George Bernard Shaw: The Architect of Modern Social Drama and the Dedicatory Epistle

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) was an Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist who became one of the leading dramatists in English. He wrote plays such as Major Barbara, Pygmalion, and Saint Joan, as well as music and theatre criticism, and he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925. His prefaces were often as famous as his plays.

Man and Superman (1903) is a comedy of ideas about a woman's pursuit of a man, with Don Juan at its centre. It opens with a long Epistle Dedicatory addressed to the critic Arthur Bingham Walkley, in which Shaw discusses Don Juan, style, Shakespeare, society, and education. Admirers of Richard Wagner, whom Shaw wrote about at length, will see the same love of large ideas, and readers of John Ruskin will meet another critic who treated art as a moral matter.

This collection contains 18 sentences from the Epistle Dedicatory in the public-domain text on Project Gutenberg. They are arranged by theme and quoted exactly as printed, including Shaw's spelling of Shakespear.

18 Quotes from George Bernard Shaw

Style and Assertion

“Effectiveness of assertion is the Alpha and Omega of style.”

Shaw says that style is, at bottom, the power to state a thing so that it carries weight. The phrase “Alpha and Omega” makes the claim sound solemn, and the sentence itself is an example of the effectiveness it describes. It is blunt, and a good rule for any writer who wants to be read.

“Disprove his assertion after it is made, yet its style remains.”

Even when the argument is refuted, Shaw suggests, the manner in which it was put remains admirable. A forceful statement can outlive the truth of its content. The sentence is partly a joke at the expense of writers who care only for being right, and partly an honest remark about how books last.

“Bunyan's coward stirs your blood more than Shakespear's hero, who actually leaves you cold and secretly hostile.”

Shaw compares John Bunyan and Shakespeare to the disadvantage of the latter. Bunyan, he says, wrote with conviction, and his imagined cowards feel real. The claim is deliberately provocative, and it is typical of Shaw's habit of turning accepted opinion upside down to see what happens.

“The truth is, the world was to Shakespear a great ‘stage of fools’ on which he was utterly bewildered.”

Shaw argues that Shakespeare had no settled view of life and saw only confusion. Readers will disagree, and Shaw expected them to. The line shows how he used praise and blame together, and it is a good example of his willingness to quarrel with the greatest names.

“Hence it has been pointed out that Shakespear had no conscience.”

In the same argument, Shaw notes a charge made against the dramatist, that his plays lack a moral centre. He reports it without a clear verdict, as if inviting the reader to decide. The sentence shows the Epistle at its liveliest, full of daring comparisons.

Love, Romance, and Don Juan

“But Copernicus would not have written love stories scientifically.”

Shaw jokes that even a great scientist would be unscientific about love. The sentence belongs to a passage about how poets treat the pursuit of women. It reminds the reader that the play is a comedy and that its argument about love is meant to entertain as well as to provoke.

“Romance and Asceticism, Amorism and Puritanism are equally unreal in the great Philistine world.”

Shaw groups four attitudes and calls all of them unreal for the ordinary, practical majority. The capital letters and the sweeping pairs are typical of his style. He is noting that most people live between extremes, which is one reason his plays so often take place in drawing rooms and offices.

“Don Juan became such a pet that the world could not bear his damnation.”

The legend of Don Juan traditionally ends with the hero dragged to hell. Shaw observes that audiences came to love him so much that they were uneasy with the punishment. It is a witty remark about how popular stories change, and it prepares the way for his own reworking of the myth.

“From Prometheus to my own Devil's Disciple, such enemies have always been popular.”

Shaw lists a line of rebels from Greek myth to his own earlier play. The audience, he says, has always liked a hero who defies the gods or the devil. The sentence is partly a boast and partly a fair observation about the lasting appeal of the defiant figure in drama.

“But the lesson intended by an author is hardly ever the lesson the world chooses to learn from his book.”

