SHOW (Shaw), George Bernard July 26, 1856 - November 2, 1950
Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, the third child of George Carr Shaw and his wife, Elizabeth (née Gurley). Sh.'s father, a civil servant, later an unlucky grain merchant, was an alcoholic, and his mother was a talented singer and amateur musician. Despite belonging to a solid Anglo-Irish Protestant class, the Shaw family was going through hard times socially and financially, as Bernard, of course, guessed. The boy studied first at home, and then at Catholic and Protestant day schools, after which, at the age of sixteen, he got a job as a clerk in a real estate agency. A certain influence on the teenager had fashion teacher music, conductor John Vandeleur Lee, who taught Elisabeth singing and lived in Shaw's house as a family friend. Growing up in musical environment, Bernard fell in love with music and taught himself how to play opera scores on the piano.
Leaving her husband, Elizabeth Shaw followed Lee to London in 1873 with her two daughters. Three years later, Bernard joined them, deciding to become a writer and commissioned by Lee to compose articles on musical topics. Every morning, Sh. wrote five pages of prose, studied at the British Museum at noon, and attended lectures and debates in the evening. who gave music lessons.
In 1882, a lecture by the American reformer Henry George drew S.'s attention to social problems. In addition to George's Progress and Poverty and other works on economics, the aspiring writer read Marx's Capital, and in 1884, together with Sidney Webb, he joined the Fabian Society, created in the same year to spread socialist ideas and to which devoted 27 years of his life, often giving lectures three times a week.
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In the British Museum W. met with William Archer, a theater critic, who invited him to write about the theater and in 1886 recommended W. in the weekly "World" ("World"). From 1885 to 1888, S. also publishes reviews in the "Pall Mall Gazette" ("Pall Mall Gazette") and under the pseudonym Corno di Basseto - music reviews in the "Star" ("Star"), a new metropolitan newspaper with a massive circulation, and in 1890 became a full-time music critic at the World. The poet W. Auden called Sh, “perhaps the best music critic of all time”
In 1895, S. became a theater critic in the London magazine "Saturday Review" ("Saturday Review") and in his article sharply criticizes Henry Irving, the leading director of that time, for his lack of interest in Henrik Ibsen and for his free interpretation of Shakespeare's plays Sh. also ridicules the popular plays of Arthur Pinero and the philistine melodramas of Scribe and Sardou, contrasting them with a social theater that realistically depicts modern life. Sh. dedicated a lecture given at a meeting of the Fabian Society in 1890 to the work of Ibsen, and the following year the playwright wrote critical study"The Quintessence of Ibsenism" ("The Qumtessmce of Ibsemsm"), which was the first study in English of the work of the Norwegian playwright, as well as the manifesto of a new drama. The book aroused the interest of J.T. compose a play for the Independent Theater In 1892, passing the play, created five years ago in collaboration with William Archer, S. writes "Widower's House» ("Widowers Houses"), his first work for the theater.
A promising start, however, did not work out, the play was met with restraint and was withdrawn from the production after two performances. Over the next six years, Sh. wrote nine full-length plays and one one-act. Warren" ("Mrs Warrens Profession"), which raised the topic of prostitution, was completely banned.
Refusing to make concessions to censorship, Sh publishes his plays at his own expense as a successful journalist, as well as at the expense of Charlotte Payne Townsend, an Irish philanthropist and socialist, whom he married in 1898. The two-volume collection Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant and Unpleasant") was released the year they were married. Already in his first plays, Sh. uses meticulous stage directions, which is why they sometimes read like novels "Unpleasant Plays", as Sh wrote, "are designed to make the audience look at unpleasant facts," say, the discrepancy between the aristocratic habits of the middle class and unsightly sources of their income in Mrs. Warren's Profession. In the "pleasant" plays "Arms and Man" ("Arms and the Man", 1894), "Candida" ("Candida", 1897), "The Chosen One of Destiny" ("The Man of Destiny", 1897) and "Wait and see" ("You Never Can Tell", 1899) - an attempt is made to show superiority of realism over naturalism.
Although "Candida" was a resounding success in New York already in 1903, in England Sh. became known later, when he, his wife and Harley Grenville-Barker rented the building of the London Royal Court Theater to demonstrate the possibilities of the drama of ideas. Sh.'s plays directed by John Vedrenn and Harley Grenville-Barker 1904-1907 were so popular that out of 988 performances played at the Royal Court Theater during these years, 701 were based on his works.
"Man and Superman" ("Man and Superman", 1905), one of the most successful plays of Sh, which had a huge success with critics and the audience, is a philosophical comedy where the author shares his views on religion, women, marriage. Entitled "Don Juan in Hell" and often performed separately, the opera's third act "turns the comedy of manners into a cosmic drama," as the critic Margery Morgan wrote in "Major Barbara," a social satire also written in 1905. , is a tense intellectual dispute between religious beliefs and worldly ambitions, between hypocrisy and sincerity. In "Pygmalion" ("Pygmalion", 1913), social mannerisms are exposed to satirical ridicule, contributing to the strengthening of class differences. Subsequently, based on this play, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe wrote the musical "My Fair Lady" ("My Fair Lady", 1956).
During World War I, S. was actively involved in politics. from point of view common sense”, in which he criticizes both England and Germany, calls on both countries to negotiate, ridiculing blind patriotism. After this publication, Sh. is expelled from the Dramatists' Club and loses several friends. In 1916, he spoke out in support of the Irish Rebellion and in defense of the Anglo-Irish diplomat Sir Roger Casement, who resorted to German help in seeking support for the Irish liberation movement, was accused of treason and executed.
In the post-war play "Heartbreak House" ("Heartbreak House") Sh. shows the loss of spiritual values of the generation responsible for the bloodshed. In this tragicomedy, politics and economics are combined with a surrealistic vision of the world Back to Methuselah (1922), the most ambiguous and complex play by Sh. Eden, and ends in the year 31920 AD. In this stretched and ponderous work, the influence of Bergson's theory of creative evolution is felt, and the Fabian views of Sh., according to which the human intellect is able to transform society, make themselves felt.
After the canonization of Joan of Arc in 1920, S. finds a new heroine and theme for his only tragedy "Saint Joan" ("Saint Joan", 1924) John, according to S., is distinguished by wit, practicality and energy, which the author admires, as well as innocence and rich imagination, threatening the clergy, whom S. endows with Machiavellian features.
