George Bernard shaw's feminist vision in Mrs. Warren's profession, man and superman and pygmalion

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to assess the development, consistency and comprehensiveness of George Bernard Shaw's feminist vision. To this end, this study proposes to explore the playwright's feminist stance in three plays which represent different periods in his dramatic career: Mrs. Warren's Profession, Man and Superman and Pygmalion. Such works are analysed in the light of three poetics: the Marxist Feminist Theory, The Gynoecocentric Theory and the Socialist Feminist Theory. This research work is divided into five chapters. The first two set the scene for a better understanding of the dramatist's feminist thinking as they shed light on the social, cultural and literary backgrounds of the plays discussed. The first chapter in particular examines the social, economic, legal and political status of Victorian women. It highlights the central role played by the feminist movement in the struggle for the dismantling of the patriarchal system. The second chapter surveys the representation of the woman question by Shaw's predecessors and contemporaries. Furthermore, it discusses the position of Victorian women in the theatre as dramatists, actresses and actor manageresses. It also marks the role they played in the emergence of an English feminist drama by the late- nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. The chapters that follow are devoted to a thematic and textual study of the plays. The third provides a Marxist feminist analysis of Mrs. Warren's Profession. It reveals that, by the early 1890s, as a Fabian feminist, Bernard Shaw was concerned mainly with the economic dimension of woman's oppression. His feminist comitment was part of his reformist socialist project. The fourth chapter offers a feminist reading of Man and Superman in the light of L. F. Ward's Gynoecocentric Theory. The study of this play underscores the development of the Shavian feminist vision. It shows how, by the early twentieth century, apart from his interest in woman's economic independence, the playwright asserted her superiority over man, a superiority which stems from her reproductive power. This power is, in his view, the prime mover of creative evolution. Therefore the chapter explains how Shaw's vitalist philosophy was centred on his feminist convictions. Pygmalion, the last play in this dissertation, is discussed from a Socialist Feminist standpoint in the fifth chapter. The study of this work brings to light Shaw's ability to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the woman question by the second decade of the twentieth century. By this time, he argued that the overthrow of patriarchal dominance would result, not only from outer reforms such as the establishment of Socialism, but from women's inner revolt against oppression as well; in other words, from their psychological development. Hence the analysis of Pygmalion highlights the fact that in this period Shaw's feminist engagement transcended his socialist concern. Finally, in the conclusion I assert that the three plays, i.e. Mrs. Warren's Profession, Man and Superman and Pygmalion, dramatise a comprehensive, consistent, and developing feminist vision. Such characteristic features confirm Shaw's longstanding commitment to the cause of woman's liberation and his repudiation of the dominant phallocentric theatrical tradition