Composition

G. Ibsen's play "Nora" ("A Doll's House") caused heated controversy in society, in some places in the living rooms they even posted an announcement: "Please do not talk about\\"Doll's House\\"". Actually, the new drama began with the words of the main character Ibsen, said to her husband Gelmer: "We have something to talk about." Ibsen created a kind of play-discussion genre, where the main thing for the characters is not to achieve success in life, but to search for true evidence of truth in dialogue. The play-debate caused discussions in life as well.

The fact is that even with today's emancipation of a woman, Nora's behavior - her departure from children - cannot be considered the norm, and in Ibsen's time it offended public morality.

The role of Nora is a big test for any actress. Of the famous actresses, Nora was played by the Italian Eleonora Duse and the Russian Vera Komissarzhevskaya. The first shortened the text of the play, while the second completely played according to Ibsen.

It was assumed that in work of art, and in drama as well, there is its own logic of character development, which determines the actions of heroes, that is, nothing unexpected, according to this concept, can be in the life of a hero. Nora is a loving mother, and, according to the logic of normal reasoning, a quarrel with her husband cannot be the reason for her leaving her children. How could this “bird”, “squirrel” decide on such an act and so stubbornly defend its point of view?

Ibsen did not follow the path of standard event resolution. He was an innovator in the field of drama, so the psychological inadequacy of the characters became his symbol of the inadequacy of social relations. Ibsen created an analytical, not a psychologically everyday play, and this was new. Ibsen showed how a person, in spite of everything, in spite of psychological certainty, dares to be himself.

“I need to find out for myself who is right - society or me,” Nora announces to her husband. - I can no longer be satisfied with what the majority says and what they write in books. I myself need to think about all these things and try to understand them.”

Having created a play that was new in mood (analytical), Ibsen "did not unload" it from everyday details. Thus, the play begins with a Christmas tree that Nora bought and brought home on Holy Eve. Christmas for Catholics and Protestants is the main holiday of the year, it is the personification of family comfort and warmth. In addition to the Christmas tree, the playwright gives many other everyday details. This is Nora's Neapolitan costume, in which she will dance at a neighbor's party, then in the same costume she will start a decisive conversation with Gelmer. This is the mailbox, where there is a revealing letter from the usurer, Rank's business card with a sign of his imminent death. Leaving Gelmer, Nora wants to take with her only those things that she brought from her home when she got married. She is “freed” from the things of the “doll house”, from everything that seems to her insincere, alien. In many details, Ibsen sought to show the "littering" of life in the house of Helmer. At the same time, these details of the subtext help the reader and the viewer to understand the essence of what happened. In his speech at his celebration in the Norwegian Women's Union in 1898, the writer said: “Thank you for the toast, but I must reject the honor of consciously contributing to the women's movement. I didn't even get the gist of it. And the cause for which women are fighting seems to me to be universal ... "

The most daring in Ibsen's time were considered Nora's statements and actions at the end of the play, when Gelmer, frightened that his wife might leave the family, reminds her of her duties to her husband and children. Nora retorts: “I have other duties and the same saints. Duties to myself." Gelmer resorts to the last argument: “First of all, you are a woman and a mother. That's the most important thing." Nora replies (at this point there was applause): “I don’t believe in it anymore. I think that first of all I am a human being just like you... or at least I should take care to become human.”

Having become the flag of feminism at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, Ibsen's play a hundred years later does not arouse interest where it once met with thunderous applause, that is, in Norway, in Russia and, obviously, in other countries. Natural question: why? Have all the problems that made Nora act the way she did gone away? Perhaps this is because the Nora deals with a special case of the struggle for the liberation of the individual? However, "A Doll's House" is a play that shows the discrepancy between an outwardly prosperous life and its inner trouble. Perhaps the problem of man's liberation in early XXI century in the aspect in which it is staged in Ibsen's play, it seems far-fetched, they say, "a lady is furious with fat", in our difficult life not before.

There is another important issue in the play, besides attention to the fate of the main character. According to F. M. Dostoevsky, the transformation of humanity into thoughtless and serene puppets, obeying puppeteers (as it was in the play: Gelmer - Nora), is a terrible danger. On the scale of civilization, "playing with dolls" leads to the creation of totalitarian regimes and the death of entire nations. But Ibsen, of course, cannot have these conclusions. For him, the family is society, its imprint. And one cannot but agree with this.

Ibsen's dramas, which went around all the theaters of the world, had a strong influence on world drama. The artist's interest in mental life heroes and their criticism of social reality become the laws of advanced drama at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

It is a pity that today there are almost no plays by G. Ibsen in the repertoire of our theaters. Only occasionally can one hear Edvard Grieg's music for another Ibsen work - the drama "Peer Gynt", which is associated with folk art, with the world of fairy tales. The charming image of Solveig, deep philosophical meaning dramas attracted the attention of all lovers of beauty to Peer Gynt.

B. Shaw - the founder of the "Fabian society" - was waiting for the replacement of capitalism by socialism. Started as a theater critic. The beginning of literary activity is connected with the independent theater of J. Gray, which introduced the viewer to modern plays (then there were Shakespeare's plays in all theaters and "well-made" everyday plays; Gray staged Ibsen, Chekhov, B. Show). In 1925 he received the Nobel Prize for literature.

B. Shaw claims new type drama is intellectual. The main place is not intrigue, but discussion. He reflected his views in the work "The Quintessence of Ibsenism", declaring himself a follower of Ibsen. He set the task of reforming society, hence the social, public sound of the play.

The playwright's main duty is to respond to the present. The problem of family and women's equality.

Shaw's own hero is a man who looks at life realistically. The opposition between realist and idealist - Ibsen's best plays are built on this opposition. The idealist puts on a mask so as not to face reality, the realist looks reality in the face.

The new morality is based on human needs. The show defies aesthetic norms. The quintessence consists in the denial of all norms.

The show wrestles with Shakespeare: "Ibsen satisfies a need unsatisfied by Shakespeare." The Shakespearean theme persists through controversy (a number of essays: "Reproaches of the Bard", "Shakespeare Forever", "Is Shakespeare the Best?") The show stands up against the cult of Shakespeare, imitation of him; his technique is considered obsolete. The result of the controversy with Shakespeare is "Sheks vs. Shev."

Drama discussion. Not heroes, but ideas. Each character is a carrier of the thesis. External conflict gives way to internal. A special role is played by dialogue – dynamic, sharp, problematic, goes beyond the action. (Ibsen is considered the creator of the philosophical "drama of ideas")

The show does not see the task of giving pleasure, he wants to draw into the discussion, to make the reader active. (In this he is close to Ibsen, whose task is to make the viewer a co-author of the play; the clash of ideas should be manifested through the clash of people's real interests).

Shaw's discovery: the presence of a paradox in the plays. 2 types of paradox: 1) opposes the accepted point of view; 2) internal contradiction (Shaw often has type 1). Shaw's task is to clear the mind of the reader from stereotypes with the help of paradoxes. Nonsense (nonsense). Shaw's paradox is always socially directed. paradoxicality is not only through the dialogue, but also through the behavior of the characters.

Extensive remarks, each of which is important (close to a prose text). Shaw's plays are innovative not only in content, but also in content (a new approach to dramaturgy). In many plays, the female character is at the center of the narrative ( philosophical theory life force).

Shaw's innovation: extensive remarks, no list actors, female images in the foreground, an extra-plot hero (the epic penetrates the drama).

Like Ibsen, Shaw used the stage to promote his social and moral views, filling his plays with sharp, tense discussions. However, he not only, like Ibsen, raised questions, but also tried to answer them, and to answer them like a writer full of historical optimism.