The Nobel Prize in Literature was not awarded in 1925, and in 1926 was awarded to S. "for creativity, marked by idealism and humanism, for sparkling satire, which is often combined with exceptional poetic beauty." As a member of the Swedish Academy Per Hallström said, “Sh. - the author of plays has become one of the most prominent playwrights of our time, and Sh. - the author of prefaces to plays can be considered the Voltaire of our time. Being a principled opponent of all kinds of awards, Sh. did not come to the awards ceremony, and the award was instead presented to Arthur Duff, the British Ambassador to Sweden. With the money due to the laureate, Sh. established an Anglo-Swedish literary fund for translators, especially Strindberg's translators.
In 1928, Mr.. S. published "The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism" ("The Intelligent Womans Guide to Socialism and Capitalism") - a discourse on political and economic topics. In his latest plays Sh. moves away from realism, using the techniques of ancient comedy.
After the death of his wife, which followed in 1943, W. moved from London to his home in Hertfordshire. At the age of 94, shortly after his birthday, while working in the garden, he fell and broke his hip. Sh. died on November 2, 1950.
The disputes of critics around the heritage of Sh. are mainly caused by the contradiction between Sh. - a satirist and Sh. - a social reformer. During his lifetime, he was accused of frivolity, and of "too irresponsible," as Max Beerbom said, "sense of humor." In his wit, C. Auden felt the spirit of Rossini, "the liveliness, clarity and virtuosity of the great master of buff opera." According to the English poet and critic Stephen Spender, in his worldview Sh. is “a two-dimensional giant moving in his own two-dimensional world.” Literary critic John Matthews perceives Sh. less than the people he knew and loved." "Sh. - successor great tradition, - wrote the American critic Jacques Berzen. “He used everything that is in the theatrical storerooms and in the minds of people ... Sh.'s plays are the richest dramaturgical heritage.”
Bernard Shaw also began writing for the Independent Theatre.
"Unpleasant Plays"
Shaw begins his path as a playwright with a series of plays, united under common name
"Unpleasant Plays". These included: "Widower's House", which Shaw began to work on in 1885,
"Mrs. Warren's Profession" and "Red tape". In his preface to Unpleasant Pieces, Shaw
wrote: “... strength dramatic art in these plays should make the viewer become the face
to face unpleasant facts. Undoubtedly, every author who sincerely wishes the best
humanity, does not at all take into account the monstrous opinion that the task of literature
is flattery. But in these dramas we encounter not only comedy and tragedy
personality and destiny individual person, but also with terrible and
disgusting aspects of society. The horror of this relationship lies in
that an ordinary average Englishman, a person, perhaps even dreaming of
millennial kingdom of grace, - in its social manifestations it turns out
a criminal citizen who closes his eyes to the meanest, to the most terrible
abuses, if their elimination threatens him to lose at least one penny of his
income." In "Unpleasant Plays" we have in front of us outwardly quite decent respectable
English bourgeoisie, who have considerable capital and lead a calm
organized life. But this calmness is deceptive. It is fraught with phenomena such as
exploitation as dirty, dishonorable enrichment of the bourgeois at the expense of poverty and misfortune
common people. Before the eyes of readers and viewers of Shaw's plays, pictures pass
injustice, cruelty and meanness of the bourgeois world. Characteristically, Shaw's plays
begin with traditional pictures of the everyday life of a bourgeois family. But here's how it usually is
happens in Ibsen's dramas, there comes a moment when the social
aspect of the question deeply disturbing the writer: where are the sources of the wealth of the heroes? which
means they live? in what ways did they manage to achieve the well-being in which they
stay? The bold posing of these questions and no less answers to them form the basis
that accusatory power of Shaw's plays, which revolted some and could not but impress and
admire others.
In 1885, Shaw sketches his first play, Widower's House,
which saw the light of the ramp only in 1892. The play was conceived
influenced by Wagner and had to repeat the plot in modern conditions
"Golden Rhine". But in the process of work, the idea was abandoned. Life is domineering
invaded the far-fetched scheme, broke the artificial plot, replaced
modernized Wagnerian heroes by living people - bourgeois businessmen
and their hangers-on. So to replace the carefully conceived and carefully
written, but immature youthful novels, finally came this first
drama, marked by the seal of creative maturity. No wonder her first performance
on the stage of the "Independent Theater" in December 1892 took place in a stormy,
tense atmosphere that always marks the birth of progressive drama. "IN
"Widower's House" I showed that the respectability of the bourgeoisie and refinement
younger sons the nobility feeds on the poverty of the slums, as a fly feeds on rot, ”-
Shaw writes in the preface.
A young scientist, an aristocrat Trench, falls in love with a capricious, haughty
Blanche, daughter of the wealthy slum owner Sartorius. He is disgusted
becomes convinced that the fortune of his future father-in-law is made up of miserable pennies
poor people living in uninhabitable slums. But "Widower's House" -
a play without a hero. A trench coat that was originally intended
was supposed to become the antagonist of Satorius, does not become one. He first
harbors some illusion of independence and even naively suggests that Blanche
subsistence on his own "honest" income. But he soon becomes convinced
that these "honest" incomes have the same source: the slums of Satorius
built on the land of Trench's aunt, and his land rent is drawn from those
or the very poor, the inhabitants of the slums. “It seems that we are all here - one
gang!" Trench exclaims. He quickly capitulates, marries Blanche and
makes a lucrative deal with Satorius.
Perhaps the most interesting and original image of the play is Blanche.
Satorius; not without reason the thunders and lightnings of reactionary criticism fell upon Shaw
precisely because of her. This is the exact opposite of the traditional meek and
gentle heroine. Blanche is a selfish nature, capable of going wild
rage, inclined to both primitive passion and cold
prudence, but in the end ready to sacrifice any passion for the sake of
money and comfort. The sensuality and rudeness characteristic of Blanche caused
contemporaneous horror. A legend was born about Shaw as a misogynist.
The first attempt to create a good character was made by Shaw in
The Professions of Mrs. Warren (1894) as Vivi Warren. This play feels
increased skill, the conflict in it acquires a deep, tragic
character.
