Shaw’s Way with Fanny’s Untitled Play

Much of the critical commentary on Fanny’s First Play focuses on its Induction and Epilogue, which parody critics of Shaw or compares the framing scenes to the untitled This article instead removes the inner play, supposedly written by the heroine of Shaw’s frame play, from the parentheses of its frame and deals with it in its own right, a detailed analysis that renders it more enjoyable and meaningful to readers, who may include directors and actors. Despite Shaw’s criticism of conventional morality and family relationships, he provides a happy ending for Fanny’s play, which when it was first produced the public wholeheartedly approved—as it still does.