Ibsen portrayed life mainly in gloomy, tragic colors. The show is mocking even where we are talking about something quite serious. He has a negative attitude towards tragedy and opposes the doctrine of catharsis. According to Shaw, a person should not put up with suffering, depriving him of "the ability to discover the essence of life, to awaken thoughts, to educate feelings." The show holds comedy in high regard, calling it "the most refined form of art". In Ibsen's work, according to Shaw, it is transformed into tragicomedy, "into a genre even higher than comedy."

All Ibsen's heroes "belong to comedy, they are not hopeless, because, showing them, he criticizes the false constructions of the intellect, and everything that concerns the intellect can be cured if a person learns to think better." Comedy, according to Shaw, denying suffering, educates the viewer in a reasonable and sober attitude towards the world around him.

Like Ibsen, Shaw is constantly striving to find the most effective ways and means of representation. At an early stage, he is quite satisfied with the "image of life in the forms of life itself." Later, he comes to the conclusion that this principle "obscures" the content of philosophical discussion and refers to generalized conventional art forms, according to Shaw, the most suitable for intellectual drama. That is why in Shaw's dramaturgy the most diverse forms of dramatic art are so well represented, from socio-critical and socio-philosophical plays to farces and "political extravagances" - the genre of the funny-fantastic play of the late 18th century that he revived. -early XIX V.

Chapter XVI.

BERNARD SHOW: "INTELLIGENT THEATER"

The first twenty years: from Dublin to London. - Show critic: in the struggle for a new theater. —« Unpleasant Plays: Widower's House,« Mrs. Warren's Profession - At the End of the Century: Pleasant Plays and« Three plays for Puritans. - At the beginning of the century: new themes, new heroes. - "Pygmalion": Galatea in modern world. - First World War: "A house where hearts break." — Between the two world wars: late Shaw. — Shaw's dramatic method: the music of paradoxes.

My way of joking is to tell the truth.

George Bernard Shaw was more than a great writer, an innovative playwright turned classic. on a global scale. His witticisms and paradoxes were scattered all over the world. His fame was so loud that he was simply called G.B.S.; he was heard by those who had never seen or read his plays. Like his illustrious compatriots W. Churchill, B. Russell, G. Wells, he was a great Englishman, whose presence in his life was felt with patriotic pride by several generations.

The first twenty years: from Dublin to London

"The red-bearded Irish Mephistopheles" - so called Bernard Shaw by his biographer E. Hughes. The word "Irish" is very significant here. Bernard Shaw was deeply connected with his homeland, he dedicated his play John Bull's Other Island (1904) to it. Until 1922, Ireland actually remained a British colony. "Green Island" gave a lot of satirical writers, endowed with sharp critical vision, irreconcilable to hypocrisy and falsehood: D. Swift, R. Sheridan, O. Wilde and, of course, B. Shaw. And later - the great James Joyce, the author of "Ulysses", and two Nobel laureates - the poet W. Yeats and the playwright S. Beckett, one of the founders of the "drama of the absurd".

Dublin: the beginning of the journey. George Bernard Shaw (George Bernard Shaw. 1S56-1950), born in Dublin, belonged to that by no means small category of writers who gained recognition, having passed through thorns in their younger years and experienced the blows of fate. Although the playwright's ancestors belonged to a noble family, his father was a modest salesman and, in fact, a loser, which affected his character and determined his addiction to wine. His son rarely saw him sober. The mother, unsuccessfully struggling with her husband's addiction, was forced to support the family. She taught! music, sang, conducted the choir. Among the numerous talents of the future playwright is the musicality inherited from his mother. The father taught his son to respond with mockery or irony to life's troubles.

The situation in the family was not easy, the children were left to their own devices. Later, as he neared his 90s, Shaw recalled; "I wasn't happy in Dublin, and when ghosts rise from the past, I want to drive them back with a poker." Childhood was "terrible", "devoid of love."

Shaw's childhood years coincided with the rise of the liberation struggle in Ireland. In 1858 the "Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood" arose; sometimes its members were called "Fenians". In 1867, an uprising broke out in Dublin, which was ruthlessly suppressed. Shaw called himself a young Fenian.

Bernard Shaw was, in fact, self-taught. He began to read at the age of 4-5 and quite quickly mastered all the English classics, especially Shakespeare and Dickens, as well as works of world literature. At the age of 11, he was sent to a Protestant school, where, according to him, he was the penultimate or last student. Less than a year later, he moved to the English School of Science and Commerce, from which he graduated at the age of 15: School B, Shaw considered the most unsuccessful stage of his biography. Upon graduation, Shaw worked for a real estate agency. Among his duties was the collection of rent from the inhabitants of the poorest quarters of the Irish capital. But, of course, bureaucratic duties could not be taken seriously by him. Spiritual, intellectual interests have already prevailed over him. He read voraciously, was fond of politics.

In 1876, a fateful event occurred in Shaw's life: he resigned from the agency and. left Ireland and moved to London. "The work of my life was impossible to carry out in Dublin, based on my Irish experience." he later explained.

Early years in London. In the capital, Shaw got a job at a telephone company, but his earnings were so small that he soon quit. Shaw spoke of this with irony: “The telephone epic ended in 1879, and in the same year I began with what any literary adventurer then began, and many begin to this day. I wrote a novel."

The novel was called An Unreasonable Liaison (1880), followed by two more: An Artist's Love (1S8S) and Cashel Byron's Profession (1S83). The latter was dedicated to professional sports, boxing. Shaw considered sports such as boxing, golf and football to be unreasonable, indicating only that humanity is inexorably degrading.

Novels sent to publishing houses were rejected. Shaw had no name or support; he received over 60 rejections. Later, his novels began to be published by royalty-free small-circulation socialist newspapers.

At that time, Shaw was in poverty, living off odd jobs. Sometimes his mother helped him. In 1885, his first article appeared in the press.

Fabian. In London, Shaw became interested in politics. He explained his arrival in the capital, in particular, by the fact that he needed to join the world culture. And soon he proved it with his creativity, commitment to the latest artistic trends. At the same time, the range of his public interests was decisively expanded. The show began to show a growing interest in socialist ideas, which could easily be predicted: a person who knew firsthand unemployment and poverty could not help but be a critic of a society in which hypocrisy and the cult of profit reigned.

The show meets the well-known ideologues of reformist socialism, Sydney and Beatrice Webb, and joins the Fabian Society founded by them, named after Fabius Maximus (Cunctator), a Roman commander whose name has become a household name as the personification of slowness and caution. The Fabians became the ideologists of the English version of "democratic socialism".

Shaw was much more radical than the orthodox Fabians. He could be seen in the ranks of peaceful demonstrations, he also spoke at rallies, in particular in Hyde Park. “I am a man of the street, an agitator,” he said of himself.

V. I. Lenin said that Shaw is “a good guy who fell into the midst of the Fabians. He is far more to the left than everyone around him.” This remark by V. I. Lenin has long been considered fundamental for Russian show experts.

One of the playwright's contemporaries recalled how he saw Shaw in the library of the Fabian Museum: he simultaneously studied Marx's Capital and the score of Wagner's opera Das Rheingold. This combination is the whole Show! He was a man of art, a free flight of thought, an individualist, could not completely submit to a strict, dogmatic theory. Shaw wrote on political topics, while demonstrating a special jocularly humorous or frankly paradoxical intonation.

During these years, Shaw became a brilliant speaker, he learned to present any serious thought in an easy and concise manner. The experience of public speaking was then reflected in his work - in the creation of plays-discussions.