Vivi, a young girl who just graduated from college, does something scary
discovery: she learns that her mother is a brothel keeper. Hit
behind the blow falls on Vivi. She makes sure that her mother will never
she will give up her shameful occupation, although she has already accumulated a huge fortune;
finds out that his mother's old companion, the capitalist and baronet Crofts, brazenly
claims to marry Vivi; that the pastor's son Frank, whom she loves,
is possibly her brother. And, worst of all, in front of Vivi
a world of vile bourgeois relations opens up, in which the dirtiest
professions are particularly successful. Vivi finds the strength to reject
mother's dirty money and do honest self-employment. In a play
Shaw's distaste for melodramatic effects and tragic
interchanges. The ending of the play seems even rather ordinary: a young girl,
broken with her mother and her environment, sits alone in the office over the settlement
"Ms. Warren's profession" was persecuted by bourgeois criticism, the press and
censorship. In England, its production was banned for a long time. Outrage of the bourgeoisie
"obscene, immoral play" was not at all explained by her
immorality, but its social sharpness. The show managed to show that
the basis of all kinds of deformities and crimes in the bourgeois world is
capitalist economy. It is she who makes the most profitable the most
disgusting professions.
"Widower's Houses", "Mrs. Warren's Profession" and the third play, "Dragout" (1893)
The show was combined into a cycle, which he called "Unpleasant Pieces." These were
the years when Shaw was looking for a response to his hatred of capitalism that overwhelmed him
everywhere - in Marx's Capital, in Ibsen's plays, in Wagner's operas, in poetry
Blake and Shelley. It is not surprising that Unpleasant Plays, written in such
mood and with such thoughts, are distinguished by merciless realism and forever
remain one of the pinnacles of English drama.
George Bernard Shaw - English writer of Irish origin, founder of the "drama of the idea", essayist, playwright, reformer theatrical art early twentieth century, a supporter of the simplification of English writing and an active public figure. Bernard Shaw is second only to Shakespeare in popularity among English-speaking playwrights.
For his services, the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and the Oscar (for the screenplay for the film Pygmalion in 1938).
The work of Bernard Shaw is represented by a huge number of works. The author wrote his first play in 1892. By the beginning of the new century, his name occupied a place of honor among the playwrights of England. For the entire creative career Shaw wrote 63 plays, several novels, critical writings, essays, and more than 250,000 letters.
Books by Bernard Shaw online:
- "Irrational Knot";
- "The Quintessence of Ibsenism";
- "House where hearts break";
- "Weapon and Man".
Short biography of Bernard Shaw
Bernard Shaw was born in 1856 in the family of a Dublin merchant and professional singer. The author received his first education at a grammar school, after which he studied at a Protestant school, where, according to Shaw's memoirs, he did not have high academic performance. The writer did not like to attend classes and more than once criticized the entire education system, because of the obsession of teachers with mental abilities, and not with spiritual development.
After graduation, he got a job. family ties helped Shaw find a good job at a real estate agency. Duties included collecting rent from Dublin residents. Later, the author will express his memories of this period of life in the work “The House of the Widower”.
Bernard Shaw did his job responsibly, neatly kept a book of accounts, wrote in legible handwriting. Subsequently, this served him well in his writing career. At the age of sixteen, his mother left Bernard and he decided to stay with his father. The author received higher education and got a position as a clerk in a real estate office.
In 1876 he moved to his mother in London. In the city, he began to visit museums and libraries. He became interested in writing works, later he was offered to write a column in one of the local magazines. Until 1885, his novels were not very popular.
At the end of the 19th century, he worked as a creative critic for a London magazine. During this period, he became interested in revolutionary social democratic ideas and became a member of the Fabian Society, whose goal was to establish socialism through peace. At the meetings, the writer met his future wife.
The following years, the writer lived in his house, doing literature and social activities. He died at the age of 94 from kidney failure.
Read books by Bernard Shaw online for free without registering on our library website.
THE GEORGE BERNARD SHOW(1856-1950)
George Bernard Shaw is an English playwright of Irish origin, one of the founders of the "drama of ideas", a writer, essayist, one of the reformers of the theatrical art of the 20th century, after Shakespeare the second most popular author of plays in English theater, Nobel Prize in Literature, Oscar winner.
He was born in Irish Dublin on July 26, 1956. The future writer's childhood years were overshadowed by his father's addiction to alcohol, strife between his parents. Like all children, Bernard went to school, but learned the main life lessons from the books he read and the music he listened to. In 1871, after graduating from school, he began working in a company selling land. A year later, he took the position of cashier, but four years later, hating work, he moved to London: his mother lived there, having divorced her father. WITH young years Shaw saw himself as a writer, but the articles he sent to various editorial offices were not published. For 9 years, only 15 shillings - a fee for single article- was earned by him by writing, although during this period he wrote as many as 5 novels.
In 1884, B. Shaw joined the Fabian Society and already through a short time gained fame as a talented orator. Visiting the reading room british museum for the purpose of self-education, he met W. Archer and, thanks to him, began to engage in journalism. After first working as a freelance correspondent, Shaw worked as a music critic for six years, and then worked for the Saturday Review as a theater critic for three and a half years. The reviews written by him made up the three-volume collection “Our Theater of the Nineties”, published in 1932. In 1891, Shaw’s original creative manifesto was published - a lengthy article “The Quintessence of Ibsenism”, the author of which showed a critical attitude towards contemporary aesthetics and sympathy for the drama that illuminated conflicts of a social nature.
His debut in the field of drama was the plays "Widower's House" and "Mrs. Warren's Profession" (1892 and 1893, respectively). They were intended to be staged in an independent theatre, which was a closed club, so Shaw could afford the courage to display aspects of life that his contemporary art usually bypassed. These and other works were included in the cycle "Unpleasant Plays". In the same year, “Pleasant Plays” were also released, and the “representatives” of this cycle began to penetrate the stage of large metropolitan theaters in the late 90s. The first huge success was brought by The Devil's Disciple written in 1897, which was part of the third cycle - Plays for the Puritans.
The playwright's finest hour came in 1904, when the leadership of the Kord Theater changed and included a number of his plays in the repertoire - in particular, Candida, Major Barbara, Man and Superman, etc. After successful productions Shaw finally secured the reputation of an author who boldly handles public morality and traditional ideas about history, subverting what was considered an axim. The contribution to the golden treasury of dramaturgy was resounding success"Pygmalion" (1913).
During the First World War, Bernard Shaw had to listen to a lot of unflattering words and direct insults addressed to him by the audience, fellow writers, newspapers and magazines. Nevertheless, he continued to write, and in 1917 begins new stage in his creative biography. The tragedy "Saint Joan", staged in 1924, returned B. Shaw former glory, and in 1925 he became the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and refuses its monetary component.
