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Chapter Three
Man and Superman:
The Language of Philosophy and Comedy
62
In the intervening period between Candida and Man and Superman, Shaw wrote
a number of plays with considerable theatrical success -plays such as, The Man
of Destiny, You Never Can Tell, The Devil 's Disciple, Caesar and Cleopatra, in
which he has amended some of his earlier technical lapses. Now his theatre
idiom incorporates more innovative components. His stage with elaborate setting
shows greater complexity in the representation of even non-realistic themes and
motifs. He shows much technical novelty in using music, light/shade and other
stage effects along with spectacular projection of situations and characters,
though the basic element of discussion is utilized in different modes. In the
1890s there was a belief that the English actors of that time could not possibly
cope with the flood of dialogue - that their tongues were not glib enough to
rattle it off at the lightning speed required. Shaw took the challenge and
introduced long solo speeches in Man and Superman, fusing them with ample
amount of comedy and philosophy, so as to draw the audience to his main
purpose - to give them a foretaste of his philosophy of Creative Evolution, and
to show how his vision is staged. All this has been done with the aid of verbal
dialogues and non-verbal visual elements. An atmosphere of dream and fantasy
constitutes an important portion of the play in Act III.
Man and Superman is a more mature play than Candida in respect of its subject
and dramatic technique. Here we have "a biological comedy with spiritual
overtones, or a spiritual comedy with a biological ground bass" (Bentley 16).
Thematically viewed, the domestic comedy material with its eternal triangle in
Candida changes into a superb blending of comedy and philosophy in Man and
Superman. Louis Crompton calls Tanner "a comic Prometheus" (81 ), committed
to the ideals of social reconstruction for an egalitarian society. Tanner, in the real
63
Shavian manner, denounces the cruelties, injustices and stupidities of society
through his impassioned rhetorical arguments. All through the theatre speeches
here Shaw is able to create in us a perception that we are listening to a
philosopher who is right in all his major philosophic premises and amusingly
wrong as to his minor ones (81).
The play opens in Portland Place, where Roebuck Ramsden consoles the
mournful young man Octavius on the death of Whitefield, friend of Ramsden
and father of Ann (whom Octavius is expected to marry as per her father's
wish). Ramsden also warns Octavius about the bad influence of his friend John
Tanner, who suddenly appears there to announce that Mr Whitefield in his Will
has appointed Ramsden and Tanner joint guardians of his daughter. Ramsden
(who dislikes Tanner for authoring a 'licentious' book "The Revolutionist's
Handbook") and Tanner (who dislikes Ramsden on socio-political grounds) are
unwilling to share the joint responsibility, but Ann appears there and beguiles
them into accepting the charge. Meanwhile, a scandal breaks upon them
concerning Violet (Octavius's sister) who has got into a secret marriage but
adamantly refuses to disclose the husband's name. In the next Act at Richmond
(house of Ann's mother) Octavius informs Tanner that Ann has rejected him.
Tanner plays it down with his peculiar philosophy of woman as a huntress
playing with the intended victim. Later on, when Ann complains about her
mother's interfering role, he jokingly suggests that Ann should break her chains
by taking a motor-ride to the continent with him. To his horror, she agrees. His
horror doubles, when his chauffeur Straker informs him that he is actually Ann's
"marked-down victim." Tanner immediately flees in his car to Spain. The third
Act shows Tanner and Straker captured by brigands in the Sierra Navada. While
listening to the brigand-chief Mendoza's pathetic love story; Tanner has a
dream, that forms a di~logue-sequence called "Don Juan in Hell" - in which
Tanner becomes Don Juan, Ramsden becomes Don Gonzalo, Mendoza the
Devil, and Ann the Dona Ana of Mozart's Opera. This dream-sequence becomes
a discussion about Heaven, Hell, Woman and the philosophy of the Life Force.
Don Juan is the exponent of this philosophy. The dream ends. Next morning
64
Tanner wakes up to find himself confronted by Ann (along with her mother and
sister). Soldiers arrive too. All are safe - including the brigands whom Tanner
introduces as his escort. The fourth Act opens in a hotel at Granada, where
Violet resolves the mystery of her marriage and Ann completes her capture of
Tanner.