Show critic: in the struggle for a new theater

Shaw came to dramaturgy relatively late, having already won authority as an original theater and music critic from the mid-1880s. The show loved the theater, lived it. He himself possessed undoubted acting data, he read his plays better than her.

Shaw's work on his first plays went hand in hand with the intensive work of a theater reviewer.

In the 1880s, the state of affairs in the English theater was alarming. The repertoire consisted of two parts. Modern themes were presented mainly by French authors (Dumas, Sardou), plays of a comedy and entertainment nature, lightweight melodramas, designed to dismiss the bourgeois audience from serious life problems. The classical repertoire was limited to the works of Shakespeare, the productions of his plays were brilliant. Shaw admired his great predecessor and at the same time argued with him as an equal. This controversy continued throughout the life of the playwright. He wanted to "save" England from centuries of "slavish submission" to Shakespeare, believing that the problems of his works belong to the past. The show dreamed of a theater that was problematic, intellectual, serious, addressed to the present, in which intense discussion would not cool down, the clash of points of view of the characters would not stop. A.G. Obraztsova writes that the theater of the future in his view "was called upon to conclude a creative union at a new level between theatrical art - the art of closed theatrical stages and oratory - the art of streets and squares, barkers and tribunes."

"Heroic Actor" Shaw ardently advocated "outright theater of doctrine". But this did not mean at all that, while defending biased art, he ignored its aesthetic nature or wished to impose on the stage the function of straightforward propaganda. However, Shaw clearly sought to emphasize the social and educational function of the theater, its ability to influence not only the souls and emotions of the audience, but also their minds.

Shaw formulated his fundamental principle as follows: "Drama makes theater, not theater makes drama." He believed that from time to time "a new impulse is born" in the dramatic art, and sought to realize it in his plays.

The playwright did not approve of actors who sought only self-expression, for which he criticized one of the idols of the acting scene - Henry Irving. Shaw's ideal was the heroic actor, devoid of pomposity, false emotion, false delight and suffering. “Now there is a need for heroes in whom we can recognize ourselves,” Shaw insisted. Such an image could be embodied by an actor possessing not only a fine emotional organization, but also an intellect, a social outlook. It was necessary to show a hero in whom "passions give rise to philosophy ... the art of ruling the world", and not only lead to "weddings, trials and executions." Shaw's modern hero was one whose personal allegiances have been superseded by "wider and rarer public interests".

"The Quintessence of Ibsenism". Shaw chose Ibsen as his ally. He became an ardent promoter of the great Norwegian in England, where his plays made their way to the stage later than in other European countries. Shaw spoke with lively sympathy about Ibsen, saw in him an innovator who gave dramaturgy that fresh direction that the modern stage needed, an artist who "satisfied a need not satisfied by Shakespeare." Shaw's numerous articles and reviews about the author of A Doll's House were collected in his book The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891). Shaw interpreted Ibsen's dramas, attributing his own aesthetic views to him. As one critic aptly remarked, he imagined "what Ibsen would think if he were Bernard Shaw." After meeting Ibsen, the "pre-Ibsen play" began to cause him "increasing irritation and boredom." Ibsen helped Shaw understand how vital the play is, in which "the problems, characters and actions of the characters are touched upon and discussed, which are of direct importance to the audience itself." Ibsen's main innovations are connected with this. He "introduced the discussion and extended its rights" so that it "intruded into the action and finally merged with it." At the same time, the audience seemed to be included in the discussions, mentally participated in them. These provisions applied equally to the poetics of Shaw himself.

Music critic: "A true Wagnerian." Another direction in Shaw's activity was music criticism. In his own way, he felt and comprehended the interaction of different types of art, which was so important for the turn of the century: painting, literature, music. Shaw wrote about the great classical composers, Beethoven and Mozart, with thoroughness and professionalism. But his idol, to whom he devoted many works, was Richard Wagner (1813-13).

For Shaw, the names of Ibsen and Wagner stand side by side: the former was a reformer of drama, the latter of opera. In The True Wagnerian (1898), Shaw wrote: "... When Ibsen grabbed the drama by the scruff of the neck as Wagner grabbed the opera, she willy-nilly had to move forward ..." Wagner was also "the master of the theater." He achieved the fusion of music and words, had a huge, not yet fully meaningful impact on literature. For Shaw, the deep, philosophical meaning of Wagner's work was obvious, in the musical dramas of which certain events were not so much depicted as their essence was expressed. At the same time, the music itself became an action, conveying the mighty power of human passions.

"Unpleasant Plays": "Widower's House", "Mrs. Warren's Profession"

"Independent Theatre". The formation of the "new drama" at the end of the XIX century. accompanied by a theatrical revolution. It was represented by the "Free Theater" (1887-1896) A. Antoine in France, the literary and theatrical society "Free Stage" (1889-1894) O. Brama in Germany, the "Independent Theater" (1891-1897) in England, organized by J. T. Grein, where European plays were staged more often than English playwrights. It was in this theater that in 1892 Shaw's first play, The Widower's House, saw the light of the stage. However, Shaw turned to dramaturgy much earlier: in 1885 he composed a play together with the critic and translator of Ibsen W. Archer. Later, this play, in a revised form, was included in the cycle Unpleasant Plays (1898).

"Unpleasant Plays". In the preface to the cycle, Shaw wrote: “I use here dramatic action in order to make the viewer think about some unpleasant facts ... I must warn my readers that my criticism is directed against themselves, and not against stage characters ... "

Shaw often preceded his plays with lengthy prefaces, in which he directly explained his intention and characterized the characters. Like his great contemporary G. Wells (with whom Shaw had a difficult relationship), there was always an enlightening element in Shaw's works. About the "Widower's Houses" he wrote: "... I showed that the respectability of our bourgeoisie and the aristocracy of the younger sons from noble families feed on the poverty of the city slums, like a fly feeds on rot. This topic is not pleasant.

Shaw's early plays caused a wide public outcry. They determined the main parameters of his dramatic metrology. The plays raise important social questions. The movement of the plot is determined not so much by intrigue as by a clash of views. The discussion, in fact, drives the action, determines the internal conflict. The young Shaw's careful study of Ibsen's texts is especially pronounced in the denunciation of deceit and hypocrisy, which mask the true state of things. His characters, like those of Ibesnovsky, experience an epiphany.

"Widower's House". The play "Widower's House" reflected Shaw's impressions of his work in Dublin as a rent collector. This is a play about the exploitation of some people by others, about the unjust organization of society with its offensive polarization of wealth and wealth. Hence the author's irony and bitter mockery. The headline is ironic, parodying the expression “house of widows”, which goes back to the Bible, that is, the dwelling of the poor. The name of the protagonist is ironic - the landlord, exploiter and money-grubber Sartorius (from Latin "sacred"). The plot of the play is simple. The main events have a background (as in a number of Ibsen's plays).

But while relaxing in Germany, the rich Sartornus and his daughter, the charming Blanche, met the young English doctor Trent. Blanche and Trent fell in love. It's about marriage. In London, Trent pays a visit to Sartorius, but there are some complications. Trent learns that his future father-in-law's a lot of money was not acquired in the most righteous way: Sartorius enriched himself at the expense of rent collected from the poor, slum dwellers. The situation worsens after Trent's conversation with Lickcheese, a rent collector fired by Sartorius. Likchiz's story is a poignant episode in the play. Lickchees conscientiously did his job: “he scratched out money where no one else in his life would have scratched out ...” Showing Trent a bag of money, he says: “Here every penny is watered with tears: he would buy bread for a child, because the child is hungry and cries of hunger - and I come and tear out the last penny from their throats, ”Likchiz is ashamed of such work, but cannot refuse it, since in this case his own children will be left without bread.