Over the age of 70 in the 30s. The show takes a trip around the world, visits India, South Africa, New Zealand, USA. He also visited the USSR in 1931, in July of that year he personally met with Stalin. Being a socialist, Shaw sincerely welcomed the changes taking place in the country of the Soviets and turned into a supporter of Stalinism. After the Labor Party came to power, B. Shaw was offered a peerage and nobility, but he refused. Later, he agreed to the status of an honorary citizen of Dublin and one of the London districts.
B. Shaw wrote to a ripe old age. Latest plays, "Billions of Byant" and "Fictitious Fables", he wrote in 1948 and 1950. Remaining completely sane, on November 2, 1950, the famous playwright died.
source http://www.wisdoms.ru/avt/b284.html
George Bernard Shaw. Biography and review of creativity
(1856—1950)
(Creativity before 1917)
George Bernard Shaw - the greatest English playwright late XIX- early 20th century He succeeded in leading the English drama out of the ideological and artistic impasse that was characteristic of the 60s and 70s of the 19th century. He gave it a social acuteness, a problematic character and a brilliant satirical and paradoxical form.
George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin to a merchant family. The family was mainly supported by the mother, a music teacher and talented singer. Discord reigned in the house, the children were treated carelessly. But on the other hand, there was no lack of music and interesting, intelligent conversations, to which the teenager eagerly listened.
When the boy was 15 years old, his mother left home and went to London in search of work. The future writer, having never received a systematic secondary education, got a job as a clerk in a land office.
Shaw acquired his vast knowledge by self-taught. He didn't have to go to university. high school with its scholastic method of teaching, corporal punishment, and rote learning left him with the most painful memories.
Shaw had a great formative influence on his native Ireland - its poetic nature, but even more - everyday Irish reality, full of screaming contradictions.
The writer's adolescence coincided with the rise of the national liberation movement, which, however, never died down in Ireland. In 1858, the Irish revolutionary organization of the Fenians arose.
In 1867, an armed uprising broke out, which was brutally suppressed. The leaders of the movement were executed. The Irish people responded to the execution with a powerful display of mourning.
B. Shaw was 11-12 years old at the time of these events. He, like his entire family, ardently sympathized with the Fenians. Remembering your school years, Shaw writes: “Answering history lessons, I sang the praises of Ireland. The boys were surprised, the teachers, smiling, remained silent. All these teachers were secret Fenians; I was also a young Fenian.”
Characteristically, Shaw's first appearance in print was anti-religious. In 1875, two famous evangelical preachers arrived in Dublin from New York. Shaw attacked them in the Dublin Public Opinion with a witty article that was a sensational success.
In 1876, 20-year-old Shaw left for London. He found a job with a telephone company; the main goal of his life from now on was literary creativity. He earned a penny, ate poorly and wore torn shoes, but wrote novel after novel and sent them to publishers without success. He subsequently claimed that his novels were rejected by 60 publishers.
Shaw was keenly aware of his difference from English bourgeois society. “I was a foreigner,” he writes in his memoirs, “I was an Irishman, that is, more than a foreigner. I was not uneducated. But everything I knew was not studied in English universities. And what they taught there, I did not know and could not believe in it. I was provincial. I had to change the mindset of London" * 2. Five novels by B. Shaw, written in the 70s and 80s ("Immaturity", "Unreasonable Marriage", "The Love of Artists", "Cashel Byron's Profession" and "The Socialist -loner"), now only literary critics are interested. But sharp, concise descriptions, reminiscent of stage directions, vivid dialogue, often saturated with paradoxes - all this portends a brilliant playwright in the young novelist. The social coloring of the novels is still insignificant. Thus, in the novel Cashel Byron's Profession, the problem of equality between people finds expression in the marriage between an educated aristocrat and a boxer. In the novel The Lonely Socialist, Shaw makes the wealthy Treyfusis, who is trying to inspire the bourgeoisie with the ideas of the inevitability and even profitability of socialism, the bearer of socialist ideas.
In the 1980s, Shaw opened the road of a publicist, and on it he achieved success. He works first as a music critic for the Star newspaper under the Italian pseudonym Corno di Basseto, and then as a theater columnist for a number of newspapers and magazines. Brilliant, original in thought and paradoxical in form, articles signed with three letters “G. B. S., attracted everyone's attention.
social views
By the end of the 1980s, the social views The show, however, until the end had a somewhat eclectic and controversial character. At first, Shaw was carried away, like most of his Irish compatriots, by the theories of the American economist Henry George, who considered the issue of land rent to be the most important issue and proposed to organize the purchase of land by farmers. While propagating these views, Shaw very soon encountered the Marxist doctrine of class struggle. Fair reproaches of ideological opponents for ignorance of Marxism forced Shaw to study Marx, primarily Capital. This book made a deep impression on him. “Marx opened my eyes to the facts of history and civilization, opened the purpose and meaning of life,” he later wrote. Shaw often later called himself a Marxist, but he, in essence, never became a Marxist.
In 1884, Shaw, together with the Webbs, organized the so-called "Fabian Society *" and became its ardent propagandist. It was a social reformist organization that took its name from the Roman commander Fabius Kunktator (Slower), who was able to deliver a decisive blow to the Carthaginian leader Hannibal precisely because he had waited and hesitated for a very long time before that. Such a wait-and-see, passive tactic in relation to capitalism was suggested by the Fabians. They categorically denied class struggle and revolution and believed that socialism could be built through reforms, by "impregnating liberalism with socialism." They pinned their special hopes on the so-called "municipal socialism", on the penetration of the Fabians through elections to the city self-government bodies.
“The Fabian Society* in many respects preceded modern Laborism and had nothing in common with a genuine socialist labor movement. It was a typical intellectual organization that considered the proletariat ignorant and rude, incapable of fighting for its own liberation, and therefore graciously deigned to lead this struggle. This is how Engels characterizes the Fabians, calling them "intellectuals jar exellence".
Having joined the Fabian Society, Shaw discovered the extraordinary abilities of a rally speaker and propagandist. He participates in all Fabian periodicals, treatises and manifestos, uses any platform.
However, both F. Engels and V. I. Lenin separate B. Shaw from other Fabians, recognizing his subjective honesty. F. Engels described him in the following way in the 80s: “The paradoxical novelist Shaw is very talented and witty as a novelist, but absolutely worthless as an economist and politician, although he is honest and not a careerist ...”.
