Arms and the Man (Annotated) E-Book

George Bernard Shaw

• Herausgeber: ePembaBooks
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

• This edition includes the following editor's introduction: George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Laureate in Literature and a reference in Irish literature

“Arms and the Man” is a humorous play by the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, first produced at the Avenue Theatre in 1894 and first published in 1898, in a collection of Shaw’s plays entitled “Plays Pleasant.” The play title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid, in Latin: Arma virumque cano (" Of arms and the man I sing").

“Arms and the Man” shows the futility of war and deals comedically with the hypocrisies of human nature. Set during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian war, the play follows Raina Petkoff as she chooses between her fiancé, the rather stupid war hero Sergius Saranoff, and a cynical mercenary from the opposing army, Captain Bluntschli.

“Arms and the Man” was one of Shaw's first commercial successes.

Leseprobe

George Bernard Shaw

Table of contents

George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Laureate in Literature and a reference in Irish literature

Arms and the Man

Introduction

Act I

Act II

Act III

George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Laureate in Literature and a reference in Irish literature

The course of Irish literature changed with the impact of the work of author George Bernard Shaw.

He stood out both in the world of playwriting and journalism, becoming one of the most outstanding figures in Europe at the time.

He was born in 1856 in the city of Dublin, in a bourgeois and Protestant family. He got his first job when he was only sixteen years old, when he had not yet finished his education. This is the reason why his last years of learning were self-taught.

She moves to London with her sisters after the separation of her parents. He acquires a close glimpse of the art world through his mother, who became a music teacher.

Shaw's interest was not in that branch of art, but in writing. He began working as a journalist and theatre critic.

Discovering his passion for creative writing, he decided to publish serialized novels. Initially, this work resulted in low demand and, therefore, low income, which forced him to live in penury.

Today, he is remembered as an important Irish playwright due to such significant works as " Arms and the Man" (1894), “Man and Superman” (1902), “Pygmalion” (1912), and his political protest-play about prostitution “Mrs. Warren's Profession” (1893). Shaw was awarded the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Impact of socialism on his work

From the beginning of his career, this author expressed his support for the socialist political ideology. This thought arose as a consequence of his admiration for the work of Karl Marx, inspiring him to join the Fabian Society.

In this way, Marxism changed Shaw's perspective, presenting works with themes of heavy social criticism.

This influence was also evident in his newspaper articles, with the inclusion of commentary comparing the ideas of socialism to the capitalist societies of Europe.

The initial notoriety that appears in George Bernard Shaw's life is due to his work in theatrical criticism for the Saturday Review newspaper.

In his criticisms, his position with respect to Ibsen's theatre was clear, defending it at every opportunity.

Controversial themes in his works and acknowledgements

In the end, he decided to put his knowledge of theatre into practice, writing his first productions as a playwright. Shaw would use this genre to exploit his criticism of the theatre.

His initial play was entitled “Widowers' Houses” (1892), in which the influence of Ibsen's theatre could be evidenced. It exhibits the primary intention of all Shaw's productions: to serve as a didactic guide for aspiring playwrights.

The plot of this play revolves around injustice and social hypocrisies. These topics would become recurring themes in the author's theatrical presentations.

This is the case of “Mrs. Warren's Profession” (1893). With this story, Shaw criticizes capitalist ideologies through a controversial theme for the time: prostitution.

Both theatrical productions stand out for maintaining a light tone despite the seriousness of their themes. This is thanks to the type of acid humour that would become a hallmark of all the works of this writer.

It is precisely this balance between jocularity and severity that attracted a large audience to Shaw's works. In 1925, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for the poetic beauty infused among the satire of his plays.

A curious aspect is that most of his audience was formed just by the middle class that the author criticized with his productions.

The opposition to conformism through realistic and comic currents was observed throughout the Irishman's literary career. The inclusion of humorous elements among pessimistic topics led him to be recognized worldwide.

The Editor, P.C. 2022

Arms and the Man

George Bernard Shaw

Introduction

To the irreverent—and which of us will claim entire exemption from that comfortable classification?—there is something very amusing in the attitude of the orthodox criticism toward Bernard Shaw. He so obviously disregards all the canons and unities and other things which every well–bred dramatist is bound to respect that his work is really unworthy of serious criticism (orthodox). Indeed he knows no more about the dramatic art than, according to his own story in "The Man of Destiny," Napoleon at Tavazzano knew of the Art of War. But both men were successes each in his way—the latter won victories and the former gained audiences, in the very teeth of the accepted theories of war and the theatre. Shaw does not know that it is unpardonable sin to have his characters make long speeches at one another, apparently thinking that this embargo applies only to long speeches which consist mainly of bombast and rhetoric. There never was an author who showed less predilection for a specific medium by which to accomplish his results. He recognized, early in his days, many things awry in the world and he assumed the task of mundane reformation with a confident spirit. It seems such a small job at twenty to set the times aright. He began as an Essayist, but who reads essays now–a–days?—he then turned novelist with no better success, for no one would read such preposterous stuff as he chose to emit. He only succeeded in proving that absolutely rational men and women—although he has created few of the latter—can be most extremely disagreeable to our conventional way of thinking.

As a last resort, he turned to the stage, not that he cared for the dramatic art, for no man seems to care less about "Art for Art's sake," being in this a perfect foil to his brilliant compatriot and contemporary, Wilde. He cast his theories in dramatic forms merely because no other course except silence or physical revolt was open to him. For a long time it seemed as if this resource too was doomed to fail him. But finally he has attained a hearing and now attempts at suppression merely serve to advertise their victim.

It will repay those who seek analogies in literature to compare Shaw with Cervantes. After a life of heroic endeavor, disappointment, slavery, and poverty, the author of "Don Quixote" gave the world a serious work which caused to be laughed off the world's stage forever the final vestiges of decadent chivalry.

The institution had long been outgrown, but its vernacular continued to be the speech and to express the thought "of the world and among the vulgar," as the quaint, old novelist puts it, just as to–day the novel intended for the consumption of the unenlightened must deal with peers and millionaires and be dressed in stilted language. Marvellously he succeeded, but in a way he least intended. We have not yet, after so many years, determined whether it is a work to laugh or cry over. "It is our joyfullest modern book," says Carlyle, while Landor thinks that "readers who see nothing more than a burlesque in 'Don Quixote' have but shallow appreciation of the work."

Shaw in like manner comes upon the scene when many of our social usages are outworn. He sees the fact, announces it, and we burst into guffaws. The continuous laughter which greets Shaw's plays arises from a real contrast in the point of view of the dramatist and his audiences. When Pinero or Jones describes a whimsical situation we never doubt for a moment that the author's point of view is our own and that the abnormal predicament of his characters appeals to him in the same light as to his audience. With Shaw this sense of community of feeling is wholly lacking. He describes things as he sees them, and the house is in a roar. Who is right? If we were really using our own senses and not gazing through the glasses of convention and romance and make–believe, should we see things as Shaw does?

Must it not cause Shaw to doubt his own or the public's sanity to hear audiences laughing boisterously over tragic situations? And yet, if they did not come to laugh, they would not come at all. Mockery is the price he must pay for a hearing. Or has he calculated to a nicety the power of reaction? Does he seek to drive us to aspiration by the portrayal of sordidness, to disinterestedness by the picture of selfishness, to illusion by disillusionment? It is impossible to believe that he is unconscious of the humor of his dramatic situations, yet he stoically gives no sign. He even dares the charge, terrible in proportion to its truth, which the most serious of us shrinks from—the lack of a sense of humor. Men would rather have their integrity impugned.