Give an estimate of Shaw as a dramatist.
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Write an essay on the main characteristics of Shaw as a dramatic artist.
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Write a critical evaluation of the main characteristics of Shaw’s dramatic principles and art.
Ans.
Shaw was a great social thinker, philosopher, realistic and imaginative writer and master of Modern comedy of ideas. He was a versatile genius and it is very difficult to pigeon-hole him in any way. He was always inconsistent in his thinking but never so in his solemnity. He oscillated between idealism and superman-worship, between social democracy and dictatorship but throughout remained firm in his aim of leaving the world a better place for the next generation.
Plays About Real Human Problems: When Shaw started his career as a dramatist there had been no modern British dramatist who took the social, political or religious problems of the time as subjects for plays. Upto his time the main theme adopted by the playwrights in England had been the emotional tangles of men and women. He came to the conclusion that this theme had received too much attention, on the stage and “he made up his mind to do in English what Henrik Ibsen had been doing in Norwegian. Since about 1875; namely to write plays discussing public affairs which touched the lives of very large number of people.” (A. C. Ward) Scoffing at the romantic view of life, he examined man and his social institutions with intellectual courage and shrewd, irreverent insight.
His Prefaces: Shaw’s dramas are usually preceded by long, striking prefaces. In them he expounds his views regarding life and literature explicitly and straightforwardly. Sometimes these prefaces are connected very closely with the ideas which underlie the plays which follow and sometimes the connection is a very slight one, Shaw first used these prefaces in his earliest works when his plays had proved to be theatrical failures and the only method of reaching a public for Shaw was through the printed copy. But he continued to use them throughout his literary career.
His Characters: In the variety and vividness of his character Shaw has been regarded as equal to Shakespeare but there is said to be one defect in his art of characterization and that is the fact that his characters are merely products of social forces, good or bad, representatives of the ideas of their creator. The reality is that his characters are not sufficiently vitalized but still “They do interest us. First because they reflect Shaw’s intellectual grasp and subtlety and secondly because, apart from this, they can talk most brilliantly. Dialogue gives them individuality, life and movement. They would have no legs to stand upon but for the speeches invented for them.”
Dialogues: This brings us to the discussion of his great dialogues. Shaw was always deeply interested in the sound of words as well as in their sense and meaning. This quality of his well reflected in his dialogues. His dialogue was from the beginning of the highest order. Throughout his life. Shaw was a brilliant talker and he used this gifts to great advantage in his plays. His brilliance in this has never been surpassed. dialogues are easy to remember and delightful to speak. His lines come readily to the tongue. In fact, Shaw is a master of dramatic dialogue.
Lack of Action and Conflict: Shaw’s plays are basically dramas of ideas and as such they comprise long dialogues and debates. Sometimes this lack of action results in boredom. The objection has substance in relation to his later plays but here also dramatic dialogues are exciting enough to take the place of physical action and interest the readers. Shaw has invented the dialogue of disquisition and can make an argument as thrilling as a stand up fight. When people complain, as sometimes, that there is no action they forget that intellectual action may be as dramatic as a battle. Thoughts can hit like bullets.
Elaborate Stage-Directions: Shaw got a comprehensive knowledge of stage direction and practiced them elaborately in all his plays. The directions given by him are very long and have often been criticized by many. Giving reasons behind the use of these directions Shaw himself observes. “When I began my career I had to give my plays a complete artistic existence.”
Realism: Shaw is out and out a realist having courage to face the truth about everything around himself. He regards all the institutions as merely human and not natural or divine. He, therefore, is never ready to allow any institutions to outlast its earthly utility. He is also a breaker of idols. Shaw’s criticism of social conditions proceeds from a new metaphysics, and hence, though he has treated of manners and given pictures of social conditions, his portraiture has none of the characteristics of an honest and photographic picture. He has gone to the roots of conventional belief and ideas and shown what is essential reality behind external conditions.
Shaw’s Wit: The features of a Shavian comedy is wit. His dramas are absolutely unemotional. He hates sentiment and tries to take an intelligent view of things.
Plot-Pattern: Shaw is absolutely original in matter of plot-pattern. In “The Quintessence of Ibsenism while discussing Ibsen’s technical innovations Shaw has commented that Ibsen substituted exposition, situation and discussion for the exposition, situation and discussion for the exposition, situation and the unravelling of the order drama. The new element of discussion may sometimes be found at the beginning of this plays, sometimes in the middle of them and sometimes it interpenetrates the whole action.
Absence of Heroes and Villains: In Shaw’s plays there are neither villains nor heroes in the conventional sense. “The villain in Shavian play is civilization and the discussion what is wrong with the present day civilization, regarding some special problem, ‘framed’ for the occasion, constitutes the drama.” Similarly the hero here is not an exceptional individual but an ordinary fellow just like us. Shaw believed that drama should be the image of human beings as they are. It should neither sentimentalize nor romanticize. It should present flesh and blood man and not legendary heroes. He analyzes the ordinary man’s mind and puts the analysis into the man’s mouth. Shaw believes that the really great man might well have a very commonplace appearance and manner because his superiority rests to a large extent on his unusual closeness to prosaic facts.
The Dramatist-Philosopher : Shaw always strove to be recognized primarily as a philosopher rather than a dramatist or artist pure and simple. He holds that philosophy is the life-breath of great art. The function of the artist is to see by instinct and then reflect his vision on others. He himself asserts, a great dramatist has something better to do than to amuse either himself or his audience. He has to interpret life. This is the highest function that a man can perform-the greatest work he can set his hand to. Shaw performs this highest function well and hence occupies a high position as a philosopher dramatist or a dramatist-Philosopher.
Language and Style- Shaw’s realistic approach to life and art made him adapt the medium of language to the seen patterns of life. He never ever employed verse for the sake of verse. He decried those who used verse for the sake of fashion, style and embellishment. For producing great effects. Shaw employed such devices as exaggeration, hyperbole, irony, comparisons of degree and syntactical juxtaposition of words.
Shaw lived and moved in an atmosphere of new ideas and new movements and had his first training on the political platform as a preacher and advocate of new ideologies in economics and politics.
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Write the critical appreciation of the poem No. 12 entitled Far Below Flowed.
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Write the critical appreciation of the poem No. 11 entitled Leave this Chanting.