The power point presentation attempt to throw some light on George Bernard Shaw as a dramatist.

1. Saint Joan
George Bernard Shaw

2. About Shaw
• Born on 26th July 1856 – 2nd November 1950
• Born and brought up as a Protestant.
• An ardent Socialist
• Issues like Education, marriage, religion,
government, healthcare, and class privilege
engaged Shaw’s attention.
• In his Writings he address prevailing social
problems with a vein of comedy which makes the
stark themes more palatable.

3. • He was more concerned with the exploitation
of the working class.
• His childhood experiences of upbringing in a
catholic dominated Ireland and his
consequent change of nation filled hism with
an acute awareness of nationalism and
religion.

4. The Fabian Society
• A British Political Organization that was formed in
1884 with the aim of gradually changing Britain in
to a Socialist society. Many famous left wing
politicians and writers were its members.
• Shaw was an active member and wrote many
brouchers and speeches for ti. He became an
accompolished orator in the furterance of its
causes- gaining equel rights for both men and
women, alleviating abuses of the working class
etc.

5. Shavian
• He won Nobel Prize for his work which is marked
by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating
satire often being infused with a singular poetic
beauty".
• Like Shakespeare his name become an adjective
i.e ‘Shavian’. His Ironic wit endowed English with
the adjective ‘Shavian’ used to characterize
observations such as : “ My way of joking is to tell
the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.”

6. Influence of Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
• Ibsen’s plys represented a social relaism, that
Shaw hadn't known was possible.
• In the plays of Ibsen Shaw for the first time
saw that stage could become a platform for
the communication of ideas.
• He despised the sentimental melodrama being
produced in the contemporary London
theatres.

7. • Shaw is noted for expressing his views in
uncompromising language. For supporting
vegetarianism he branded his pre-vegitarian self a
‘ cannibal’.
• He placed more emphasis on social commentary (
the act of using rhetorical means to provide
commentary on issues in a society. This is often
done with the idea of implementing or promoting
change by informing the general people about a
given problem and appealing to people’s sense of
justice.)

8. • Shaw was a master of wordplay, paradox,
ironical wit and character. To his the world was
an imperfect place desperately in need of
change and theatre was his forum for
presenting the evils he saw to the public.

9. Criticism of Shaw as a dramatist
• Critics argued that art was a means of
communicating human experience, not a
forum to teach or preach. Shaw’s plays were
seriously flawed because of their wordiness,
their excessive argument and their lack of
interesting stories.
• Primarily they are not plays. They are tracts in
Dramatic from.

10. • Shaw defended his position by saying that
‘Social criticism is the most important function
of all art, and that literature should imitate life
so that we might act on it rather than on some
misrepresentation of life.

11. Why Saint Joan
• Shaw has the story of the Joan of Arc in his
mind and the canonization of her in 1920
provided his a strong incentive to write a play
on Joan.
• According to Nocole Coonradt “ Shaw wrote
his play to save Joan from a second and
perhaps more tragic, death at the hand of the
Catholic church. He doesn’t want the Catholic
Church to reclaim her through canonization.”

12. • English literature must be saved( by an
Irishman as usual) from the disgrace of having
nothing to show concering Saint Joan.
• Before Shaw the story of Joan was
romanticized and presented in a different
light.
• Shaw accuses Shakespeare of attempting to
make Joan a beautiful and romantic figure.

13. • To present the case of women empowerment
• To present before the audience an
evolutionary appetite.
• Shaw believed that the challange of fresh
principles and to held ideals was necessary for
human evolution.
• Joan of Arc was a martyr for the cause of
reason in the face of the irrational.

14. • Shaw strongly believed that ‘what normally
innocent people do that concerns us; and if
Joan had not been burned by normally
innocent people in the energy of their
righteousness her death at their hands would
have no more significance than the Tokyo
earthquake.