The Rhetoric of a Shavian Exposition: Act I of Major Barbara

The Rhetoric of a Shavian Exposition: Act I of Major Barbara ROSANNE G. POTTER Critics of Shaw's plays, whether they have had generally negative or generally positive things to say about each playas a whole, have agreed on one subject: Shaw writes "faultless" first acts.' The recognition of Shaw's craftsmanship in the art of dramatic exposition has usually stopped, however, with the critics' admission of the fact; few have investigated the mechanics ofthese brilliant first acts. Commentators have sometimes recapitulated the exposition, as Louis Crompton does, or mapped out the beginnings of the various plots, as Bernard Dukore does, but they have not attempted to understand how Shaw's representation of the expository facts controls the audience's reaction to character and plot.2 I propose to investigate this process by examining the rhetoric ofthe first act of an important, albeit problematic Shaw play, Major Barbara. Attending closely to the prior representation, to the incidents and dialogue Shaw chose to prepare the audience for the initiating incident ofthe plot, I shall attempt to display the rhetorical techniques of a Shavian exposition.3 Major Barbara, though a failed play by most critical definitions, has refused to recede into the second rank of Shaw works. It is an obvious choice for rhetorical analysis not only because it is in overall thrust a debate, but also because its first act, though nonstandard, is unquestionably effective rhetoric. The act is nonstandard for two reasons; its plot begins quite late in the representation, and that representation features one minor character, Lady Britomart. (The central characters appear late in the act and have few lines.) Late initiating incidents are used, as Elder Olson explains, in plays "where we must have fairly well established attitudes toward the characters ifwe are to feel the full effect" of the plot· Shaw's use of a long representational "porch" dominated by a minor character, Lady Britomart, though nontypical, is an example of essential exposition for precisely this purpose; it is a prime means by which Shaw establishes our attitudes towards the central character, Undershaft . Yet it is dealing in generalization to recognize that the first act of Major Shavian Exposition: Major Barbara, Act I Barbara - like the entrance and narration sections of an oration - catches the aUdience's attention, recounts the events that have led and are leading to the initiation of the action, and controls the audience's responses to past events and impending action. To appreciate Shaw's craft as a builder of dramatic structures , we must compile a case ofevidential details that demonstrate cumulatively how the larger rhetorical purpose is gained through the smaller syntactical and rhetorical strategies. I shall approach the rhetoric in Major Barbara through Aristotle by way of James Kinneavy's theory of discourse, and divide the sorts of proofs that characters put fonh on their own behalf into ethical, emotional, and logical.' In order to appraise the nature of Shaw's craftsmanship, we would do best to view Act I ofMajorBarbara as a three-pan structure. Most critics probably see Undershaf!,s arrival as the point of division between the two major scenes. However, my investigation of rhetoric leads me to divide the act into three scenes. In each of the three corresponding sections of this aniele, I shall examine the dominant character, the message that is being transmitted (both the intended message ofthe character to his or her audience and, where applicable, the ironic message of the authorlo the implied audience), the stylistic traits that mark the character's speech, and the rhetorical appeals made by the character. The first scene is dominated by Lady Britoman, whereas the shoner second and third scenes are dominated by Undershaft. Shaw's strategy in the first act is to present Undershaft's character in such a way that he is spoken about before he is seen and seen before he acts. LADY BRITOMART AS IRO N IC REFLECTOR The description ofLady Britoman's character that follows is not intended to be a new one: on the contrary, if my sense of this first act is valid, audiences in general come away from seeing or reading Major Barbara with exactly the same impression of...