V. I. Lenin, in a conversation with the English journalist Arthur Ransome in 1918, called Shaw “ nice guy who got to the Fabians "and emphasized that B. Shaw is "much more to the left of everyone who surrounds him"
Aesthetics Show
Your fight for new drama, actual and problematic, Shaw began as a theorist - primarily with the propaganda of Ibsen's work. The interest in Ibsen of the advanced part of English society was not of a narrow literary nature. In his person they welcomed the writer who dared to tell the truth about the bourgeois family, to tear off the masks from the bourgeois "pillars of society." Every new translation Ibsen's plays, each new production turned into a social event.
In 1890, the "Fabian Society" decided to organize a series of lectures on advanced contemporary writers. Lectures were scheduled on Zola, Ibsen, Turgenev, Tolstoy. Shaw gave a lecture on Ibsen, which formed the basis of his book The Quintessence of Ibsenism, published in 1891.
The Quintessence of Ibsenism is not only a brilliant critical essay, not only one of the most interesting books about the work of Ibsen. In The Quintessence of Ibsenism, the most important questions and themes are outlined, which Shaw will then try to resolve in his dramaturgy.
For Shaw, Ibsen is a great reformer and innovator not only in the field of drama, but also in the development of new socio-ethical principles and concepts. Shaw sees Ibsen's main goal, "the quintessence of Ibsenism", in exposing false ideals. Shaw perceives Ibsen's work as a kind of revolution in literature. Shaw sees Ibsen's innovation in the field of drama, in addition to its problematic nature, in the presence of smart, subtle discussions. The discussion is becoming, according to Shaw, an integral part of modern drama.
Struggling for modern drama, topical, problematic, saturated with discussion, Shaw takes up arms against Shakespeare at the same time. Passionately loving Shakespeare, being a rare connoisseur of his work, he nevertheless decided to oppose Shakespeare, since traditional Shakespearean performances had long turned into a kind of refuge for conservatism. Shaw writes in one of his letters to the famous actress Ellen Terry in 1897: "Shakespeare is to me one of the towers of the Bastille, and he must fall" 1 2.
However, being an ardent adherent of Ibsen, Shaw, in essence, disagrees with him in many ways. He puts forward a special concept of the positive hero. According to Shaw, humanity is divided into philistines (philistines), idealists and realists. Shaw uses the word "idealist" not in the sense of a philosophical worldview. An idealist or a romantic, in Shaw's understanding, is a person who despises philistine vulgarity, striving for lofty goals, but not understanding the real state of affairs and practical ways to correct the world. A realist is a person who has no illusions, no useless ideals, but strives for a gradual practical improvement of the world.
According to Shaw, Ibsen does not create, in contrast to his charming, but deluded heroes - "idealists" a genuine positive hero - a "realist". The creation of such an image" should become main task playwright - we'll see how Shaw tries to fulfill this in his work.
The fear of revolutionary violence, decisive action, the desire to follow the path of reforms and petty concessions - all this left its mark on aesthetic views Shaw, and on his ideal of the goodie.
Shaw's struggle for a new drama was at first only theoretical, and his first play ("Widower's House") lay in his desk for a long time. She saw the light of the limelight only in 1892. The year before, in 1891, the Independent Theater was founded in London by the critic and director Jacob Grain, which was supposed to fight for a new progressive drama - of course, Shaw "was one of his inspirations.
In 1899, the "Independent Theater" was reorganized by Grein into the "Stage Society", which existed for a very long time.
Widower's houses
Shaw combined his first plays into a cycle of the so-called "Unpleasant Plays", with this very title challenging bourgeois society. This cycle included three plays - Widower's House (1885), Mrs. Warren's Profession (1894) and Red tape (1893).
In the first two lyes, Shaw revealed the dirty ways in which wealth is made. In The Houses of the Widower, I showed that the respectability of the bourgeoisie and the sophistication of the younger sons of the nobility feed on the poverty of the slums, like a fly feeds on rot,” Shaw wrote in the preface to Unpleasant Plays. This theme of the slums, generated by life itself, becomes the leading one in the play "Widower's House".
The young scientist Tranch falls in love with the capricious, haughty Blanche, daughter of slum owner Sartorius. He is disgustedly convinced that the fortune of his future father-in-law is made up of the miserable pennies of the poor who inhabit the uninhabitable slums. Dismissed by his master, the rent collector Likcheese tells him indignantly: “In this bag, every penny is covered in tears; it would be enough to buy bread for a child, because the child is crying from hunger - and then I come and snatch the last penny from their throats ... You know, gentlemen, I have already become hardened at this work; but there is money here that I would never touch if it were not for the fear that my own children would be left without bread! The whole essence of economic coercion is revealed in these words, and we feel that Likcheese is still much more humane than Sartorius, because he himself is a poor man.
But "Widower's House" is a play without a positive hero. Tranch, who, according to the original plan, was supposed to become the antagonist of Sartorius, does not become one. The offspring of an aristocratic family, at first he harbors some illusion of independence and even naively offers Blanche existence on his own, "honest" income. But he soon becomes convinced that these "honest" incomes have the same source: the slums of Sartorius are built on the land of Tranch's aunt, and his land rent is drawn from the same poor, slum dwellers. “Looks like we're all one gang!” exclaims Tranch. He capitulates, marries Blanche and makes a lucrative deal with Sartorius.
Perhaps the most interesting and original image of the play is Blanche Sartorius; not without reason the thunders and lightnings of criticism fell upon the Show precisely because of her. This is the complete opposite of the traditional meek and gentle heroine. The sensuality and rudeness characteristic of Blanche evoked the horror of contemporaries, and the legend of Shaw's misogyny was born.
Mrs. Warren's profession
Shaw's first attempt at creating a good character in drama was in Mistress Warren's Profession (1894) in the person of Vivi Warren. This play is marked by a mature talent, the conflict in it takes on a deep, tragic character.
The young girl Vivi, who has just graduated from college, makes a terrible discovery: she learns that her mother, Mrs. Warren, is the owner of a network of brothels, or rather, their official director, since other respected persons are also involved in this profitable "enterprise", including titled aristocrats. Blow after blow falls on Vivi. Vivi is convinced that her mother will never give up her shameful "case", although she has already amassed a huge fortune; finds out that his mother's old companion, the capitalist and baronet Crofte, brazenly claims to marry Vivi; that the pastor's son, Frank, whom she loved, is possibly her brother. And, worst of all, a world of vile bourgeois relations opens up before Vivi, a world in which the dirtiest professions are especially successful.
