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George B. Shaw: Garnering Women’s Rights through His Female Characterizations

  • Journal of Modern English Drama
  • Abbr : JMBARD
  • 2009, 22(3), pp.237-264
  • Publisher : 한국현대영미드라마학회
  • Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Literature > Contemporary English Drama

Ball, Joseph John 1

1전북대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Since Shaw associated with many different styles of women, he formed unbiased ideas about how unique and special they are within society. From his mother and sisters with their never ending love for music and art, to married women with him as the third wheel and often as a marriage counselor, and to single women who he wooed, he learned a great deal. Particularly, his romances, whether literal or physical, impacted his views on women and their situation within the Victorian society. The objective of this piece is to establish Shaw’s relevance and contributions to bringing about equal rights to women through his characterizations of women in his plays. Shaw played a significant part in the equalization of rights for women in the passage of acts not only during his life, but posthumously by educating the audience and readers on the inequalities and falsehoods of society. Some of the most important acts of legislation for Shaw to see passed were of course those for women’s suffrage. Although many minor acts were passed from the 1870s onward, voting rights were not truly granted until 1928 with the Representation of the People Act. Shaw was well ahead of his time with female character development because he wrote about women having diverse personalities instead of pigeonholing women into the Victorian ideal. In making Victorians think about the society and its injustices through his plays, he indirectly initiated the call for reforms. Although he may have written some controversial plays for the time like Widower’s Houses (1892), The Philanderer (1893) Mrs Warren’s Profession (1894) Man and Superman (1903), and Major Barbara (1905), he mainly did it to stimulate a response about the problems people, and more particularly, women were up against. Unfortunately, some audiences may not have recognized his true designs for equality; however, they did see women become the central key figures in his plays, which would be a shock in itself. Thus, he started the ball rolling for people to look around and question whether or not society needed to be reevaluated. In Shaw’s representations of female characters in his plays, he established a precedence not only of women being the central role in his plays, but also of them being more realistic emotional portrayals of women. Especially, Shaw broke the mold in comparison to his contemporaries who mainly focused on traditional Victorian women. In analyzing the effeminizer, equalizer, and unadjusted or unruly, I have pointed out the wide range of attributes that Shaw gave to his female characters. With these characterizations, Shaw helped to awaken society to the inequalities between the genders which set the stage for change.

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