The greed of Sartorius is boundless. When Likchiz, without the knowledge of the owner, repairs the stairs for pennies, because her emergency condition threatens the tenants with injuries, Sartorius fires him. Lickcheese asks Trent to put in a good word for him, but this angers the young man, who sincerely believes that his future father-in-law is "quite right." In his rebuke to Trent, the "innocent lamb", Lickcheese adds to the characterization of Sartorius as "the worst of all the landlords in London". If Likchiz had “ripped off the skin alive” from the unfortunate tenants, then even this would have seemed insufficient to Sartorius. In the future, the playwright "unmasks" Trent himself. The hero is ready to marry Blanche without her father's money, to live with her on his own independent income, the source of which is all the same slum houses, since the land on which they are built belongs to his rich aunt.

Heroes are bound by mutual responsibility. Likcheese, reinstated at work, helps Sartorius "crank out" another profitable scam. “In the finale, Trent, by no means abandoning Blanche’s dowry, sums up what happened: “It looks like we are all one gang here!”

"Mrs Warren's Profession". Shaw's second play, The Heartbreaker (1893), was not successful, but the third, Mrs. Warren's Profession (1894), caused a sensation. The censorship banned its production in England, as the topic of prostitution was considered immoral.

In fact, there was no immorality, let alone erotica, in the play. The problem realized in the original plot was treated in social aspect, grew out of deep depravity modern society. This idea is expressed directly by Shaw: "The only way for a woman to ensure her existence is to give her caresses to some man who can afford the luxury of supporting her."

The eternal theme for literature - the conflict between the generations of fathers and children - appears in Shaw as a conflict between mother and daughter. The main character, Vivi, is a young girl who has received a good upbringing in a boarding house, living in London, away from her mother, who is in Europe. Vivi to a certain extent type " new woman". She is a capable mathematician, independent, smart, endowed with self-esteem, not “obsessed” with marriage, knows the price of a pretty, but, in essence, empty Frank who is in love with her.

This play, like Widower's Houses, has a climactic scene where Vivi meets her mother, Kitty Warren, after for long years separation.

After asking her mother what she does, what are the sources of her considerable income, Vivi listens to a shocking confession. When Mrs. Warren reveals that she is the owner of a network of brothels in European capitals, a sincerely indignant Vivi asks her mother to give up such a source of income, but is resolutely refused.

Fundamentally important life story told by Mrs. Warren to her daughter. There were four daughters in the family of Kitty Warren's parents: two of them, she and Liz, were interesting, pretty girls, the other two had a discreet appearance. Need forced them to think early about earning money. Those of the sisters who chose the usual path for decent girls ended badly. One worked in a white lead factory twelve hours a day for a measly wage until she died of lead poisoning. She set the second mother as an example, because she married a worker in a food warehouse, kept her three children clean and tidy for more than modest money. But in the end, her husband began to drink, "Was it worth it to be honest?" asks Missy Warren.

Kitty Warren began her career as a dishwasher in a temperance restaurant until she met her sister, pretty Lizzie. She convinced her that beauty is a commodity that must be able to sell profitably. Starting with individual craft, the sisters, having combined their savings, opened a first-class brothel in Brussels. With the help of a new partner, Crofts, Kitty expanded her "business", establishing branches in other cities. Taking note of her mother's arguments, the smart Vivi admits that she is "completely right, and from a practical point of view." And yet, unlike the doctor Trent ("Widower's House"), she does not accept the philosophy of "dirty money". She also rejects the harassment of the rich Crofts, who offers her a financially advantageous marriage.

Vivi is by far the most attractive figure in the play. It evokes associations with Ibsen's heroes, in which the craving for truth and justice is obvious. At the end of the play, Vivi breaks with her mother: she will go her own way, working in a notary's office, arrange her life with honest work, relying on her will, without compromising her moral principles. But as vicious as Kitty Warren, Crofts, and their ilk may be, it follows from the logic of the dramatic plot that it is not only they who are malicious: "Society, not any individual, is the villain in this play."

At the turn of the century: "Pleasant plays" and "Three plays for Puritans"

Two decades - from the release of "Unpleasant Plays" to the end of the First World War - a fruitful stage in the work of Shaw. At this time, his best works, diverse in subject matter and extraordinary in structure, saw the light of day. Shaw's second cycle was called Pleasant Pieces. If in the previous cycle the object of criticism was the socio-economic foundations of society, then this time the ideological myths, illusions, prejudices that are firmly rooted in the minds of the playwright's compatriots are criticized. The goal of the show was to convince of the need for a sober view of things, to demythologize the public consciousness.

The cycle included four plays: Arms and Man (1894), Candida (1894), Destiny's Chosen One (1895), Let's wait and see (IS95).

Starting from this cycle, Shaw's work includes an anti-militarist theme, which was extremely relevant in those years.

One of the directions of Shaw's satire was "deheroization" strong personalities who gained glory on the battlefield. Such is the play "The Chosen One of Fate", which has the subtitle "Trifle". The action in it takes place in 1796 in Italy, at the very beginning of the brilliant career of the protagonist, Napoleon. The show deliberately reduces the image of the commander. In an extensive preface to the play, the author explains; Napoleon's genius was in understanding the significance of artillery cannonade for the extermination of as many people as possible (compared to rifle and bayonet fighting). French soldiers, in hardship, loot and act like locusts in Italy.

The play is written in a playful manner and is far from following historical facts. In the mouth of Napoleon put arguments about his main opponent - England, the country of "middle-aged people", "shopkeepers". Napoleon talks about English hypocrisy. In his monologue, the voice and intonations of Shaw himself are distinguishable: “The English are a special nation. No Englishman can sink so low as to have no prejudice, or rise so high as to be free from their power... Every Englishman is endowed from birth with some miraculous ability, thanks to which he became the master of the world... His Christian duty is conquer those who own the object of his desires ... He does whatever he pleases and grabs what he likes ... "

The British are distinguished by the ability to justify any most dishonorable actions with references to the highest moral authorities, to stand in a spectacular pose of a moral person.

“There is no meanness and no feat that an Englishman would not have accomplished; but there was no case that the Englishman was wrong. He does everything out of principle: he fights you out of patriotic principle, he robs you out of business principle; enslaves you out of imperial principle; threatens you from the principle of masculinity; supports his king from the loyal principle and cuts off his head from the principle of Republicanism.

In the play "Arms and a Man", known in Russia under the name "Chocolate Soldier", the action takes place during the Bulgarian-Serbian war of 1886, which resulted in the senseless self-destruction of two Slavic peoples. The dramatic conflict is built on Shaw's characteristic opposition of two types of characters - a romantic and a realist. The first is the Bulgarian officer Sergei Saranov, endowed with a beautiful "Byronic" appearance, a lover of verbal rhetoric, combined with obvious posturing. Another type is the mercenary Brünchli, a Swiss who served with the Serbs, a man of practical mind, ironic, devoid of any illusions. It is to him that Rayna Petkova, a rich heiress, gives her sympathy. Unlike Saranov, who exudes patriotic pathos, Brunchli treats the war as a profitable, well-paid job.

Shaw's next collection, Three Pieces for Puritans (1901), includes The Devil's Disciple (1897), Caesar and Cleopatra (IS9S), The Conversion of Captain Brasbound (1899). The name of the nickname cannot be taken literally, it is rather ironic. In the preface to the cycle, Shaw declares that he contrasts his plays with those in which the center of gravity is a love affair. The show is against passion triumphing over reason. As a champion of "intellectual theatre," Shaw considers himself a "puritan," having an approach to art.

