Chapter Three Man and Superman: The Language of ... Three Man and Superman: The Language of Philosophy and Comedy 62 In the intervening period between Candida and Man and Superman,

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

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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

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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.

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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,"

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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?