How do you consider Shaw as a writer of comedies?

Discuss the use of humour and wit in the plays of Shaw with special reference to the Arms and the Man.

Ans.

Shaw is regarded as a great humorous and witty dramatist of England. Winston Churchill once called him ‘a great jester’ and in the opinion of Cazamian, “He possessed to the highest degree inventiveness, with humour.” In the field of wit and humour, he is next only to Shakespeare. As a witty writer he can be classed better than Butler, Wilde and Sheridan. He inherited the Irish blood which has produced great wits such as Swift, Wilde, Sheridan, George Farquhar, Congreve, Oliver Goldsmith and Sean O’Casey.

Shaw is the master of wit rather than emotion. As a wit he is superior to most other writers of English language. His wit is flashing, sparkling. cutting, sharp, bitter, piercing and sometimes even explosive, defiant and arrogant, while at other it is also revengeful. His wit is wonderful but it is based on reality and truth. Here are given some of his witty remarks:

(1) Marriage is a legalized prostitution.

(2) We have no friends but dogs; our women are not beautiful but ornamented; we are not educated but college passed.

(3) When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always decides that it is his duty.

(4) Martyrdom is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

The jokes of Shaw always amuse us. The lapse of time does not make any difference in their interest. He often uses diminutive and funny nicknames in order to produce comic effect, such as, Ricky Tavy; Fratateeta, Brollikin, etc. He presents falsehood in such a way as it appears truth to his listeners. Mark how he confesses openly: “My reputation is build up fast and solid, like Shakespeare, on an impregnable basis of dogmatic reiteration.” While expressing his views on economics politics, art, literature, sociology, philosophy, science. Shaw has ridiculed the peculiarities and defects of Englishman probably because like all other Irishmen he too suffered from some inferiority complex in the company of the English man. The following are his views about the English man :

(1) He is a barbarian and thinks that the customs of his tribe and land are the laws of nature.

(2) After all whatever you say, they like an Englishman.

Shaw’s humour is verbose. He may be compared to the clown of Shakespeare. He can talk whatever comes to his mouth, yet nobody feels offended.

Shaw is a first rate wit. He does not give any importance to emotion. He had the devastating wit of an Irishman with the penetrating logic of a French man. He distrusts emotions and never lets his characters involve in emotional utterances emerging from the heart. He appeals more to the mind than to the heart. Although he has often been regarded as a mere wit, and therefore not entitled to a place in the rank of the great humorists of the world.” Yet a deep study of this plays reveal that his plays “are more humorous than witty.” Sen Gupta Writes. “Shaw gets mere sentiment and penetrates the instincts which form the bed rock of human character. His plays are often witty in form but they are always humorous in substance.”

Shaw made a contribution of a fresh type of comedy of purposeful fun to English literature. “Shaw’s fun is something peculiar to himself, an effervescing, bubbling up, eternally youthful and joyous exuberance of spirit. He is continually inserting ideas and poking fun at us, at his audiences, at his character, at ideas. Overall, Shaw has thrown the mantle of his peculiarly dominating sense of fun, just as Shakespeare cost the radiance of humour, alike on Dogberry and Clandio.” (Allardyce Nicoll) David Daiches also writes, “Shaw’s comedy of ideas is full of life and fun; comedies like Major Barbara, Androcles and the lion and Pygmalion are entertaining as well as critical and stimulating; but all this comes from the sparkle of Shaw’s mind and not from a fully realized dramatic projection of a complex vision on life.”

Shaw produces humour chiefly through characters. Actions and dialogues create a good deal of humour in his plays. Their dress and appearance in which they appear on the stage also amuse and entertains us. In the Apple cart Boanerges appears on the stage wearing a Russian blouse and peaked cap. He rebukes the King but he looks like a buffoon and thus provokes our laughter. In his another famous play Arms and the Man Bernard Shaw creates humour through the characters of Major Petkoff and his wife Catherine. Petkoff’s sense of humour compensates his weakness of character. Inspite of being a military officer, he is a henpecked husband. His wife keeps him under her subordination. He is not given any importance even in the matter of his daughter’s marriage. He seeks his wife’s support even in employing his servants to do something. But he is undoubtedly a perennial source of humour in the play. He produces humour through his actions, gesture’s and dialogues. His views on “washing’ make us laugh. He says: “Look at my father! He never had a bath in his life; and he lived to be ninety eight, the healthiest man in Bulgaria.”

The other source of Shaw’s humour is contrast Shaw puts wise and intelligent characters in contrast with fools and buffons and thus beautifully produces humour in his plays. In the Apple cart, Boanerges a fool is contrasted with wise and decent King Magnus. In the same way in Arms and the Man Captain Bluntschli, a brilliant ‘heroic figure’ is put in contrast with ‘the romantic fool, ‘Sergius Saranoff Raina belongs to the upper class of society and is an apostle of higher love, but she is contrasted with Louka, a servant girl of practical approach to life. The activities and dialogues of these characters on the stage amuse the audience and the readers, specially when one reproaches or challenges for one’s foolishness or romantic idealism.

Thirdly, Shaw creates funny situations to produce humour. The dance at the end of the play Androcles and the Lion; the scene of Dubedat’s death in The Doctor’s Dilemma, the incident of the pig in John Bull’s Other Island, the masked social assembly for dancing in You Never Can Tell are certain ridiculous situations which produce humour and laughter. In the first act of Arms and the Man, “it is the fugitive Captain, shattering in a strange house, who ought to look perturbed, and Rania ought to meet him with perfect self composure. But the tables are turned; it is she who appears to be the intruder, and Captain Bluntshli quietly makes himself master of situation.”

Shaw’s plays display his keen sense of humour and a brilliant wit. He should be compared to Moliere than to Ibsen. According to him comedy aims at correcting social evils through ridicule. So, he may be put along with Aristophanes, Moliere, and Ben Jonson.

He criticises the evils of society in a humorous way. He belongs to the class of eminent satirists such as Moliere, Voltaire and Swift. He once said that his plays contain more fun than wit and humour. The memory of funny characters like Burgess and Fratateeta remains fresh in our mind for a long time. Tanner and Higgins and Bluntschli provide us with humour of high order. Father Keegan of John Bul’s Other Island speaks of the truth when he says: “My way of joking is to tell the truth, it is the funniest joke in the world.”