Man and Superman
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George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was born into a lower-class family in Dublin, Ireland. During his childhood, he developed a love for the arts, especially music and literature. As a young man, he moved to London and found occasional work as a ghostwriter and pianist. Yet, his early literary career was littered with constant rejection. It wasn’t until 1885 that he’d find steady work as a journalist. He continued writing plays and had his first commercial success with Arms and the Man in 1894. This opened the door for other notable works like The Doctor's Dilemma and Caesar and Cleopatra.
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Reviews for Man and Superman
134 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shaw's tour de force, this is a work that combines realism with the supernatural to create a memorable piece of work. The section known as Don Juan in hell is justifiably renowned, and is a philosophical discussion that reminds me of Montesquieu and Machiavelli's Dialogue in Hell. The philosophy of the work is pessimistic; while it still retains a flavor of the socialist ideals of the author, there is an undertone of disillusionment. The roles of the sexes are skewered, by the means of characters upholding them to the letter, showing them for how ridiculous they really are. The leisure class comes off poorly, and the institution of marriage is, as usual in works by Shaw, reduced down to a condition of bondage. An interesting read, probably much too long to stage in this day and age, and certainly the long speeches would make any modern director cringe. Well worth the extra effort for a reading.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very engaging for a long, dialogue-heavy play. Despite being sexist in his belief that women have nothing to offer outside of procreation, I generally love the ideas that Shaw puts forth, usually in Tanner's or Don Juan's words. He gives you frequent moments where you have to take a few seconds to think about the implications of a specific comment. And it's wonderful how Tanner turns societal convention and morality on its head by underlining the absurdity of his companions' reactions to various scandals. Probably my favorite line is quite an incidental comment but gives you an idea of Shaw's wit: Tanner: . . . A jealous sense of my new individuality arose in me -
Ann: You hated to be treated as a boy any longer. Poor Jack!
Tanner: Yes, because to be treated as a boy was to be taken on the old footing. I had become a new person; and those who knew the old person laughed at me. The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor: he took my measure anew every time he saw me, whilst all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5If you remove the Don Juan in Hell sequence, this is actually an entertaining play, but GBS goes off on his tangents until you just want to slap him. Some very well-written, entertaining characters in an amusing situation.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shaw's tour de force, this is a work that combines realism with the supernatural to create a memorable piece of work. The section known as Don Juan in hell is justifiably renowned, and is a philosophical discussion that reminds me of Montesquieu and Machiavelli's Dialogue in Hell. The philosophy of the work is pessimistic; while it still retains a flavor of the socialist ideals of the author, there is an undertone of disillusionment. The roles of the sexes are skewered, by the means of characters upholding them to the letter, showing them for how ridiculous they really are. The leisure class comes off poorly, and the institution of marriage is, as usual in works by Shaw, reduced down to a condition of bondage. An interesting read, probably much too long to stage in this day and age, and certainly the long speeches would make any modern director cringe. Well worth the extra effort for a reading.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Man and Superman, which Shaw subtitled A Comedy and A Philosophy, demonstrates his belief in the conflict between man as spiritual creator and woman as guardian of the biological continuity of the human race. The play incorporates Shaw's concept of the “life force” and satirizes the relationship between the sexes. As always his prose is a delight to read and reread.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Man and Superman, the principle drama of this book, was the weakest part. I found that I did not enjoy Shaw's play-- which is off because I usually do garnish some sense of worth about it. Nevertheless, for me, it was a disappointing read. The other two documents in this text were interesting, but not enough to bring up the book as a whole.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Man and Superman combines a dramatization of Neitsche's "ubermensch" or superman, that was believed to be the goal of creative evolution, with a romantic comedy. For that alone the play deserves five stars. That it does all of this and does it well is a remarkable achievement. The third act, Don Juan in Hell, is often played by itself. A surreal episode in the play, it is in this act that we see the realization of the play's philosophy, with the other three acts framing it with romance. Characteristic of Shaw, we see in the other three acts the Shavian inversion, where he flips commonly held notions on their head: in this case, the tradition that it is the man who is the pursuer in love. Shaw shows that in sex, it is the man who is the hunted and it is the woman who is in control.