Though Shaw sometimes calls the play a tragi-comedy, it has always been
treated as a philosophical comedy or a high comedy. In stray perfonnances the
play was sometimes treated as a farce or a burlesque. A correct production of the
play must bring out the spirit of polished and skilful comedy. The interior setting
in Acts I, II, and IV must show evidence of wealth and aflluence. The play
(minus the Hell Scene) was first perfonned at the Royal Court Theatre on 21
May 1905 under the auspices of the Stage Society. There were two perfonnances
there. Then on 23 May 1905 the play was staged in public by Vedrenne and
Barker at the same theatre, and they continued it for twelve matinees. All these
performances avoided the "Don Juan in Hell" sequence of Act III. The first
American production was held on 5 September 1905 by Robert Loraine at the
Hudson Theatre, New York. Later on, Loraine toured the whole ofU. S. with the
production. The "Don Juan in Hell" scene as a separate unit was first perfonned
at the Royal Court Theatre by Vedrenne and Barker on 4 June 1907. The entire
play (i.e. with the Hell scene) was first produced by Esme Percy on 11 June 1915
at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh; in London the first full production was
presented on 23 October 1925 at the Regent Theatre. The Hell scene became so
popular that many groups performed it as a separate dramatic sequence, and
even as a group-reading sequence in evening dress without scenery or costumes.
Charles Laughton toured the U.S. with this Hell scene-sequence. Among all
productions of the play (with or without the Hell scene), the one under the
Ve~enne-Barker management was supposed to be the ~ost ideal performance,
bringing out the real Shavian spirit of a serious comedy that would not degrade
itself into farce, while retaining the full splendours of wit and humour.
65
II
The play opens with a situation that reminds us of the opening of Candida.
Ramsden prides himself on being a liberal democrat and a man ahead of his
time, but actually his ideas are as conventional as Morell's Christian Socialism.
Like Morell, he implicitly accepts and rather cherishes the existing patriarchal
social structure: both of them depend on such a social system and advance their
ideals within it. Ramsden is the fatherly guardian of Ann Whitefield, who, like
Candida, perplexes others about her real motive to achieve some future end of
her own. Ann's suitor is the passive and poetic Octavius who idolises her, as
Eugene does Candida. The character types, such as, Ramsden, Octavius and
Tanner have some striking resonances with Morell, Lexy and Eugene in
Candida, and the situation bears superficial resemblance to the earlier play. But
all these potential ingredients have been developed not into an emotional triangle
for another domestic comedy, but into a philosophical comedy with wider
spheres of action and vision.
Shaw has advanced the dramatic action in two different structures: the ostensible
one of surface-drama which unfolds the familiar incidents and episodes of comic
romance, with its stereotypes of the pursuer and the pursued; and a conceptual
deep structure which exploits the Don Juan1 legend in a novel and innovative
manner. Its forward movement directs the surface action. The two structures do
not merely co-exist, they are interrelated, with the second, grounding the first.
Right from the start, Shaw has used his theatre language to explore different
chords of the psychic world of his characters. His dialogues are marked by
inflation-deflation movement. Thus, when Ramsden is informed that Tanner has
come to his house and wishes to see him, he is first surprised, and then gets
angry, because their mutual hatred for each other is well known, and even
Octavius is surprised at Tanner's visit. Ramsden refuses to see him. The fact that
Tanner has come here in company with- among others- Ann, further infuriates
Ramsden. But whenOctavius says that Tanner is "desperately afraid of Ann,"
66
and he must have something really serious to say to Ramsden, the latter allows
Tanner to see him:
[ ... He is now in the panic-stricken phase; and he walks straight up to
Ramsden as if with the fiXed intention of shooting him on his own hearthrug. But what he pulls from his breast pocket is not a pistol, but a foolscap
document which he thrusts under the indignant nose of Ramsden as he
exclaims.].
TANNER Ramsden: do you know what that is?