Vivi finds the strength to reject her mother's dirty money and take up honest self-employment. The play showed Shaw's distaste for melodramatic effects and tragic endings. The ending of the play even seems ordinary: a young girl, who has broken with her mother and her environment, sits alone in the office over the account books. But there is a lot of tragedy and greatness in this ending, because before us is the first duel of honest youth with the world of dirt and evil.
The play "The Profession of Mrs. Warren" was subjected to the most severe persecution of bourgeois criticism, the press and censorship. In England, its production was banned for a long time; when an English troupe staged this play in America in 1903, the performances were immediately stopped and the artists were arrested. But all this stormy indignation at the "obscene, immoral play" was explained by its social acuteness.
The most important feature of this play is the writer's disclosure of the lack of rights of women in the bourgeois world and the convergence of bourgeois marriage and prostitution. Mrs. Warren tells her daughter how she became a prostitute. She was driven to this by poverty, the terrible example of her older sister, an honest girl who died from lead poisoning in a factory. Mrs. Warren believes that in a capitalist society a woman can survive only by finding a man wealthy enough to support her, and thus the true essence of bourgeois marriage is revealed.
Pleasant plays
The next cycle is Pleasant Plays. It included "Arms and a Man" (1894), "Candida" (1895) and "The Chosen One, Fate" (1895). The title "Pleasant Plays" is full of hidden irony, since in this cycle we also meet with rather sharp criticism of bourgeois morality, bourgeois ideals. In the plays of this cycle, for the first time, Shaw's anti-war attitude, the desire to expose the false pathos and imaginary heroism of aggressive wars, clearly emerges. Thus, in the play “Arms and a Man” (known to us as “Chocolate Soldier”) the action takes place in Bulgaria, during the Bulgarian-Serbian war of 1886. The scenes of the war, sparingly outlined in the play, give the impression of the senseless cruelty of the fratricidal annihilation of the Bulgarians and Serbs.
We must not forget that the play "Arms and Man" appeared in those years when, in English literature militaristic tendencies were particularly intensified when Kipling and other singers of imperialism sought to create a reactionary-romantic cult of the war of conquest. Shaw spoke out against this propaganda.
In another piece from the Pleasant Pieces cycle, dedicated to Napoleon I (Fate's Chosen One), Shaw ironically portrays Napoleon's conquest and puts into his mouth a murderous characterization of British imperialism and its demagogic methods.
In the play "Arms and a Man" the Fabian scheme of a positive hero, a "realist", alien to romantic impulses, affected. The show planned to oppose the "idealist" and "realist", to show the triumph of a business man over a romantic. The true hero of dreams of the dreamy heroine (and at the same time the rich heiress) Raina Petkova is not the ardent officer Saranov with his Byronic appearance and noisy heroism, but the calm, mocking Bluntschli, a Swiss soldier in the Serbian service.
In the image of Sergei Baranov, cheap Byronism, quixotic recklessness in battle and vanity are wittily ridiculed. But the problem of the positive hero is solved in this play in a compromise, Fabian spirit. Bluntschli is just a professional mercenary who does not know patriotic feelings and does not deserve any idealization. War for him is a profession for which money is paid. And Shaw tries in vain to assure the reader that such a mercenary is a peaceful and safe figure, a "chocolate soldier" carrying chocolate in his bag instead of cartridges.
Plays for Puritans
The third cycle of plays of the 1990s was called "Puritan Plays" by Shaw. This cycle included The Devil's Disciple (1897), Caesar and Cleopatra (1898) and The Message of Captain Brassbound (1899). The title "Plays for Puritans" has a double meaning. On the one hand, the plays of this cycle contain ridicule of traditional English puritanism, all kinds of hypocrisy and hypocrisy. But, having ridiculed the petty-bourgeois, mercantile puritanism, which kills all the joy of life, Shaw at the same time turns to the traditions of heroic, revolutionary puritanism. If at the beginning of the 1990s Shaw opposed the unprincipled, philistine-philistine dramaturgy, now his main blow is directed against the spicy, sophisticated decadent drama that focused all attention on gender issues.
The show emphasizes in the preface that he is not a prude and is not afraid of portraying feelings and even some rude frankness on stage. But he is against reducing all life's questions to one love impulses and motives. Life is much more complicated, and love impulses do not exhaust the whole world human feelings. In his collection Plays for Puritans, Shaw brings to the attention of readers dramas whose characters are not guided by sexual motives. Richard Degen ("The Devil's Apprentice") is willing to sacrifice his life for another person, not because he is in love with his wife. In the play "Caesar and Cleopatra" political motives dominate both the aging Caesar and the still very young Cleopatra over all other motives and feelings.
The anti-war orientation of Shaw's first plays is reinforced in Plays for the Puritans, taking on the features of criticism of the English militarism and British colonialism.
The play The Devil's Apprentice sympathetically depicts the struggle of the North American colonies for independence; the representatives of the British command, General Burgoyne and Major Swindon, are depicted in the most venomous colors. In the drama "Caesar and Cleopatra" a parallel is constantly drawn between the Roman army of Caesar and the English army of the late 19th century, which also captured Egypt. The "Egyptian" theme itself was inspired by the writer's thoughts about the conquest of Africa, systematically carried out by the British colonialists. Characteristic is the prologue to "Caesar and Cleopatra", put into the mouth of the Egyptian god Ra. Addressing the English audience, he condemns the wars of conquest and exclaims: “Beware, all of you who would like to become Pompeii! War is a wolf, it can come to your door!
In The Devil's Apprentice, we see an interesting evolution of Shaw's good character. In it, in essence, two goodies: Pastor Anthony Anderson and a bold rebel, whom the devout Puritans called the Devil's Disciple, Richard Dejen. He grew up in the gloomy home of his mother, a greedy and vicious puritan. His main feeling is hatred for oppression and oppressors, for all kinds of hypocrisy and hypocrisy. We logically expect that he will be at the head of the impending uprising. But the circumstances are different. Richard Dejen, without hesitation, sacrifices himself for the sake of a completely alien person: he pretends to be Pastor Anderson, whom the British command decided to hang to intimidate the local population. A selfless altruist, ready to sacrifice himself for the first person he meets (i.e., an “idealist”, according to Shaw’s concept), this is in fact this formidable “devil’s disciple”.