A sober remark among the jokes. Shaw knows that readers and audiences find their own meanings, whatever the writer planned. The sentence is useful to anyone who has written or taught, and it is a reminder that a book belongs to its readers once it is out in the world.

Society, Scandal, and Folly

“Civilized society is one huge bourgeoisie: no nobleman dares now shock his greengrocer.”

Shaw describes a society in which even the aristocracy fears the opinion of shopkeepers. Respectability, he says, has become universal. The sentence is a neat piece of social comedy, and it also explains why, in his plays, public opinion is such a powerful force.

“Political parties are wrecked and public careers undone by a single indiscretion.”

He notes how easily a scandal can end a career. The point is as true today as when he wrote it. Shaw is not praising the public's severity but pointing out its odd narrowness, since the same public overlooks greater faults in politicians who are careful to appear respectable.

“Excommunication has become almost as serious a business as it was in the X century.”

Shaw jokes that modern social disgrace is as damaging as the ancient church penalty. The reference to the tenth century is abbreviated in the printed text, and it is quoted here exactly as it appears. It is a witty way of saying that the fear of exclusion has not disappeared.

“The old habit of worshipping madmen is giving way to the new habit of locking them up.”

Shaw comments on how society treats eccentric geniuses. In the past, he says, strange people were revered, and now they are confined. The sentence is a characteristic mixture of humour and complaint and shows his sympathy for those who think differently.

“Yet we must get an electorate of capable critics or collapse as Rome and Egypt collapsed.”

One of the Epistle's more serious warnings. Shaw argues that a democracy needs voters who can judge, and that without them a society is at risk. The sentence reflects his lifelong interest in education and politics and his view that criticism is a civic duty.

“What is wrong with the prosaic Englishman is what is wrong with the prosaic men of all countries: stupidity.”

Shaw begins by seeming to single out the English and then widens the charge to everyone. The turn at the end of the sentence, with its one-word verdict, is a good example of his comic timing. It shows how he could say something severe in a way that still made people laugh.

“Any pamphleteer can show the way to better things; but when there is no will there is no way.”

Pointing to the right path is easy, Shaw says, and walking it is hard. The play on the old saying that where there is a will there is a way gives the sentence its sting, and it is a reminder that good intentions must become action.

“I do not know whether you have any illusions left on the subject of education, progress, and so forth.”

Shaw addresses his dedicatee directly, with a mock-weary air. The list ends with “and so forth,” as if the great subjects were too familiar to name in full. The sentence has the tone of a letter between friends, and it marks the point at which the Epistle turns to the social ideas behind the play.

Conclusion

The Epistle Dedicatory shows Shaw as a critic and a showman at once. He is serious about style, about the legend of Don Juan, and about the health of society, and he is never serious for long without a joke. Some of his claims, especially about Shakespeare, are meant to provoke more than to settle.

Shaw lived to ninety-four, and his plays are still staged around the world. These eighteen sentences give a taste of the prefaces that made him famous and of the habit of argument that gave his drama its energy. Readers who like them may enjoy the play that follows, in which the questions of love and life are put to the test on stage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was George Bernard Shaw?

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) was an Irish playwright and critic who wrote Pygmalion, Major Barbara, and Saint Joan. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.

What is Man and Superman?

It is a comedy of ideas that Shaw published in 1903. It deals with love, the life force, and the legend of Don Juan, and it begins with a long Epistle Dedicatory.

Who is the Epistle Dedicatory addressed to?

It is addressed to Arthur Bingham Walkley, a drama critic, and it discusses style, Don Juan, Shakespeare, and society.

Which text is quoted here?

The quotations come from the Epistle Dedicatory of Man and Superman in the public-domain edition on Project Gutenberg. They are given as printed, including the spelling “Shakespear”.

Recommended Similar Collections on Quotyzen

• Richard Wagner: The Titan of Total Art and Operatic Revolution
• John Ruskin: The Architect of Truth in Art and the Honest Building
• William Morris: The Architect of the Arts and Crafts Movement and Honest Labour

Is a forceful style more important than being right? Share your view in the comments below!