The Playwright’s Perplexity: Constitution, Contagion, and Consumption in The Doctor’s Dilemma

Written at a time when earlier etiologies of tuberculosis had given way to germ theory, Bernard Shaw’s 1906 play The Doctor’s Dilemma: A Tragedy both challenges and confirms scientific and literary conventions regarding consumption and those who suffer it. While the play’s preface stands staunchly against germ theory, the play itself offers a rather more perplexed and perplexing treatment of the disease.