Bernard Shaw: The Career Of The Life Force

, ,--. .. , .',! ,BERNARD SHAW~;; ., ,1_' . • , "TaE CAREER,',d~,tHE', LIFE',PORCE , .:.:' 'i . SHAW''SpASsto~FORA MORE 'SUBSTANTIAL and, utilitarIan theater dian the theater of his day ~ffe~ed led him nat~nllly to 'adr~niit '(;f ideas~ , HisoWIl w6rds'onthe'topic are so curibusly:choserlthaf it may clarHy matters to quote them: "... the plciy in whiCh ther~" ~s no argumellt and n() case no longer COu.ilts as 'serious" drama."l The, word, Uargu~ ment'; with"its" philosophic and, 'rhetorical re~onances, the legalistiC, "case"an'd tb~ 'approbative adj'ective""seriouS'" emphasize the bent of Shaw's 'thinking on the subject: Yet one'tn'ore qt, Q~.e of the features of Shaw's dramas which reveal their character as tbesi& dramas :I~h~lireturn t,o these fe~t~r~,~.pre~ently. .It is the. mark ofSh~w's brilliance, that ill aseriousthought,;p~a.ywhere so many ipressures to b.1iild types are.()perative ~haw.. ~eyertheless creates" .~mpressivel}' rounded 'comic characters. .. ", . . , ., -. " . '''", . :\:'. Shaw' ,moral, per~onal,drClmatic, and.;ultilAate~y re~igiou:s tendencies , then,' pro:ugh,t );lim t() the use Qfa drama of ideas. It, :wou1cl not, however,have1?ro,ught WIll necessarily or exclusively to.tbesis drama. Most, cor all, of $h;tw1splays contend with thought, expostLpositions, attack prevailing inequities and absurdities. Yet they are plays that are .b(!st. v~ewed aspr()bletp. plays .of dramas of ideas~ ....i.e., plays. in which thought is important; they are not .. all thesis dramas~ however , fqr a thesis drama is a particularly rigorqus example ofa .drama of id~as. Its di:ilectical structllr~ and unflagging subordination to its argum~nt distit;lguish, it ,~harply frpm other intellectual. theatrical pIeces. • " ' , . . .. Shaw's far.,r~nging interests. and dexterous ~aftsmanship might have drained, off the· c;ncentration necessary" for thesis drama;·· this did not happen. Those thesis ,draIIlas he has written are admirable examples of, ,this form,w~ich Shaw managed and expanded in his OWJ1 way. Man and Superman~ Back toMethuselah~ and The Simpleton Of the, Unexpected Isles' are thesis cha,mas, and they are 'linked. by the deve.lopment.: of their arguments .as well., as by their common theme.' " In, Qrder to gain ~ cle.arer understanding of.~hat ·Shaw· was contributing to. thesis; dram~ with these plays, .the:moral, evangelical, personal ,traits· discuss~d a,renot· enough. It will be of help'to ,consider the influence ,of onGo,£ Shaw's favorite thinkers and.literary technicians: Plato. Plato's effect on Shaw's technique jg, pervasive, and' has been not~d before. In this connection, Shaw himself called Plato a "dra:Qlatist" (Epistle. DedicatofY to, Man" and Superman)~ ,I' calltlie' tpesis drama 5 Eric Bentley, Bernard Shaw (New York~ 1957),' p. 149. 132 MODERN DRAMA September dialectical: it is ordered by an idea transcendent to it, develops through discussion of the contradictions offered to this idea (primarily by dialogue), and subordinates all dramatic features to this thesis.. Shaw in many ways resembles Plato, and most especially in methodology . Plato's dialectical method, in particular, is a prototype for Shaw's three vitalist dramas. II In his seventh epistle Plato reveals that he will never make final a doctrine concerning the subjects to which he has devoted his life. Such an attempt would not only be impossible, but would have bad consequences, for readers who supposed themselves to be in total and final possession of a truth which is, as they grasp it here below, evolving and incomplete (it is only complete in the realm of Ideas), would be led to misguided actions. Let me briefly discuss Plato's dialectical method, for Shaw's will be seen to have points of correspondence with it. Plato's dialectic proceeds by means of three kinds of entitieswords , definitions, and images-to attain knowledge, which is a fourth entity, of the object one is inquiring about, which is a fifth entity. But words, definitions, and images are unstable in the sense that they involve contradictions, i.e., that they involve what is the opposite of themselves. By this Plato means that in the case of words, and thus also of definitions (or of speech in general) which are composed of words, there are no...