In the plays of this cycle, Shaw turns to historical plots. In the drama The Devil's Apprentice, which continues the anti-war theme so important for Shaw, the action takes place during the era of the American Revolution in the 18th century, in 1777, when the colonists launched a struggle for freedom from the English crown. At the center of the play is Richard Dudgeon, full of hatred for oppression and oppressors, for all kinds of hypocrisy and hypocrisy.

The play "Caesar and Cleopatra" is a dramatic development of the theme of the relationship between the great commander and the Egyptian queen. To a certain extent, this play is built on an internal polemic with Shakespeare's tragedy Antony and Cleopatra. The latter is usually interpreted as the apotheosis of romantic love, to which state interests were sacrificed. Antony and Cleopatra in Shakespeare are passionate lovers, who are opposed by the cold, prudent Octavian. The show changes the concept of heroes, focusing on the complex relationship of the victorious Romans and Egyptians. Cleopatra's actions are guided not only by a strong feeling for Caesar, but also by political calculation. Caesar is also romantic hero but a sober pragmatist. He controls his feelings. And when things call him to Italy, he not only parted with Cleopatra, but also promised the empress to send a replacement for himself - “a Roman from head to toe, younger, stronger, more vigorous”, “not hiding bald head under the laurels of the winner. His name is Mark Antony.

Shaw's play becomes, as it were, a prologue to Shakespeare's, the action of which takes place after the death of Caesar, when the Egyptian queen meets her new lover.

At the beginning of the century: new themes, new heroes

In the early 1900s, Shaw gained worldwide fame. His personal life is also settled. In 1898, Shaw experienced health problems. He underwent major surgery on his leg. The wound did not heal for a long time - his body was weakened due to overwork and poor vegetarian nutrition. The sick writer began to be nursed by his devoted admirer Charlotte Payne-Townsend, an Irishwoman whom he met in the Fabian Society. In the same year they got married. Shaw was 42, Charlotte was 43. They were married for 45 years until Charlotte's death in 1943. They had no children. This union of theirs had a pronounced intellectual basis. Shaw was a peculiar man, not without oddities, his office was an impressive sight. Everywhere, on the table, on the floor, piles of books and manuscripts piled up. Shaw did not allow them to be touched, but Charlotte managed to improve Shaw's life, bring comfort and minimal order into it. When Charlotte was asked if it was easy for her to live with a genius, Ogga replied: “I didn’t live with a non-genius.”

In the 1900s, Shaw was exceptionally active creatively; one after another, about once a year, his plays were published, and in none of them did he repeat: "Man and Superman" (1903), "John Bull's Other Island" (1904), "Major Barbara" (1905), The Physician's Dilemma (1906), The Exposure of Blasco Posnet (1909), Androclus and the Lion (1912), Pygmalion (1913).

"Man and Superman". The play "Man and Superman", subtitled "Comedy with Philosophy", was a success. This is a variation of the story of Don Juan, a woman is endowed with an active principle, she pursues a man, trying to marry him to herself.

The protagonist, John Tanner, is a socialist, rich young man, C.P.K.B. He is attractive, women are drawn to him, but the hero is afraid of them and seeks to avoid marriage. Shaw apparently puts his ideas into the mouth of the hero who wrote The Guide and Pocket Guide for Revolutionaries. He gives a critique of the capitalist system and believes that progress can be achieved not through political struggle, but as a result of an active "life force" and biological improvement of human nature.

Tanner's Handbook is full of witty, paradoxical aphorisms. Here are some of them: "The golden rule is that there are no golden rules"; "The art of government lies in the organization of idolatry"; “In a democracy, many ignorant people are elected, whereas before a few corrupt ones were appointed”; “You can’t become a narrow specialist without becoming a blockhead in the broad sense”; " The best way educated children are those who see their parents as they are.

The play consists of two parts - a comedy about John Tanner and an interlude about Doc Juan. By comparing these images, the author clarifies the essence of the character of the protagonist. Don Juan's passion for women is contrasted with Tanner's spiritual Don Juan - his passion for new ideas, his dream of a superman. But he is not able to translate his ideas into reality.

Major Barbara. Shaw's plays contain frank and sharp social criticism. In the play "Major Barbara" the object of irony is the Salvation Army, in which main character Barbara, by no means full of desire to do good deeds. The paradox in the that organized charity, which exists at the expense of the rich, does not reduce, but, on the contrary, multiplies the number of the poor. Among the characters, one of the most impressive faces is the father of the heroine, the owner of the Undershaft weapons factory. He considers himself the master of life, his motto is: "Without shame", he is the actual "government of the country." Undershaft is a merchant of death and prides himself on being dominated by guns and torpedoes in his religion and morality. Not without pleasure, he talks about the seas of innocent blood, about the trampled fields of peaceful farmers and other sacrifices made for the sake of "national vanity": "All this gives me income: I only get richer and get more orders when the newspapers trumpet about it."

It is not difficult to imagine how relevant this image has become for the 20th century, especially during periods of intense arms race.

Shaw and Tolstoy. Like his remarkable contemporaries, Galsworthy and Wells, Shaw did not pass by Tolstoy's artistic contribution, although he differed from him on the philosophical and religious side. Skeptical of authorities, Shaw nevertheless referred Tolstoy to the "rulers of thoughts", to those who "lead Europe". In 1898, after the appearance in England of Tolstoy's treatise What is Art?, Shaw responded to it with a lengthy review. Arguing with individual Tolstoy theses, Shaw shared main idea treatise proclaiming the social mission of art. Shaw and Tolstoy also had a critical attitude towards Shakespeare, although they proceeded from different philosophical and aesthetic premises.

In 1903 Shaw sent his play Man and Superman to Tolstoy, accompanied by an extensive letter. Tolstoy's attitude towards Shaw was complex. He highly appreciated his talent and natural humor, but reproached Shaw for not being serious enough, talking about such a question as the purpose of human life in a joking manner.

Shaw's other play, The Exposure of Blasco Posnet (1909), sent by the author to Yasnaya Polyana Tolstoy liked it. She was close in spirit to the folk drama and was written, according to Shaw, not without the influence of Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness.

"Pygmalion": Galatea in the modern world

On the eve of World War I, Shaw wrote one of his most famous plays, Pygmalion (1913). It was more scenic, traditional in form than many of his other works, and therefore was successful in different countries and entered the classical repertoire. The play also became the basis for the wonderful musical "My Fair Lady".

The title of the play refers to ancient myth, revised by Ovid in his Metamorphoses.

The talented sculptor Pygmalion sculpted the amazingly beautiful statue of Galatsin. His creation was so perfect that Pygmalion fell in love with him, but his love was unrequited. Then Pygmalion turned to Zeus with a prayer, and he revived the statue. So Pygmalion found demolition of happiness.

A master of paradox, of the ironic "reversal" of conventional wisdom, Shaw performs a similar operation with the plot of a myth. In the play, it is not Pygmalion (Professor Higgins) who "revives" Galatea (Eliza Doolittle), but Galatea - her creator, teaching him true humanity.

The protagonists are phonetic scientist Professor Henry Higgins, an outstanding expert in his field. He is able to determine the origin and social status of the speaker by pronunciation. The professor never parted with a notebook, where he records the dialects of those around him. Completely absorbed in science, Higgips is rational, cold, selfish, arrogant, and has difficulty understanding other people. The professor is a confirmed bachelor, suspicious of women, in whom he sees the intention to steal his freedom.

Chance brings him into contact with Eliza Doolittle, a florist of extraordinary and bright nature. Behind the funny pronunciation, the vulgar jargon, Shaw reveals her eccentricity and charm. The shortcomings of speech upset Eliza, prevent her from getting a job in a decent store. Appearing to Professor Higgins, she offers him a measly penny for teaching her lessons in correct pronunciation. Colonel Pickering, an amateur lilguist, makes a bet with Higgins: the professor must prove that he can turn a flower girl into a high society woman in a few months.

