Works Cited: Sociopolitical Worldview of George Bernard Shaw, Bentley, Eric. The Playwright As Thinker: A Study of Drama in Modern Times. Tenth edition. New York: The World Publishing Company, 1955. Print. Read More

Shaw’s plays, Arms and the Man and Man and Superman, are entertaining as well as serious, always putting forth political and social issues at its core. Thought provoking progressive debates on capitalism and socialism, marriage, and morals are also presented by the discussion of the characters. The 19^th century debates of evolution Read More

The theory of evolution expresses the view that there is general progress in the process of evolution. The species on the whole are undergoing change, slowly but steadily, at every step reaching a higher and higher stage of development. Men are superior to other creatures Read More

Bergson’s had the idea that intellect was an advanced form of instinct, and that intellect and instinct combined to form the source of vitality shared between all creatures and God. The conventions of marriage and courting are superficial phenomena that merely mask the underlying drive toward life and procreation. Read More

Shaw presented various attitudes on society and politics. Both the plays Arms and the Man and Man and Superman presented the idea on family, marriage and sex. As George Bernard Shaw has an anti-Victorian attitude towards marriage, he portrays conventional courtship in a satiric way in Man and Superman. Read More

Settings and stage directions play vital role in Shaw’s plays. Shaw’s idea of class differences in the contemporary society is also portrayed in Arms and the Man through the very use of settings and stage directions. These social differences are one of the many social ills existing in the society that Shaw sharply identifies Read More

The play, Arms and the Man, not only reveals the hollowness of romantic love but also presents a matter-of-fact practical attitude towards marriage. The love between Raina and Sergius is based on old-fashioned notions of romance and chivalry. Usually, Raina’s attitude towards love was influenced by her reading of poetry of Byron and Pushkin and her visits to the opera. Read More

The progressive idea of Shaw has been mixed with the idea of Life Force and Superman. His progressivism not only depends on socialist economics but also in creating Superman. To Shaw, of all the forms of creation, none is as important as the creation of a living organism, and man will go on progressing, if only he can produce a better race. Read More

It should be noted that though Shaw is a pacifist, he is opposed not so much to war as to the so-called glorification of war. He urges that people should not weave a romantic crown around it, but know its grim and ugly truth. It is not an occasion for the display of valour or any other noble qualities. War is the coward’s art. Read More

As a committed socialist and dramatist, Bernard Shaw’s primary goal was to reform the existing social conditions and theatrical conventions by his works; he believed that any work of art should have a social function (McDonald 64). Conscious of the moral rottenness of the bourgeoisie and the evils of capitalism and poverty, Read More