Great Modern Lives: George Bernard Shaw

To me, my most favourite playwright will always be George Bernard Shaw. The conversations in the play, the musings, plot line, his unparalleled sense of humour, and the general philosophical trajectories that he takes his plays on- I love them all. A critic so well respected and loved, Shaw is a literary figure who is bound to be etched in the minds for time immemorial.

Shaw was born on 26 July, 1856 at 3, Upper Synge Street, Dublin. He was the third child of George Carr Shaw and his young wife. Bernard Shaw had two sisters. His family was poor. Carr Shaw carried on a business as a retail corn merchant. When Bernard Shaw was 10, he went to his first school called Wesleyan, Connectional school in Dublin. 

As a school boy he was a complete failure. Yet he had so much curiosity and would accept nothing he was told without trying to prove the truth of it. For some years, he experimented writing. In the next four years, he wrote five novels, all of which were rejected by every publisher in London. Though he was not a successful novelist the time and energy he spent on his novels was not lost. He made a reputation as a dramatist. 

One of his novels Cashel Bryon's Profession became a best seller. Bernard Shaw made his mark all over the literary and creative terrain- as a book critic, art critic, and a musical critic. All his criticism came from sound knowledge. He would not pronounce until he was certain of his facts, and when he did he poked fun in a way which often disguised, except from the most sensitively perceptive, the worth of his most considered judgments. 

Shaw rose to be the playwright of over fifty dramatic plays. The popular ones that I have read and enjoyed immensely among the dramatic plays of Shaw are Pygmalion, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, The Doctor's Dilemma, and Overruled. I absolutely love each of these works of Shaw that I have had the chance to read, and I look forward to reading the others! Shaw also has several politically based plays. He was a critic like no other. 

He lived up to the great age of 94. Whatever one may think of him, he greatly influenced the development of British political thought in the first half of twentieth century than any other. My first introduction to this brilliant man was through Pygmalion, and I immediately fell in love with the play.

If you have enjoyed any of his work in particular, do share it with all of us in the comments below!

Snippets From Pygmalion

Pygmalion is an all-time favorite book, and so is its author. I love Shaw's humour, and I happened to have some snippets and quotes from the book that I had written down when I read it.

Eliza, a cockney flower girl, goes to Prof. Higgins to learn phonetics. I became a fan of Shaw, his plays, and I absolutely love this one.I felt happy rediscovering that document, and hence I present to you my collection!

“The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated.”

“The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no thirdclass carriages, and one soul is as good as another.”

"Simply phonetics. The science of speech. That's my profession; also my hobby. Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby! You can spot an Irishman or a Yorkshireman by his brogue. I can place any man within six miles. I can place him within two miles in London. Sometimes within two streets."

"What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn't come every day. I shall make a duchess of this draggletailed guttersnipe."

Here's a excerpt of a conversation that I had put up in my review:

WHISKERS : Maestro, Maestro (he embraces Higgins and kisses him on both cheeks). You remember me?
HIGGINS: No I don’t. Who the devil are you?
WHISKERS: I am your pupil: your first pupil, your best and greatest pupil. I am little Nepommuck, the marvellous boy. I have made your name famous throughout Europe. You teach me phonetic. You cannot forget ME.
HIGGINS: Why don’t you shave?
NEPOMMUCK: I have not your imposing appearance, your chin, your brow. Nobody notices me when I shave. Now I am famous: they call me Hairy Faced Dick.
HIGGINS: And what are you doing here among all the swells?
NEOPOMMUCK: I am interpreter. I speak 32 languages. I am indispensable at these international parties. You are great cockney specialist: you place a man anywhere in London the moment he opens his mouth. I place any man in Europe.
(a footman hurries down the grand staircase and comes to Nepommuck).
FOOTMAN: You are wanted upstairs. Her excellency cannot understand the Greek gentleman.
NEPOMMUCK: Thank you, yes, immediately.
(the footman goes and is lost in the crowd)
NEPOMMUCK: (to Higgins) This Greek diplomatist pretends he cannot speak nor understand English. He cannot deceive me. He is the son of a Clerkenwell watchmaker. He speaks English so villainously that he dare not utter a word of it without betraying his origin. I help him to pretend; but I make him pay through the nose. I make them all pay. Ha Ha! (he hurries upstairs).

Pygmalion is a book that talks about a wide range of things from language and art of phonetics to behaviour and how women ought to be treated, all in the style of classic Shaw humour. It is a brilliant play that is a must-read! 

The Doctor’s Dilemma: A Tragedy

Photograph of scene designed by Jo Mielziner for George Bernard Shaw's "Doctor's Dilemma." Courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Library. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Title: The Doctor’s Dilemma: A Tragedy

Author: George Bernard Shaw

Main Characters: Sir Patrick Cullen, Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonnington, Sir Colenso Ridgeon, Cutler Walpole, Leo Schutzmacher, Dr.Blenkinsop, Louis Dubedat, Redpenny, The newspaper man, Mr.Danty, Jennifer Dubedat, Emmy and Minnie Tinwill.

Description of the main characters:

Sir Patrick Cullen:

Sir Patrick Cullen was a doctor. He advises Ridgeon and the other young doctors like Leo Schtzmacher, Dr.Blenkinsop, Sir Ralph Bloomfield  Bonnington. He likes to grunt for everything. He is jealous of Ridgeon's new discovery.

Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonnington:

Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonnington is a tall man . He is a kind doctor. He is Ridgeon's friend. He is a born healer. He is known to everyone as B.B.

Sir Colenso Ridgeon:

Sir Colenso Ridgeon is a man of fifty. He won his knighthood by finding how to cure consumption and tuberculosis. The medicine he invented cures people only if he uses the medicine. If other doctors use it the patients get killed.

Cutler Walpole:

Cutler Walpole is an energetic man of forty. He is never in doubt. He is not hesitant. He is a great surgeon. He thinks every disease is because of blood-poisoning.

Leo Schutzmacher:

Leo Schutzmacher is a not very rich man. He was Ridgeon's classmate in the university college school. He is known to Ridgeon as Loony. He earns money with two magical words: 'CURE GUARANTEED.'

Dr.Blenkinsop:

Dr.Blenkinsop is very different from the others. He is clearly not a prosperous man. He wears shabby clothes and there are lines from the face because of worrying. He is also Ridgeon's friend.

Setting/Theme of the story: Ridgeon becomes Sir Colenso Ridgeon as he finds out the cure for tuberculosis + consumption. His friends, Dr.Blenkinsop, B.B, Schutzmacher, Cutler Walpole and Sir Patrick Cullen, congratulate him. While all these doctors congratulate Ridgeon a lady waits outside to meet Ridgeon. Emmy, the serving woman, sends the lady inside to Ridgeon. She introduces herself as Jenifer Dubedat. She tells Ridgeon that her husband has tuberculosis and insists that he should save her husband. Ridgeon does not accept. He says that he already has 10 cases and cannot take any more. She pleads him and he accepts. Later Dr.Blenkinsop gets tuberculosis and Ridgeon takes upon the case. Hence he hands over Mr.Dubedat's case to B.B. As the medicine invented by Ridgeon for tuberculosis works only if Ridgeon uses it and kills if not used by him, Louis Dubedat dies and Blenkinsop survives. Since Ridgeon knows that the medicine would kill Louis if not used by him and yet hands over the case to B.B , the death of Louis becomes a tragedy.