Higgins' experiment is proceeding successfully, his pedagogy will bear fruit, however, it is not without problems. Two months later, the professor brings Eliza to the house of his mother, Mrs. Higgins, a prim Englishwoman, just in time for the day of the reception. For a while, Eliza behaves admirably, but suddenly strays into "street buzzwords." Higgins will be able to smooth things over by convincing everyone that this is the new social jargon. Eliza's next exit into high society is more than successful. A young woman is mistaken for a duchess, admired by her manners, beauty.

The experiment, which had already begun to tire Higgins, was completed. The professor is again arrogantly cold towards the girl, which deeply offends her. Shaw puts bitter words into her mouth, emphasizing the humanistic pathos of the play: “You pulled me out of the mud! .. And who asked you? Now you thank God that everything is already over and it will be possible to throw me back into the mud. What am I good for? What have you adapted me to? Where should I go? In desperation, the girl throws shoes at Higgins. But even this does not put the professor off balance: he is sure that everything will work out.

There are tragic notes in the play. The show saturates the play with deep meanings. He stands up for the equality of people, defends human dignity, the value of a person, which is least of all measured by the beauty of pronunciation and the aristocracy of manners. Man is not an indifferent material for scientific experiments. He is a person who needs to be treated with respect.

Eliza leaves Higgips' house. And yet she manages to "get through" the old bachelor. During these months, sympathy developed between the professor and Eliza.

In the finale, Eliza returns to the Higgins house, demanding that the professor ask her for a petition, but is rebuffed. She thanks Pickering for his truly chivalrous attitude towards her and threatens Higgins that she will go to work as an assistant to his rival Professor Nepin.

The show offers a sad "open" ending. Having quarreled with Higgins again, Eliza leaves for the wedding of her father, who also underwent a miraculous metamorphosis. The drunken scavenger, having received a substantial amount of money in his will, became a member of the Society for Moral Reforms. Higgins, saying goodbye to Eliza, asks her to shop, ignoring her contemptuous tone. He is sure that Eliza will return.

Shaw himself, in the afterword to the play, perhaps because of his addiction to jokes or wanting to puzzle the viewer, wrote the following: “... She (Elise) has a feeling that his (Higgins) indifference will become more than the passionate love of other ordinary natures . She is immensely interested in him. Sometimes even she has a malevolent desire to imprison him alone on a desert island ... "

The play opened a new facet of the playwright's talent: its characters are able not only to debate and witty dives, but also to love, though skillfully masking their feelings.

The history of the creation of the play is connected with Shaw's novel and famous actress Patricia Campbell. It was a novel in letters. Patricia played the role of Eliza in Pygmalion. After discussing the role with Patricia, Shaw wrote: “I dreamed and dreamed and had my head in the clouds all day and all the next day as if I were not yet twenty. And I’m about to turn 56. Never, mannered, has anything so ridiculous and so wonderful happened.

Among the Russian productions of Pygmalion, the premiere at the Maly Theater in December] 943 with the brilliant D. Zerkalova in the role of Eliza is especially significant.

World War I: "Heartbreaking House"

The First World War was a shock for Shaw. Unlike those writers who at its early stage were close to the "patriotic" point of view (G. Hauptmann, T. Mann, A. France), Shaw took a bold, independent position. In 1914, he published the pamphlet "Common Sense About War", animated by anti-militarist pathos, which was also present in a number of his plays. "War is the greatest crime against humanity, a method of resolving conflicts in the most barbaric way!" Shaw insisted. In his pamphlet he warned of the danger of being blinded by patriotic ideas. In 1915, Gorky, in a letter to Shaw, whom he called "one of the most courageous people of our time," supported his humanist position.

Shaw dived anti-war moods in a number of short dramatic works, which were included in the collection "War Plays" (1919): "O" Flaherty, Knight of the Order of Victoria, "Emperor of Jerusalem", "Anna - Bolshevik Empress" and "August does her duty" . Last play the most successful, close to farce.

Lord Augustus of Highcastle is a major military official. A self-satisfied and stupid aristocrat with a "cast-iron skull", despising ordinary people, he makes pseudo-patriotic speeches. This does not prevent him from blurting out important military secrets to a German spy.

Shaw responded to the events in Russia in 1917. He condemned the ruling classes in England, who sought to suppress the Bolsheviks through intervention. Shaw approved of socialism as the goal of the Russian revolution. But violence as a method of the Bolsheviks was unacceptable for the Show Democrat.

A play in the manner of Chekhov. During the war years, the most significant and complex drama was created with the original title, which became an aphorism: "The house where hearts break." Shaw began work on the play in 1913, completed it in 1917, and published after the end of the war, in 1919. The play has the subtitle "Fantasy in the Russian style on English themes." As usual, Shaw preceded the play, marked by a broad, socio-philosophical sound, with a detailed preface, indicating its "Russian trace". This play was a milestone for Shaw; it absorbed many of the motifs, themes and techniques of his previous dramas. The writer emphasized the scale of the idea: before the viewer is a cultured, idle Europe on the eve of the war, when the guns were already loaded. In the play, Shaw acts as a satirist and social critic, depicting society as relaxed, in an "overheated room atmosphere" where "soulless ignorant cunning and energy rule."

Shaw named the great Russian writers Chekhov and Tolstoy as his predecessors in the development of such problems. "Chekhov," says Shaw, "has four lovely studies for the theater about the House where hearts break, three of which - "The Cherry Orchard", "Uncle Vanya" and "The Seagull" - were staged in England. Later, in 1944, Shaw wrote that he was fascinated by Chekhov's dramatic solutions to the theme of the worthlessness of "cultural bums, not engaged in creative work."

According to Shaw, Tolstoy also portrayed the "House", and did this in "The Fruits of Enlightenment" "cruelly and contemptuously." For him, it was the "House" in which Europe "mortifies its soul."

In Shaw's play, a complex, intricate intrigue, the real in it coexists with the grotesque and fantasy. Heroes are desperate people who lost faith in life values who do not hide their worthlessness and depravity. Events unfold in a house "built like an old ship." Representatives of three generations act in the play.

The owner of the house is the eighty-year-old Captain Shotover, a man not without oddities. As a young man he experienced romantic sea adventures, but over the years he became a skeptic. He calls England "the dungeon of souls." The house-ship becomes a gloomy symbol. In a conversation with Hector, the husband of one of his daughters, Shotover offers a more than pessimistic forecast for the future of his country: “Her captain is lying on his bunk and sucking sewage straight from the bottle. And the team to the cockpit pouts at the cards. They fly, break and drown. Do you think that the laws of the Lord are repealed in favor of England just because we were born here? Salvation from such a fate, according to Shotover, lies in the study of "navigation", that is, in political education. This is Shaw's favorite idea. The middle generation, Shotover's daughters, Hesiona Heshebye and Eddie Utterword, and their husbands, are depicted satirically. They live poorly, barrenly and understand it, but they are devoid of energy, they can only complain, make sarcastic remarks to each other and chat about trifles. Almost all the characters are entangled in a web of lies.

The only man of action in this motley company gathered in the house is Mengen. Shotover hates him. He keeps stocks of dynamite to blow up the hated the world, in which, as Hector says, there are almost no decent people.

