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About the Author
George Bernard Shaw “Man of the
Century”. Shaw was born on July 26th 1856, in Dublin, Ireland. George
Bernard Shaw was born Protestant in a predominantly Catholic Dublin. He
was the third child and only son in a family which he once described as
"shabby but genteel." His father, George Carr Shaw, was employed as a
civil servant. Lucinda Gurley Shaw, the mother, was a gifted singer and music
teacher. She led her son to develop a passion for music, particularly operatic
music. At an early age, Shaw had memorized many of the works of Mozart, whose
fine workmanship he never ceased to admire. Somewhat later, he taught himself
to play the piano — in the Shavian manner.
The next stage is about his career. Shaw
emerged as a literary, music, and art critic. Largely because of the influence
of William Archer, the distinguished dramatic critic now best remembered as the
editor and translator of Ibsen. Shaw became a member of the reviewing staff of
the Pall Mall Gazette in 1885. Not long afterward, and again through the
assistance of William Archer, Shaw added to these duties those of an art critic
on the widely influential World. As for Shaw, he blandly explained that
the way to learn about art was to look at pictures; he had begun doing so years
earlier in the Dublin National Gallery.
In 1894, Shaw's Arms and the Man enjoyed
a good run at the Avenue Theater from April 21 to July 7, and it has been
revived from time to time to this very day. In the same year, Shaw wrote Mrs.
Warren's Profession, which became a cause célèbre. In 1895, Shaw was
already at work on his first unquestionably superior play, Candida.
It
has been popular ever since and has found its place in anthologies.
The year 1903 is especially memorable
for his completion and publication of Man and Superman. Then, some
twenty-three other plays were added to the Shavian canon as the century
advanced toward the halfway mark. Best known among these are Major Barbara (1905),
Androcles and the Lion (1912), Pygmalion (1913), Heartbreak
House (1919), Back to Methuselah (1920), and Saint Joan (1923).
During the years 1930-1932, St. Lawrence Edition of his collected plays was
published. In 1938, when some of his film released, these are notable success. Major
Barbara and Androcles and the Lion followed, and the Irish-born
dramatist had now won a much larger audience. Major Barbara was written in
London, early 1900s. It was first produced in 1905 at the Royal Court Theater,
London. Major Barbara was a tale of a broken family some biographers relate to
Shaw's own. It is structured by a contest between father and daughter for the
other's soul and the path of salvation.
Then, His ninetieth birthday in 1946
was the occasion for an international celebration, the grand old man being
presented with a festschrift, entitled GBS 90, to which many
distinguished writers contributed. Shaw once wrote “Life
is no 'brief candle' for me. It is a sort of splendid torch, which I have got
hold of for the moment; and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible
before handing it on to future generations”.
Well before Shaw's death at the age
of ninety-four, on November 2, 1950, this famous dramatist and critic had
become an institution. Among the literate, no set of initials were more widely known
than George Bernard Shaw.
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Conflict
- Protagonist
The
protagonist in this play is idealism, as a Major Barbara. She is a young lady
who born in the wealth. But, she devoted herself to the cause of the Salvation
Army. She thinks she can help change the world by trying to save the souls of
the poor and starving people who come to the shelter where she works.
- Antagonist
The antagonist in this play is
realism, as a Mr. Andrew Undershaft. He is a successful businessman. He is an
intelligent who is a realist and strong man. His youth was spent in poverty at
the Salvation Army, therefore, he believes that being poor is a crime. As a
brilliant orator, he is often the mouthpiece of Shaw, expressing the
dramatist's views on war, poverty, and government.
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Synopsis
Known as one of Shaw's "discussion
plays," Major Barbara is primarily structured through a series of conversations
on morality, religion, and social engineering. As the play opens, Lady
Britomart, a British woman in her fifties, is discussing with her son some
permanent source of income for her grown daughters, Sarah and Barbara, who are
engaged to Charles Lomax and Adolphous Cusins respectively. Lady Britomart
comes to the conclusion that the only solution to the present problem is to
take monetary help from her estranged husband, Andrew Undershaft. He is a very
successful businessman who owns a munitions factory that manufactures the world
famous Undershaft Guns, submarines, and torpedoes. But, when their children
were young, the couple separated due to questions about Undershaft's wealth. Here,
it is important to note that Lady Britomart explains that she left Andrew
Undershaft because he became head of the Undershaft corporations for one reason
only — because he was not a legal heir, therefore she left Andrew to protect
the children from his outrageous and unconventional morals and opinions, and
she decided to raise the children by herself.
Because Lady Britomart has decided to seek help
from her estranged husband, Sarah, Barbara, and Stephen are reintroduced to
their father. In the course of their reunion, Undershaft learns that his daughter,
Barbara, is a Major at the Salvation Army shelter. He wants to visit her at the
shelter in order to see her at work. As he watches her handling various people
with patience, firmness, and sincerity, he is impressed with her abilities.
Undershaft decides that if anyone in his family is capable of managing his
business, it is his idealistic and committed daughter, Barbara. Undershaft
brings his daughter back to reality by revealing the darker side of the
Salvation Army to her.
For
Undershaft, the "crime of poverty" is a crime committed against society
by the poor themselves. The
poor appearing
as abject masses
from some paranoid fantasy, "kill" society's
happiness, forcing the ruling class to eliminate its liberties and organize
"unnatural cruelties" to keep them in check. He said that man
does not need redemption from sinfulness but from the material abjection of
poverty, hunger and sickness.
For
Barbara, her foundling heritage means that she has no social class and thus
comes "straight from the heart of the whole people". She represents
the people universally and can thus serve their savior. Barbara
provides souls for her Army, and Undershaft provides arms for his armies. Barbara
says that her shelter will be found at the sign of the cross, and Undershaft
says that his foundry is located at the sign of the sword. This is the central
point of the dramatic conflict between father and daughter.
Disillusioned,
Barbara leaves the shelter in tears to go with her father to his ammunition
factory. Adolphous follows her. He is soon made heir to the Undershaft factory,
because he is a foundling. According to the Undershaft tradition, the heir to
the Undershaft fortune must be an orphan who can be groomed to run the factory.
After all, Undershaft himself had been a poor young man, staying at the
Salvation Army shelter, he improved his lot by working hard, and he wants to
give some other young gentleman the same kind of opportunities. Major Barbara
soon marries Adolphous, and they live in the countryside near the factory.
Barbara, whose idealism has been tempered with reality, brings her words of
salvation to the workers in the factory.
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