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Shaw on Ibsen and Ibsenism in Shaw: A Doll’s House and Candida

  • Journal of Modern English Drama
  • Abbr : JMBARD
  • 2008, 21(2), pp.183-202
  • Publisher : 한국현대영미드라마학회
  • Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Literature > Contemporary English Drama

Jang, Keum-Hee 1

1단국대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In The Quintessence of Ibsenism Shaw expounded Ibsen with a profundity that had not previously been shown in examination of his work by any writer in English. Shaw was attracted to Ibsenism and Ibsen's plays, especially Shaw was interested in A Doll's House in 1912-13 as the first modern play with a discussion scene. Ibsen's theme and characters are pursued by Shaw in most of his works though he has placed more weight on the socialistic than on the individualistic. Shaw, following in the footsteps of Ibsen, created a vital, positive and powerful woman, Candida. The essence of the battle of wills between Candida and her husband bears the same characteristic of the male-female conflict in Ibsen's drama. Unlike Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House, Candida in Candida has no illusions about her marriage. Unlike the ending of A Doll's House, Candida remains with her husband with new understanding gained through their conflicts. The plot of Candida shows how Shaw adapted the pattern of an Ibsen-like situation to serve his own thematic purposes. Unlike Ibsen, Shaw combines both his socialistic and artistic interests in his plays. In this respect, the dramatic conflict in the plays seems to be the conflict of ideas and belief from a socialist standpoint. Many critics perceive that Candida's assumption of infantilizing to the male characters is challenging to the Victorian concept of ultimate patriarchal authority. On the contrary, Ibsen's A Doll's House infantilizes women at the same time as it idealizes them and requires male authority both in public and in private realms. Both Ibsen's A Doll's House and Shaw's Candida focus on a woman's choice of male companions, which challenges the current morality of the institutional society and is separate from the conventional values.

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