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The purpose of this study is to establish the thesis that Shaw, the noted iconoclast, was actually much influenced by nineteenth-century theatrical conventions, and that his use of hackneyed forms as bases for satire and subjects for revitalization was often not wholly successful, especially in his earlier plays, because formal conventions tended to confine and constrict the fresh themes he was attempting to develop in the old stage material. The Introduction summarizes and argues against lingering critical attitudes toward Shaw which imply that he was not a playwright but an author of stage debates, and that he should therefore be held exempt from the type of criticism accorded dramatists' in the 'tradition'. Chapter One is a brief critical survey of plays current in London in the Nineties and the English and continental forebears of these plays, and includes some discussion of Shaw's campaign against the 'old' drama, his opinion of the pseudo-realist 'new' dramatists, and the differences between his aims and techniques and those of the post-Ibsen, post-Shavian playwrights. Chapter Two deals with Shaw's first play, Widowers' Houses, and two other sociological plays the relatively early Mrs. Warren's Profession and a play of Shaw's maturity, Major Barbara. These three plays demonstrate Shaw's progress from mere inversion of stock sentimental romance to more positive treatments of initially orthodox situations. Chapter Three is concerned with Shavian transformation of conventional melodrama and men of action and discusses the conflict between orthodox techniques and devices and Shavian ideas in the 'hero' plays. Chapter Four deals with two exceedingly popular plays -- Candida and Man and Superman -- in which Shaw developed his views on the Life Force and the relationships between the sexes. Like Chapter Two, this chapter seeks to prove that Shaw exhibited growing skill in adapting popular stage subjects to his own purposes while sustaining interest and comedy in the eternal conflict he perceived between vitality and system. In Chapter Five, two semi-tragic plays, Heartbreak House and Saint Joan, are discussed as the final steps in Shaw's movement toward achieving harmony of story and theme. Heartbreak House, a disquisitory, symbolic drama, is an improvement upon earlier, less unified discussion plays, and Saint Joan combines the elements of philosophical discussion and powerful story in a play that undoubtedly benefits from the poignancy and melodrama of the legend on which it is based, but is also a triumphant blend of the traditional elements of drama and qualities uniquely Shavian. The chapter and the thesis close with a short comment on Shaw's contribution to modern drama. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The political extravaganzas dominate Shavian drama of the 1930's, Shaw's last really productive decade. They form a fairly large and coherent group, but their topicality and their abstract, seemingly non-dramatic techniques have prevented most critics from examining the plays on their own merits. This thesis attempts to show how Shaw, in his political plays, not only chronicles his very close involvement with the urgent social problems of the interwar years, but also how he develops special artistic devices to embody his themes. Shaw's political plays offer a continual flow of analysis and criticism of an age which he thought was heading for disaster and war. In Too True to be Good (1931); he analyzes modern man's sense of directionlessness and indicates that he must re-evaluate his aims and goals, his morality and economics, and discard worn out values which no longer describe either human nature or contemporary problems. This play introduces a theme which prevails in all Shaw's political extravaganzas of the period: that men must overcome their limited frames of reference and must cultivate an open-mindedness in their search for meaning and direction in a complex world. In On the Rocks (1933), he investigates governmental problems In England and implies that in a world of selfish insularity, democratic government founders, needing more than ever a strong leader to impose a direction on the country. Recognizing the sinister implications of even an interim dictatorship, Shaw is almost driven to despair. In The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles (1934), Shaw retreats from the ugly and almost insoluble problems of the immediate world, to define and examine in abstract and symbolic terms the problems dis-cussed in the earlier plays. Shaw reaffirms his faith in the Life Force, again stresses that life-will continue to evolve, and asserts that if man wants to be the vanguard of evolution he must be able to adapt to the unexpected . Having expressed his ultimate thoughts and allegiances in The Simpleton, Shaw seemed to abandon his concern "with political problems in his plays, until the urgency of world developments in the late thirties brought the preacher in Shaw to the pulpit of the stage again in Geneva (1938). But in this play Shaw's inability to maintain an aesthetic distance from world events interfered with his artistry so that he produced a play lacking the unity of theme and structure found in the earlier plays of the period. But while the political plays of the thirties chronicle Shaw's very close involvement with complex social problems, they also reveal Shaw's attempt to develop special dramatic techniques to render an artistic expression of his thoughts. The seemingly chaotic structures, weak characters, and garrulous speeches really are in many ways well suited to the topical themes. Shaw utilizes a symposium type of discussion, which is appropriate for the searching for direction, the open investigation of all aspects of a complex problem. But perhaps the most characteristic and least understood technique in these plays is Shaw's use of structure as a major thematic device. Once understood, the seemingly random structures are not evidence of "imitative fallacy", of using negative techniques to express negative themes, hut of an artistic handling of technique to enhance thematic comment on the chaos. In the best of Shaw's political plays there is a well integrated mating of theme and structure which belies any idea that these plays are the products of a man in his dotage. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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Traditional readings of George Bernard Shaw's texts suggest that he is not a pure Marxist socialist because of the spiritual and nationalist aspects of his vision. This thesis attempts to confront Shaw's politics in order to demonstrate that he indeed offers a viable socialist program. Overlaying his socialism with Louis Althusser's concepts of "overdetermination," "structural causality," and "ideology" reveals that Shaw uses relatively autonomous instances of the superstructure toward socialist ends. This reevaluation of Shaw is best achieved through a combined reading of three of his major plays -- John Bull's Other Island, Man and Superman, and Major Barbara. In John Bull, Shaw incorporates the controversy of nationalism into his socialist vision by explaining it as an inevitable step in the development of an oppressed nation toward socialism. Man and Superman discusses the need for spirituality in the form of Shaw's concepts of Creative Evolution and the Life Force, which drive toward the development of a consciousness that recognizes socialism as the only sustainable internationalist program. Major Barbara combines Shaw's socialist and spiritual views by showing that both stand in reciprocal relation to each other; they are equally necessary to the Shavian world, one providing the ideal social system, the other the most enlightened human sensibility. This project demonstrates that Shaw's integration of these elements usually considered contradictory to Marxism becomes a way to understand him as practicing the Althusserian idea that any displacements of the infrastructure are economic in the last instance. / Graduation date: 1999

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