Pastor Anderson works differently. Upon learning that Dejen was sentenced to be hanged instead of him, he gallops to a neighboring town, raises an uprising against the British there and returns as a representative of the rebel troops for negotiations with the British command. With this, he saves Degen from the gallows and frees his hometown. It is the moderate and cautious pastor, who only yesterday spoke common truths and peacefully drank tea with his wife, and not the ardent Dejen, who becomes the organizer of the uprising. It is he who turns out to be the positive hero - the "realist" that Shaw persistently offers his readers.
However, for us, it is Richard Degen who remains the main character of the play. The writer is more and more attracted to the sacrificial, heroic, rebellious beginning in people. A new positive is already growing in his dramas. a hero born of life itself, and begins to overshadow the Fabian practitioner and "realist".
The second historical play in the Plays for the Puritans, Caesar and Cleopatra, also belongs to Shaw's masterpieces. The preface to this drama was defiantly titled "Better than Shakespeare?" by Shaw. He means here the controversy with Shakespeare's Roman Tragedies, which is contained in his play and refers mainly to the figure of Julius Caesar. Shakespeare, creating the image of Caesar, relied on the "Biography" of the ancient historian Plutarch, Shaw - on the work of the German historian Mommsen.
The result is diametrically opposed images. Shakespeare in his tragedy "Julius Caesar" endowed Caesar with traits of deceit and despotism. The show, following Mommsen, idealizes Caesar, turns him into a humanist, into a positive hero. The discrepancy with Shakespeare in the creation of the image of Cleopatra is much less significant.
Caesar and Cleopatra act as antagonists. Caesar is a humanist and a cautious, wise politician. Cleopatra is despotic, vindictive and short-sighted. Caesar was able to teach her royalty, but he could not teach humanity.
The image of Caesar is contradictory and bears the stamp of Fabianism. Here, the search for a positive hero was affected not among the people, but among the “ the mighty of the world this, generals and rulers. But in idealizing Caesar, Shaw cannot completely deviate from the facts of history. Therefore, readers get the right impression that Caesar is a cold and prudent politician, indifferent to the principles of good that he proclaims.
In 1900, Shaw experienced a serious ideological crisis. During the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. the Fabian party took a conciliatory position. Futile attempts turning a blind eye to the irreconcilability of the contradictions of imperialism led the Fabians to a dead end and forced them to publish the infamous treatise Fabianism and Empire and support the Anglo-Boer War. In this treatise, the Fabians justified British imperialism in every possible way, declaring the conquest of Africa by the British useful and necessary for Africa itself. Since then, the Fabians have been ironically referred to as the Fabian imperialists. Shaw, an opponent of colonial wars, who had just branded them in Plays for the Puritans, took part in the drafting of the manifesto "Fabianism and Empire" and thereby signed his ideological impotence. He could not help feeling very keenly his surrender to imperialism. His first disappointment in Fabianism is connected, apparently, with this moment. Shaw delved into philosophy and began to look for support and justification for his Fabian illusions in it.
Philosophy of Bernard Shaw
A recent atheist who prided himself on his atheism, he now becomes a preacher of idealistic philosophical theories. Shaw created a certain theory from scraps of various idealistic systems " life force". He was most strongly influenced by the German idealist philosopher Schopenhauer with his theory of "world will". He replaced Schopenhauer's "world will" with the "life force" inherent in people and nature. The "life force" is constantly striving for progress, for perfection, and along the way changes the world. It is especially manifested in natural selection, in the emergence of new generations. Mankind and its fate must change for the better not through social upheavals, but through natural selection, physical and moral improvement. Modern people will be replaced by supermen capable of building a just and happy society. In the concept of "superman" Shaw did not put anything Nietzschean, although he borrowed this terminology from Nietzsche. The superman in Shaw's understanding is a humanist, morally ready for the perception and construction of a socialist society. This is a typically idealistic theory. Many such theories were created by Western bourgeois thought at the beginning of the 20th century.
Shaw's theory is closely intertwined with his Fabianism. The supporter of the “vital force” had no choice but to peacefully fold his hands and wait for a gradual reorganization of the world, the arrival of noble supermen.
In Shaw's philosophical conception, great place assigned to a woman. A woman, according to Shaw's theory, is the bearer of the "life force", since she gives birth and raises new generations in pain and, therefore, serves the mysterious purpose of the appearance of the superman.
Shaw tried to develop his newfound theory in the philosophical comedy Man and Superman (1903). This is, in essence, a comedy about a bourgeois young lady busy catching her groom. But this is fully justified: after all, it serves the great purpose of the birth of the Superman. She instinctively seeks a husband who will best father for her future children. No wonder the hero of the play dreams of her with a warlike cry on his lips: “A father for the Superman!” This hero and the father of the future Superman is John Tenner, a "socialist", who, after marrying, turns into a peaceful parliamentary figure. His very name represents a modified version of "Juan Tenorio", the name of the famous Don Juan, the hero of innumerable dramas and poems. The show, in its characteristic paradoxical manner, transforms Don Juan from a seducer into a seduced and persecuted victim.
Shaw sent this play to L. N. Tolstoy, whom he considered the head of the whole modern literature. LN Tolstoy did not like the play. L. N. Tolstoy writes: “I don’t like your manner, jokingly, to talk about the most serious issues such as the purpose of human life."
John Bull's other island
In 1904, Shaw wrote the play John Bull's Other Island at the request of the so-called Irish Renaissance, a patriotic intellectual organization in Ireland. The play was intended for an Irish literary theater in Dublin, but was rejected by him as insufficiently patriotic. Here between Shaw and his compatriots there was a clear misunderstanding. The play "The Other Island of John Bull" is actually permeated with love for his native Ireland. This love shines through in the poetic descriptions of Irish nature, and in the touching image of the Irish girl Nora Reilly. Shaw puts his most sincere thoughts about the troubles of Ireland into the mouth of the old Irishman Keegan, whom the peasants consider a saint, and the local bourgeoisie - crazy. This is the true positive hero of the play, although, in Shaw's old terminology, he is an "idealist" and "romantic." The Englishman Broadbent, a typical predator and hoarder who came to Ireland as an agent of an imperialist trust, is depicted with hatred. Broadbent seizes mortgages on the land plots of Irish farmers and the hand of a local wealthy heiress, enters the Irish Parliament and prepares the final ruin of an already impoverished region.