Among the few positive characters is the young Lady Ellie Dan. It combines a penchant for romantic illusions and practicality. She consults with Shotoper whether to marry the rich man Mengen, whose money is acquired by criminal means. Ellie is ready to "sell out" to him in order to "save her soul from poverty." But the "dangerous old man" Shotoner convinces her that "wealth is ten times more likely to plunge into hell." In the end, Ellie decides that the most preferable option is to become Shotover's wife. Ellie is somewhat reminiscent of such heroines of the Show as Vivi, Eliza Doolittle, endowed with a sense of dignity and a thirst for a better life.

The end of the play is symbolic. The German air raid is the only interesting event, which violated the "unbearably boring" existence of the characters, One of the bombs definitely falls into the pit where Mengen and the thief who got into the house were hiding. The rest of the heroes experience "wonderful sensations" and dream of a new raid...

This play, like Pygmalion, is a refutation of Shaw's insistent reproaches that he almost did not create full-blooded human characters, and that only bearers of ideological theses acted on the stage, some figures dressed in male and female costumes.

The play "House where hearts break" completed the most important, most fruitful stage in the creative evolution of the playwright. There were still three decades of writing work full of interesting searches ahead.

Between the Two World Wars: Late Shaw

By the time the war ended and the Treaty of Versailles (1919) was signed, Shaw was already 63 years old. But he did not seem to feel the burden of years. His last decades creative way here they are briefly characterized, since this period is already covered in the course of literature of the 20th century.

"Back to Methuselah". The show playwright masters new themes and genres, in particular the genres of philosophical and utopian political play, eccentria and farce. His play in five acts "Back to Methuselah" (1921) is a reflection on the problems of history and evolution sustained in a grotesque-fantastic manner. Shaw's idea is original. He is convinced that the imperfection of society lies in the imperfection of the person himself, primarily in the short duration of his earthly existence. Hence the task of lengthening human life up to the age of Methuselah, i.e. up to 300 years through systematic biological evolution.

"Saint Joan". The next dramatic is produced. The show, Saint Joan (1923), is subtitled A Chronicle in Six Parts with an Epilogue. In it, Shaw turned to heroic theme. In the center of the play is the image of Joan of Arc. The image of this girl from the people, the very phenomenon of this person, mysterious and fearless, aroused admiration and was the subject of numerous studies and ideological controversy. In 1920, Jeanne was canonized as a saint. In artistic interpretation The image of Jeanne in Shaw had outstanding predecessors: Voltaire, Friedrich Schiller, Mark Twain, Anatole France.

In the preface to the play, Shaw spoke out against the romanticization of his heroine, against turning her life into a sentimental melodrama. Based on an objective analysis of facts and documents, obeying logic common sense, Shaw created a genuine historical tragedy. He presented Jeanne as "a sensible and shrewd country girl of extraordinary strength of mind and fortitude".

In a conversation with the king, Jeanne utters words that are key to understanding her character: “I myself am from the earth, and I gained all my strength by working on the earth.” She longs to serve her motherland, the cause of her liberation. With her unselfishness and patriotism, Jeanne opposes those palace intriguers who are driven only by selfish interests. Jeanne's religiosity is a manifestation of her sense of spiritual freedom and longing for true humanity.

In 1928, Shaw, the second Englishman after Kipling, becomes a laureate Nobel Prize on literature. In 1931, not without a share of outrageousness, he went to Soviet Union to celebrate their 75th birthday there. Stalin accepts.

In England, Shaw wrote and spoke much in defense of our country. The apologia for the Soviets was by no means evidence of Shaw's political short-sightedness, although his speeches certainly felt a challenge to the anti-Sovietism of the British press. Perhaps he, like some Western writers in the 1930s, fell under the influence of Stalin's powerful propaganda machine, which also worked abroad.

Plays of the last decades. In the plays of B. Shaw recent years, on the one hand, a topical socio-political theme, on the other, an unusual, paradoxical form, even a tendency to eccentria and buffoonery. Hence the difficulty of their stage interpretation.

The play "Apple Cart" (1929), written in the year of the most severe economic crisis, has the subtitle "Political Extravaganda". The name goes back to the expression: "overturn the apple cart", that is, to consider the violated order no longer subject to restoration, to upset all plans. The action takes place in the future, in 1962, and contains witty attacks on the political system in England.

The content of the play is reduced to the endless skirmishes of King Magnus, a man of intelligence and insight, with his prime minister Proteus and members of his cabinet. Proteus admits: “I am taking the post of prime minister for the same reason that all my predecessors have held it: because I am not good for anything else.” The show makes it clear: not the king, not ministers, but monopolies, corporations, moneybags have real power. Much of this play still sounds very relevant today.

In the manner of cheerful buffoonery, the play Bitter but True (1932) is sustained, the deep theme of which is the spiritual crisis of English society. In another play - "Aground" (1933) - the topic of unemployment and ways to overcome it, which was relevant for the early 1930s, sounded. The show recreated caricature portraits of British figures, Prime Minister Arthur Chawendero and members of his government.

At the heart of the utopian plot of the play The Simpleton from Unexpected Islands (1934) is the author's belief in the perniciousness of an idle existence. In a number of plays, Shaw creates images of those who obtained their wealth in an unrighteous way (The Millionaire, 1936; Byant's Billions, 1948), by condemning fascism and totalitarianism; permeated his play "Geneva" (1938), Dramatist developing; also historical topics (“In the Golden Days of King Charles”, 1939) During the Second World War, Shaw called for the speedy opening of a second front and European solidarity with Russia. At this time, he actively spoke on the radio, in particular, delivered his shortest speech, which consisted from just two words: "Help Russia."

Death Shaw: A life lived to the fullest. Having celebrated his ninetieth birthday in 1946, the playwright continued to work. In 1949, a year before his death, he wrote a playful puppet comedy, Shex vs. Shaw, whose characters were easily guessed by Shakespeare and Shaw, leading an absentee playful polemic.

In recent years, the playwright lived alone in the small town of Ayot-Saint-Laurence and continued to work, remaining a living legend. Shaw died on November 2, 1950 at the age of 94. Everyone who knew him spoke of him with admiration, noting the amazing versatility of this genius.

Long before his death, the 44-year-old Shaw said in one speech: “I did my work on earth and did more than I was supposed to. And now I have come to you not to ask for a reward. I claim it by right." And Shaw's reward was not only worldwide fame, recognition and love, but above all the consciousness that he had fulfilled his mission on earth to the fullest extent of his strength and talents.

Shaw's dramatic method; music of paradoxes

Shaw's writing career spanned three-quarters of a century. He was an innovator who continued and enriched the traditions of world dramatic classics. Ibsen's principle of "drama of ideas" was further developed and sharpened by him.

The disputes of Ibsen's characters grew into Shaw's lengthy discussions. They dominate the play, absorb external dramatic action, and become a source of conflict. Often, Shaw prefaces his plays with extensive prefaces in which he explains the characters of the characters and comments on the problem discussed in them. His characters are sometimes not so much psychologically defined individual characters as carriers of certain concepts and theories. Their relationship is shown as an intellectual rivalry, and the play itself becomes a discussion drama. A talented orator and controversialist, Shaw conveys these qualities to his characters.

Unlike Ibsen, whose work was dominated by dramas, Shaw is primarily a comedian. At the heart of his methodology is sitiriko-humorous principle. The show is close to the manner of the great satirist of antiquity Aristophanes, and whose plays the principle of competition of characters was realized.

The show has been compared to Swift. But unlike Swift, especially the later one, Shaw does not hate people. He doesn't have Swift's gloominess either. But Shaw, not without irony and even contempt, will look down on the stupidity of people, their ineradicable prejudices and ridiculous sentimentality.

