Shaw, Plato, and Euripides: Classical Currents in <i>Major Barbara</i>

Contents

Contents Foreword xiii Acknowledgments xv Introduction: The Way from Athens 1 Intricacies of the Drama 2 Major Barbara and Plato’s Republic 3 Major Barbara and Euripides’s Bacchae 5 On Translations from the Greek 7 The Way from Athens 9 Part I. Shaw’s Republic 11 Platonic Parallels 11 Prideful Aristocracy 15 Moral Economics 20 Will, Reason, Moral Passion 23 Irony and Sophistry 27 The Way to Power 35 Triunity 39 Power of Life and Death 41 Raising Hell to Heaven 47 Return to the Cave 50 Part II. Shaw’s Bacchae 53 1. The Drama of Nutrition 53 Bacchic Parallels 54 Humanity and Divinity 56 The Life Force and Nutrition 59 Myth and Identity 63 Blood and Fire 69 Maenads and Music 74 2. The Drama of Resistance 82 Hybris, Aidos, and Nemesis in West Ham 84 Drumming Dithyrambs 93 Eudaimonia, Sophia, and Indeterminate Divinity 97 Divine Mania 108 Power of the People 116 Epiphany: Ecstasy and Resistance 126 3. The Drama of Heaven and Hell 135 Aftermath, Amathia, and Awakening 137 Dionysos or Another 147 The Armorer’s Creed 157 Power Struggle 165 Salvation through Physis 171 4. The Drama of Transfiguration 182 Traversing the Abyss 184 Power and Wisdom 191 Torch in Hand 197 Resurrection: Life through Death 206 Raising Man to God 209 Descent from the Heights 214 The Bacchae and Major Barbara 219 Appendix. Bernard Shaw: The Artist as Philosopher 221 Notes 245 Selected Bibliography 283 Index 297 ...