Major Barbara
In 1905 Shaw wrote an interesting but very controversial play, Major Barbara. The heroine of the play, Barbara Undershaft, a girl from a wealthy bourgeois family, who sincerely dreams of justice and the welfare of the people, first devotes her strength to religious and philanthropic activities. A major in the Salvation Army, she is convinced that the Army exists on the handouts of the rich, including her father, the arms manufacturer Andrew Undershaft, is convinced that in the bourgeois world there is no clean corner and clean de-. neg. She breaks with the Salvation Army, but... together with her fiancé, Greek teacher Cousins, she moves to live in her father's industrial village, thus, as if emphasizing her capitulation to the all-powerful imperialism.
The play shows the influence of the Russian Revolution of 1905 and other historical events. Much is said about Russo-Japanese War. Manufacturer Andrew Undershaft, guided by the motto "Without shame!", supplies weapons to both warring parties. Shaw's interest in the working class is growing. Barbara comes to the conclusion that it is among the workers, and not among the degraded lumpen proletariat, that she will find some way out. For the first time, although still very abstractly, the question of a violent revolution is raised. The fiance of Barbara Cousins says that the fighters for justice need to have guns in their hands, real power.
And yet the play bears the imprint of obscurity, reticence; the path that Barbara and Cusins intend to go and act is not clear, the images of the workers themselves are almost not given, Andrew Undershaft is endowed with traits of a titanic personality. The pages and episodes devoted to the Salvation Army remain the best, comically depicting its activities, which are beneficial only for the capitalists.
Pygmalion
Among the numerous plays written between 1905 and 1914, the bright play Pygmalion (1912) stands out, having bypassed all the leading theaters of the world and enjoying stage success. The title is reminiscent of an ancient myth, according to which the sculptor Pygmalion fell in love with the statue he created: Galatea and revived it with his prayers. In the same way, "the talented professor of phonetics Higgins in Shaw's play managed to turn a street flower girl - a messy Eliza Doolittle - into a charming and graceful woman, managed to teach her the correct speech and awaken in her great feelings. But, of course, the echo with the ancient legend is only one side of this complex play. There is a genuine democratism in it: Shaw proves that the poor worker is distinguished from the duchess ^ only by incorrect pronunciation and vulgar manners. But he is not limited to this: in the future, we are convinced that Eliza Doolittle is much higher than the aristocratic environment with which she had to face. It was not Professor Higgins who brought up in her the high principles of honesty, strictness towards herself and others, diligence: she brought all this from that world of slums and hopeless work in which she grew up. The theme of cold experimentation on a living person, so characteristic of bourgeois science, gives a tragic shade to a brilliant and witty play.
In 1914, when the first World War Shaw, in an article called "Common Sense About War," spoke out strongly against the war. What is interesting is the conclusion that Shaw comes to from the point of view of common sense. He believes that the soldiers of the warring armies should shoot down their officers, return home and peacefully engage in cultivation and harvesting; Shaw went much further than other pacifists.
During the First World War, Shaw wrote a number of anti-war farces ("The Inca of Perusalem", "Ogestos does his duty", "O'Flaherty, holder of the Victoria Cross") and a large play, which he managed to complete only in 1917 - "The House, where hearts break.
Heartbreak House (1913-1917) is one of Shaw's most bizarre plays. In the subtitle, Shaw called it "a fantasy in the Russian manner in English themes". By this, he emphasized the relationship of his play with the plays of his favorite playwrights - L. Tolstoy and A. Chekhov.
The play and its preface indicate more than Shaw's sincere anti-war attitude. They testify to a deep crisis of worldview, a mood close to despair.
The war led to the collapse of Shaw's Fabian illusions. The writer pinned all his hopes on the liberal intelligentsia; it seemed to him that it was she who was able to keep humanity from all mistakes, to save it from all dangers! But the war showed the complete inability of the intelligentsia to resolve the most important social issues. The socialists of various countries (including the Fabians) voted for war loans. Having lost his faith in the intelligentsia, Shaw still does not understand that the proletariat has become the decisive force in world history.
The play depicts the house of the old Captain Shotover, built in the shape of a ship and resounding with whistles and cries of the decrepit owner. This house in no way resembles specific estates and houses depicted in the plays of Russian writers. Everything in this house seems incredible, brought to the grotesque. This house symbolizes England, sailing into the unknown, and its strange, bohemian life symbolizes the disorderly life of the English intelligentsia. The beauties of the old man's daughter, his son-in-law and their guests feel their doom and worthlessness and suffer deeply from this. Their rare virtues, which could benefit England and mankind, their grace, erudition, wit, fearlessness - all this goes to waste, degenerates into endless chatter and vegetation. This reminds us of the tragedy of Chekhov's "Three Sisters", which also stand out in hometown their education and spiritual subtlety and are also doomed to inaction. “Crash, sky, crash and crush! cries Hector Hashby, one of the characters in Shaw's play, in despair. “We are a disgrace, we are the trouble of this house!”
The show reveals the tragedy of the bourgeois intelligentsia in various aspects. So, old Captain Shotover is a talented inventor. But for military inventions he is paid huge sums; they don’t pay anything for inventions that are useful to mankind. Sometimes they do even worse to him: having bought a project and drawings of a useful invention from him, they put them under a cloth. But all his projects of deadly weapons are immediately implemented. He has a large family dependent on him: his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren do not want and do not know how to work. And with despair in his soul, the old inventor creates more and more new means of murder and destruction for the hated bourgeoisie. He drowns his despair in wine. There is a cellar in the house with explosives, where a drunken captain often descends with a candle in his hand. This again symbolizes the trouble and doom that reigns in the British Empire.
The play ends in disaster - a raid by German airplanes and a bombardment. The heroes of Shaw are waiting for death as a release: they turn on the light to attract the attention of enemy pilots. Only two people in the house tremble for their precious life and run to hide in an empty sand pit behind the house: the capitalist Mengen, who came to woo a poor girl, and the burglar, who entered the house with the aim of blackmail. The show deliberately brings these two robbers of society together. "Two thieves, two business man, others say about them. Ironically, the bomb dropped by the Germans hits exactly the shelter where Mengen and the burglar hid - both of them die, but the intelligent heroes of the play remain alive. This ending of the play is deeply symbolic. The show wants to show the doom of the predatory classes of society and the well-known potential value of the intelligentsia, the possibility of its moral rebirth.
