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Major Barbara, by George Bernard Shaw
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In Major Barbara, George Bernard Shaw spins out the drama of an eccentric millionaire, a ro-mantic poet, and a misguided savior of souls, Major Barbara herself, in a topsy-turvy master-piece of sophisticated banter and urbane humor. His brilliant dialogue, combined with his use of paradox and socialist theory, never fails to tickle, entertain-and challenge. George Bernard Shaw was the greatest British dramatist after Shakespeare, a satirist equal to Jonathan Swift, and a playwright whose most profound gift was his ability to make audiences think by provoking them to laughter.
- Published on: 2015-02-02
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .24" w x 6.00" l, .34 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 104 pages
About the Author
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is one of the world’s greatest literary figures. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he left school at fourteen and in 1876 went to London, where he began his literary career with a series of unsuccessful novels. In 1884 he became a founder of the Fabian Society, the famous British socialist organization. After becoming a reviewer and drama critic, he published a study of the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen in 1891 and became determined to create plays as he felt Ibsen did: to shake audiences out of their moral complacency and to attack social problems. However, Shaw was an irrepressible wit, and his plays are as entertaining as they are socially provocative. Basically shy, Shaw created a public persona for himself: G.B.S., a bearded eccentric, crusading social critic, antivivisectionist, language reformer, strict vegetarian, and renowned public speaker. The author of fifty-three plays, hundreds of essays, reviews, and letters, and several books, Shaw is best known for Widowers’ Houses (1892), Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1893), Arms and the Man (1894), Caesar and Cleopatra (1898), Man and Superman (1903), Major Barbara (1905), Pygmalion (1913), Heartbreak House (1919), and Saint Joan (1923). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.
Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Poverty's a crime
By A.J.
So says Andrew Undershaft, the extremely wealthy owner of a tremendously successful English armaments business, in George Bernard Shaw's play "Major Barbara." Undershaft, whose self-proclaimed religion is his wealth and his industry, inherited the business from a long line of Andrew Undershafts, each of whom was a foundling adopted by the corresponding previous Andrew Undershaft. This is not to say that the Undershafts don't marry and have families -- the current Andrew Undershaft has married the aristocratic Lady Britomart and has three children by her; he just doesn't let them have anything to do with the family business, preferring to stick to the tradition of bringing in an outsider to perpetuate the Andrew Undershaft dynasty.
Indeed, Undershaft feels that poverty is the primordial crime from which all other crimes -- burglary, murder -- spring, and that it is better to give a poor man a job so he can afford to live rather than spend public money on methods of punishing him should he violate the law in his efforts to afford to live. Undershaft moralizes when he speaks, but in actuality he scoffs at what he considers ordinary Christian morals of the kind professed by his daughter Barbara, who has joined the Salvation Army in her fervid desire to help the poor and has attained the rank of major. She works at a shelter doling out bread and milk to the downtrodden and trying to find work for the unemployed, but her real goal is to bring them to "salvation" by raising them to a higher state of spirituality. When her fiance, a scholar of Greek named Adolphus Cusins, who by a certain twist of logic happens to be his own cousin, reveals himself to be a foundling, Undershaft decides he's found his heir.
Although the play reflects the perspectives that Shaw, as a Socialist, had on the effects of poverty on morality and society, he doesn't seem to take sides with his characters and instead lets them be funny within the context of their respective social classes. His idle rich characters are lovably comical, like the mentally vapid trio of Undershaft's son Stephen (who wouldn't know what to do with his father's armaments business even if he were qualified to inherit it), daughter Sarah, and her fiance Charles Lomax. His impoverished characters -- those who come to the Salvation Army shelter for handouts -- can be honorably industrious like Peter Shirley or pugnacious and troublesome like Bill Walker. If Undershaft, for all his willingness to feed his fortune by manufacturing items that shed the blood of millions, represents the right way to fix poverty and Barbara the wrong way, why is the play named after her? I think it's possibly because her morality is one with which most theatergoers of the day could identify, while Undershaft's is idiosyncratic to say the least.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
comedic masterpiece
By Ken Miller
The playwright uncovers the debate about war and pacifism. Shaw also illuminates the poverty industry, and shows that all money is tainted. The play is a vehicle for a debate on philosophies, the burning issues of the day. Shaw shows that the audience can laugh and think, in the same play. Probably Britain's best known playwright, after Shakespeare, Shaw shines in Major Barbara
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Top-Notch Shaw Comedy
By Bill R. Moore
Major Barbara is one of George Bernard Shaw's greatest comedies, perhaps one of his greatest plays of all - essential for fans and a great introduction to his work. The play epitomizes what made Shaw both great and popular - the ability to convey serious, even revolutionary, ideas in palatable form. It is a tribute to Shaw's artistry that, no matter how didactic, he always managed to entertain; in notable contrast to most sociopolitical writers, his messages never overwhelm his stories. Major can thus be enjoyed on a very basic level as a superb comedy. Shaw's comic invention seemed endless; the play is frequently amusing, often even laugh aloud funny. Lady Britomart is one of the all-time great comic characters, and Undershaft is also a great creation. However, as always with Shaw, there is far more here than just comedy. Major darkness creeps in, particularly in the character of Bill Walker; one of the sorrier specimens to ever pollute a stage, he vividly shows humanity's basest side. More importantly, Shaw gives us a wealth of things to think about; his usual critiques of capitalism and religion are here, and he zeroes in specifically on the ethics of business and war. Even more incisive is his stark examination of poverty and what to do about it; he explores the complex charity issue via the Salvation Army. He also touches on feminist issues, particularly how difficult it was for women to obtain financial support a century ago. Also of note is Shaw's Preface; an edition with it is essential. Comparable in length to the play itself, it covers everything from literary criticism - in regard to Major and in general - to philosophical issues raised in the play. It examines these last in considerable depth; Shaw not only details the problems, but unlike so many others, also offers solutions. Many were almost unbelievably radical, and some still are. We may disagree, perhaps even quite strongly, but Shaw makes us think about important issues - which is what matters. Much the same can be said of the play itself, which is excellent here as in all other respects.
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