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GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (1856-1950) - Coggle Diagram
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (1856-1950)
LIFE
born in Dublin
musical education (his mother was a singer)
at 20 he became a critic of music and art in London
took part in the Fabian Society
1925 was awarded the
NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE
WORKS
1892
Widowers's Houses
first play
1898
Plays pleasant and unpleasant
collection of plays
attacks to capitalism, exploration of social problems
Mrs Warren's Profession
the dishonesty of those benefitting from prostitution
Arms and the Man
parody of military heroism
Pygmalion
social hierarchy in Victorian Britain
film version:
MY FAIR LADY
1905
Man and Superman
echoed Nietzsche
life is a vital impulse
established his reputation
AIM
he considered himself a prophet of realism
a Puritan reformer using drama
the improvement of society
he proposed to replace:
idealism by realism
Shakespeare by Ibsen
STYLE
long sentences but vitality and gaiety
paradox, inversion of traditional values, exaggeration
the characters say what they think instead of what they are expected to say
he created the Shavian alphabet, a phonetic orthography alphabet to remove some difficulties in spelling
THE PLAYS OF IDEAS
combination of moral problems with irony and paradox
the dialogues convey the ideological implications and dealt with contemporary problems
MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION
PLOT
Vivie Warren
, a Cambridge graduate living in Surrey, is visited by her mother
Kitty
and two of her friends,
Sir George Crofts
and
Mr Praed
Gradually, the audience learns that Mrs Warren's life is not 'respectable' and that there is some doubt as to the identity of Vivie's father. Mrs Warren wants to protect Vivie from the local vicar's advances,
Frank Gardner
, especially because he is poor.
Vivie confronts her mother and asks her about her past. Mrs Warren tells her to have chosen prostitution because it offered better conditions than the others open to an uneducated working-class girl. This allows Vivie to gain more respect for her mother. Finally, Vivie learns that her mother continues to manage a chain of brotherls with Sit George Crofts and decides to go off the city to gain independence from her mother's 'unrespectable' source of income