His polemic with Shakespeare, for all its extremes, was not just Shaw's whim, his desire to shock the literary world, a challenge almost for the purpose of self-promotion. After all, it was an attempt on what seemed to be an indisputable authority. Shaw wanted to challenge what he believed to be the pernicious idolatry of Shakespeare ingrained in his compatriots, the arrogant belief that only in England could a single and unsurpassed poet rise above all criticism. It followed from this that all playwrights and poets were obliged to focus on Shakespeare in their work. The show also proved that there could be another dramaturgy.

Humor, satire, paradoxes. The show is far from lifelike, a mirror reflection of reality. His theater is intellectual. It is dominated by the element of humor and satire. His characters talk about serious things in a comical, ironic manner.

Shaw's plays sparkle with wit and his celebrated paradoxes. Paradoxical are not only the statements of Shaw's heroes, but also the situations in his plays, and often the plots. Even in Othello, Shakespeare says: "The dear old paradoxes exist in order to make fools laugh." But Shaw's point of view: "My way of joking is to tell the truth."

Many of Shaw's paradoxes are aphoristic. Here are some of them: « A reasonable person adapts to the world, an unreasonable one persists in his attempts to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, progress always depends on unreasonable people”; “When a man wants to kill a tiger, he calls it a sport; when a tiger wants to kill himself, man calls it bloodlust. The difference between crime and justice is no more”; “Who knows how - does; who does not know how to do - teaches; who does not know how to teach, teaches how to teach”; “People are flattered not by flattery, but by the fact that they are considered worthy of flattery”; “A healthy nation does not feel its nationality, just as a healthy person does not feel that he has bones. But if you undermine its national dignity, the nation will think of nothing else but to restore it.”

Shaw's paradoxes blew up the imaginary decency of generally accepted ideas, accentuated their inconsistency, absurdity. In this Shaw turned out to be one of the forerunners of the theater of the absurd.

In Shaw's plays, poetry is thought. His heroes are rational, rational, the playwright even, as it were, ironically over feelings, or, to be more precise, over sentimentality. But this does not mean that his theater is dry, cold, hostile to emotional, lyrical theater.

A remarkable feature of B. Shaw's pieces is their hidden musicality. She is in harmony with his creative personality. He lived in an atmosphere of music, adored the classics, acted as a music critic, loved to play music. He built his plays according to the laws of musical composition, felt the rhythm of the phrase, the sound of the word. He constantly wrote about the music of words in reviews of Shakespeare's performances. He called the expositions of his plays "overtures", the dialogues of the characters - "duets", monologues - "solo parts". Shaw wrote about some of the pieces as "symphonies". Being sometimes engaged in staging his plays, Shaw paid special attention to the pace and rhythm of performance. Monologues, duets, quartets, Sole wide ensembles created the musical pattern of his performance. He gave instructions on the four main voices of the actor: soprano, contralto, tenor, bass. Various musical effects are used in his plays.

Thomas Mann, one of the creators of the intellectual European novel of the 20th century, remarked with extraordinary subtlety: “The dramaturgy of this son of a singer and singing teacher is the most intellectual in the world, which does not prevent it from being music - the music of words, and it is built, as he himself emphasizes, on the principle of musical development of the theme; with all the transparency, expressiveness and soberly critical playfulness of thought, she wants to be perceived as music ... "

But, of course, the theater of the Show is rather a theater of "performances" rather than "experiences." Realization of his dramatic ideas requires unconventional approaches from the director and actor, a high degree of conventionality. The performance of roles involves an unusual acting style, eccentric, grotesque, satirically pointed. (Somewhat similar difficulties arise in interpreting Brecht.) This is why Pygmalion, the comedy most often staged, is closest to the traditional type.

Literature

Artistic texts

Show B. Complete works: in 6 volumes / B. Show; foreword A Aniksta. - M, 1978-1982.

Show B. About drama and theater / B. Show. - M., 1993.

Show B. About music / B. Show. - M, 2000.

Show B. Letters / B. Show. - M.. 1972.

Criticism. Tutorials

Balashov P. Bernard Shaw // History English Literature: in 3 volumes - M „ 1958.

Grazhdanskaya 3. T. Bernard Shaw: an essay on life and work / 3. T. Grazhdanskaya. - M., 1968.

Obraztsova A. G. Bernard Shaw in European theatrical culture at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries / A. G. Obraztsova. - M., 1974.

Obraztsova A. G. The Dramatic Method of Bernard Shaw / A. G. Obraztsova.— M., 1965.

Pearson X. Bernard Shaw / X. Pearson. - M., 1972.

Romm A. S. George Bernard Shaw / A. S. Romm, - M., L., 1966.

Romm A. S. Show theorist / A. S. Romm. - L., 1972.

Hughes E, Bernard Shaw / E. Hughes, - M., 1966

B. Show about "new drama"

In the historical and literary perspective, the “new drama”, which served as a radical restructuring of the dramaturgy of the 19th century, marked the beginning of the dramaturgy of the 20th century. In the history of Western European "new drama", the role of an innovator and pioneer belongs to the Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906).

B. Shaw, who saw in Ibsen "a great critic of idealism", and in his plays - a prototype of his own play-discussions, in the articles "The Quintessence of Ibsenism" (1891), "The Realist Dramatist - to His Critics" (1894), and also in numerous reviews, letters and prefaces to the plays, he gave a deep analysis of the ideological and artistic innovation of the Norwegian playwright, formulating on its basis his idea of ​​the creative tasks facing the "new drama". The main feature of the "new drama", according to Shaw, is that she resolutely turned to modern life and began to discuss "problems, characters and actions that are of direct importance to the audience itself." Ibsen laid the foundation for the "new drama", and in the eyes of Shaw for the modern audience, he is much more important than the great Shakespeare. “Shakespeare brought us on the stage, but in situations alien to us ... Ibsen satisfies a need not satisfied by Shakespeare. It represents ourselves, but us in our own situations. What happens to his characters happens to us." Shaw believes that the modern playwright should follow the same path as Ibsen. At the same time, speaking about his own work, Shaw admits that "he is forced to take all the material for the drama either directly from reality or from reliable sources." “I created nothing, invented nothing, distorted nothing, I just revealed the dramatic possibilities that lie hidden in reality.”

The "cult of false ideals" that has become established in society, Shaw calls "idealism", and its adherents - "idealists". It is on them that the edge of Ibsen's satire is directed, who defended the right of the human person to act differently than prescribed " moral ideals» society. Ibsen, according to Shaw, "insists that the highest goal be inspired, eternal, continuously developing, and not external, unchanging, false ... not a letter, but a spirit ... not an abstract law, but a living impulse." The task of the modern playwright is precisely to reveal the contradictions lurking in society and to find the way "to more perfect forms of public and private life."

That is why it is necessary to carry out a reform of drama, to make the main element of dramaturgy a discussion, a clash of different ideas and opinions. Shaw is convinced that the drama of a modern play should be based not on external intrigue, but on sharp ideological conflicts of reality itself. “In the new plays, the dramatic conflict is built not around the vulgar inclinations of a person, his greed or generosity, resentment or ambition, misunderstandings and accidents and everything else, but around the clash of various ideals.”

The Ibsen school thus concludes Shaw, created new form drama, the action of which is "closely connected with the situation under discussion." Ibsen “introduced discussion and expanded its rights to such an extent that, having spread and intruding into action, it finally assimilated with him. Play and discussion have become almost synonymous. Rhetoric, irony, argument, paradox and other elements of the “drama of ideas” are designed to awaken the viewer from the “emotional sleep”, make him empathize, turn him into a “participant” in the discussion that has arisen - in a word, do not give him “salvation in sensitivity, sentimentality”, but “to teach to think”.