It was Shaw’s general contention that all great art was didactic; it was his specific contention that he wrote plays to convert people to his opinions on ‘Social Economy’, ‘Political Economy’ and ‘Vital Economy’. In this study of Bernard Shaw’s plays, originally published in 1971, Leon Hugo examines the implications of these contentions.
Professor Hugo’s book, a lively and enthusiastic reappraisal of the literary and dramatic quality of Shaw’s plays, viewed in the light of their relationship to his social and political ideas, will be of value both as an introduction to new readers of Shaw and as a stimulus to the re-examination of many conventional and often dismissive views of his achievement as a dramatic poet.
In the first part of the book, Shaw’s Fabian socialism, his political philosophy, and his belief in Creative Evolution are examined. In the second part, the author appraises Shaw’s plays by relating them to his ideas and by assessing them as ‘literature’. Among the plays discussed at length are: Mrs Warren’s Profession, Candida, Caesar and Cleopatra, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, Heartbreak House, and St Joan. In the third part an assessment is made of Shaw’s influence as a teacher and dramatist and the author argues that Shaw at his best achieves didactic and aesthetic unity in his plays.