Written by
Anup Sadi
Date: 16 February 2018
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work would not have been possible without the guidance of Dr. Bed Prasad Giri. I am also especially indebted to Dr. Arun Gupto for his valuable suggestions and feedback. IACER’s Humanities and Social Science Faculties, especially Program Coordinator Mr. Krishna Niroula, have also been supportive in writing this thesis. I am also grateful to Mr. Prajwal Singh Thapa and Sunil Shrestha for their valuable comments. I would also like to thank Mr. Rabindra Joshi for his cooperation. Overall, I am grateful to all of those with whom I have had the pleasure to work during the writing of this dissertation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sociopolitical Worldview of George Bernard Shaw
1. Abstract
2. Introduction: Shaw as a reformer of social, political and theatrical conventions
3. War is the Coward’s Art
4. Socialism as a Way to Achieve Political and Economic Freedom
5. Futility of Romantic Love
6. Presentations of Upper Class Society
7. Conventional Family and Marriage as a Hindrance for Reformation
8. Life Force, the Core Relation between Man and Woman
9. Hope in Evolution, or the Replacement of Man by Superman
10. Conclusion: Shaw advertised his doctrines on the problems of modern society
11. Works Cited
ABSTRACT
This dissertation aims to explore Bernard Shaw’s social and political worldview as a progressive philosophical artist. This study focuses on only two particular plays Arms and the Man and Man and Superman. Both of these plays offer a variety of ideas on the socio-political issues. Shaw’s development towards the full-blown myth of creative evolution during his life has immense influence on his play Man and Superman. The thesis studies Shaw’s personal socio-political outlook and also considers others perspectives demonstrated through his supplementary literary works. In the chapters of the thesis, the above mentioned two plays in which Shaw’s social and political ideas appear are critically examined. For critical examination, I especially use the process of comparing the relationship of each character on various basis. The ground of examination ranges from basic action of the plays or the main theme or idea of the plays. Throughout the chapters, I found out that the dramatization adapted in Shavian drama has the ultimate purpose of social reform. Shaw has a concise vision about how humanity and society as a whole can prosper. For this reason, he chooses social and political reformation as the central idea of his many plays.
Shaw’s socio-political dimension comes to light by the discussion and debates of the major characters who reveal the progressive outlook of Shaw in his principle of reformation. These two plays had explicitly their ideological origins in political ideas. In these plays, therefore, politics is itself part of the texture of the social and historical material that Shaw chose to dramatize. In the introduction Chapter, I will focus on the established notions and in other chapters, I will focus on the dramatic themes and the ideas on war, socialism, love, upper class society, family and marriage, Life Force and evolution.
অনুপ সাদি বাংলাদেশের একজন লেখক, কবি, প্রাবন্ধিক, গবেষক ও চিন্তাবিদ। তাঁর প্রথম কবিতার বই পৃথিবীর রাষ্ট্রনীতি আর তোমাদের বংশবাতি প্রকাশিত হয় ২০০৪ সালে। তাঁর মোট প্রকাশিত গ্রন্থ ১২টি। সাম্প্রতিক সময়ে প্রকাশিত তাঁর সমাজতন্ত্র ও মার্কসবাদ গ্রন্থ দুটি পাঠকমহলে ব্যাপকভাবে সমাদৃত হয়েছে। ২০১০ সালে সম্পাদনা করেন বাঙালির গণতান্ত্রিক চিন্তাধারা নামের একটি প্রবন্ধগ্রন্থ। তিনি ১৬ জুন, ১৯৭৭ তারিখে জন্মগ্রহণ করেন। তিনি লেখাপড়া করেছেন ঢাকা কলেজ ও ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে। ২০০০ সালে ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় থেকে ইংরেজি সাহিত্যে এম এ পাস করেন।