The Quintessence of IbsenismTurning Ibsen into radical critic of society

Comedy

Inversion and surprise

Comedy

Inversion and surpriseOscar Wilde, aphorisms

Comedy

Inversion and surpriseOscar Wilde, aphorismsShaw as alternative dandy (hipster?)

Opening scene

Character types: overbearing mother, fidgety son

Opening scene

Character types: overbearing mother, fidgety son

Taking words literally: “of course”

Opening scene

Character types: overbearing mother, fidgety son

Taking words literally: “of course”Advise masked as executive decision

Opening scene

Character types: overbearing mother, fidgety son

Taking words literally: “of course”Advise masked as executive decision Surprise: son knows little about family’s affair

Opening scene

Character types: overbearing mother, fidgety son

Taking words literally: “of course”Advise masked as executive decision Surprise: son knows little about family’s affairInversion: son too young to begin matchmaking, even in his own case

Lady Britomart

Articulating conventional view, taking it to an extreme

Lady Britomart

Articulating conventional view, taking it to an extreme

Wilde’s Lady Bracknell, Importance of Being Earnest

Lady Britomart

Articulating conventional view, taking it to an extreme:

Wilde’s Lady Bracknell, Importance of Being EarnestViolet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham

(Magie Smith), in Downton Abbey

Obliviousness"she has developed a propensity to have her own way and order people about which quite cows me sometimes. It's not ladylike: I'm sure I don't know where she picked it up." (61)

Obliviousness"she has developed a propensity to have her own way and order people about which quite cows me sometimes. It's not ladylike: I'm sure I don't know where she picked it up." (61) Undershaft being unaware of his family.B: "This is your family."U: "Is it so large? I am sorry to say my memory is failing very badly in some things.”

Obliviousness"she has developed a propensity to have her own way and order people about which quite cows me sometimes. It's not ladylike: I'm sure I don't know where she picked it up." (61) Undershaft being unaware of his family.B: "This is your family."U: "Is it so large? I am sorry to say my memory is failing very badly in some things.”

U: "Mr. Cusins: I am much indebted to you for explaining so precisely." 67

Comedy of Ideas

"I, the dramatist whose business it is to shew the connexion between things that seem apart and unrelated in the haphazard order of events in real life, have contrived to make it known" (37)

Institutions

Weapon’s manufacturerversus

Institutions

Weapon’s manufacturerversus Salvation Army

Lady Britomart. "It is only in the middle classes, Stephen, that people get into a state of dumb helpless horror when they find that there are wicked people in the world. In our class, we have to decide what is to be done with wicked people; and nothing should disturb our self-possession." (56)

Lady Britomart. "It is only in the middle classes, Stephen, that people get into a state of dumb helpless horror when they find that there are wicked people in the world. In our class, we have to decide what is to be done with wicked people; and nothing should disturb our self-possession." (56)Military-industrial complex (Eisenhower)

Undershaft’s anti-hereditary system of succession

Undershaft: "I am not one of those men who keep their morals and their business in water-tight compartments” (70)

Undershaft’s anti-hereditary system of succession

Undershaft: "I am not one of those men who keep their morals and their business in water-tight compartments”

The Voysey Inheritance:Mr. Voysey: "you must realize that money making is one thing, and religion another, and family-life a third."

Weapon manufacturing – Salvation Army

Weapon manufacturing – Salvation Army

Act II+III: conflict between these two institutions

Weapon manufacturing – Salvation Army

Act II+III: conflict between these two institutionsand their interrelation

• U's credo: Undershaft. Two things necessary for salvation.Cusins. [disappointed, but polite] ah, the Church Catechism, Charles Lomax also belongs to the Established Church.Undershaft. The two things are – Cusins. Baptism and – Undershaft. No. Money and gunpowder.Cusins. [surprised by interested] That is the general opinion of our governing classes. The novelty is in hearing any man confess it.Undershaft. Just so.

• U's credo: Undershaft. Two things necessary for salvation.Cusins. [disappointed, but polite] ah, the Church Catechism, Charles Lomax also belongs to the Established Church.Undershaft. The two things are – Cusins. Baptism and – Undershaft. No. Money and gunpowder.Cusins. [surprised by interested] That is the general opinion of our governing classes. The novelty is in hearing any man confess it.Undershaft. Just so.

Undershaft. . . without enough of both [money and gunpowder] you cannot afford the others.Cusins. That is your religion?Undershaft. Yes. (93)

Undershaft. . . without enough of both [money and gunpowder] you cannot afford the others.Cusins. That is your religion?Undershaft. Yes. (93)

Lady Britomart: "Really, Barbara, you go on as if religion were a pleasant subject. Do have some sense of propriety." (72)

Religion - Capitalism

What the Salvation Army does for the poor:

Cusins. It makes them sober – Undershaft. I prefer sober workmen. The profits are larger.

Religion - Capitalism

What the Salvation Army does for the poor:

Cusins – honest – Undershaft. Honest workmen are the most economical.

Religion - Capitalism

What the Salvation Army does for the poor:

Cusins – attached to their homes -Undershaft. So much the better: they will put up with anything sooner than change their shop.

Religion - Capitalism

What the Salvation Army does for the poor:

Cusins – happy -Undershaft. An invaluable safeguard against revolution.

Religion - Capitalism

What the Salvation Army does for the poor:

Cusins – unselfish -Undershaft. Indifferent to their own interests, which suits me exactly.

Religion - Capitalism

What the Salvation Army does for the poor:

Cusins – with their thoughts on heavenly things –Undershaft. And not on Trade Unionism nor Socialist. Excellent.

Undershaft. You are not bringing any capital into the concern.

Cusins. What! No capital! Is my mastery of Greek no capital? Is my access to the subtlest thought, the loftiest poetry yet attained by humanity, no capital?

Cusins. All power is spiritual.

Fabian Society

Socialism, but not by revolutionary means (rather, by “evolution”).

Fabian Society

Socialism, but not by revolutionary means (rather, by “evolution”).

Distribution of ownership of production

Fabian Society

Socialism, but not by revolutionary means (rather, by “evolution”).

Distribution of ownership of productionReformism