Bernard Shaw's "Unreasonable Man"

Bernard Shaw's "Unreasonable Man" BARBARA B. BROWN In "The Revolutionist's Handbook," appended to Man and Superman, Shaw writes: The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. I Although this quotation contains more than a hint ofShaw's talking for effect, it also prefaces the dramatist's exhibition of the qualities of this "unreasonable man," qualities which would enable him to effect social progress. Moreover, although there has been abundant discussion of Shaw's concern with the problems of his society, the definition of the Unreasonable Man, an examination of his qUalities, has not been attempted. It is illuminating to define the major qualities Shaw evidently had in mind and to illustrate each from a variety of characters in the plays. It should be understood from the outset that the Unreasonable Man is not Shaw's Supennan; indeed, Shaw never calls any of his dramatic characters "Supennen." Basic to his doctrine of Creative Evolution, the Supennan will be, not a random individual of the future, but a wholly new species capable of advances now only dreamed ofby a few superior individuals, the Unreasonable Men. "[Tlhe real social solution ... ," Shaw said, is "not what a casual Supennan could persuade a picked company to do for him, but what a whole community of Supennen would do spontaneously.'" Critical studies of Shaw's Supennan, however, have tended to obscure precise understanding of what qualities distinguish the Unreasonable Man. Arthur H. Nethercot's fine book Men andSupermm3 is an illustration in point. When Nethercot admits that "There are no real Supennen in any of Shaw's BARBARA B. BROWN plays ..." (p. 287), and declares that "The genius oftoday, then, may well lead to the Superman of tomorrow" (p. 265), he is certainly correct and perceptive. But one unfortunate result of his examination, his catalogs of Supermen, has been to spawn a series of discussions which assume that Shaw deliberately set out to dramatize the Superman of past and present civilizations. What Shaw's plays do, instead, is to illustrate certain qualities of superior individuals, with the suggestion that when in time these qualities become the norm, the necessary new breed will appear on our planet. A follower of Lamarck, Shaw believed that organisms change because they will to change. Although Shaw's projected Superman is far in the future, his development shrouded in mysticism and pseudoscience, some clearly observable qualities can be detected in certain superior individuals. By emulation of these qualities, we ordinary men and women can accomplish two objectives: we can pave the way for the Supermen of some distant future, and we can ameliorate the conditions of our present society. A close look at several outstanding qualities of Shaw's "heroes" helps to define the Unreasonable Man. But first these must be isolated: what qualities of action, ntind, and spirit mark him as a superior individual? In such an examination, it is necessary to focus on qualities rather than characters, since no character represents all the attributes and each superior character displays certain contrasting features by no means superior. An accurate observer of human nature, Shaw dramatizes ambiguous human beings, not angels, and certainly not Supermen. Brecht recognizes this ambiguity in Shaw's characters when he comments: Concerning heroes, Shaw's degenerate successors have awkwardly amplified his refreshing conviction - that heroes are not exemplary scholars and that heroism is avery inscrutable, but very real conglomeration of contradictory traits - to mean that neither heroism nor heroes exist.4 Brecht's phrase "conglomeration of contradictory traits" is the siguificant point, for as he perceives, saine ofShaw's characters are no less heroes because of these inconsistencies; these heroes are intended to represent living human beings, exhibiting superior qualities, never "Supermen." Consequently, qualities of the Unreasonable Man which Shaw admires appear in characters who also possess qualities he does not admire without diminishing the superior attributes. It would therefore be perverse to deny that Shaw meant Caesar's leadership, for example, to be admired and emulated because his vanity, under certain circumstances, ntight be damaging to mankind. Shaw the dramatist concerned himself with...