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The Apple Cart & On the Rocks: Criticism of Representative Democracy and Aspirations of Political Reformation by Bernard Shaw

  • Journal of Modern English Drama
  • Abbr : JMBARD
  • 2015, 28(3), pp.136-169
  • Publisher : 한국현대영미드라마학회
  • Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Literature > Contemporary English Drama

Eom Tae-yong 1

1가톨릭관동대학교

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ABSTRACT

After examining George Bernard Shaw’s principal political stance and changed opinions with regard to adult suffrage and democracy through his political-economic essays and books, this study aims to investigate the problems of representative democracy staged by his two political comedies The Apple Cart (1929) and On the Rocks (1933). Also, it will explore how intense Show’s will is for a new system and the social reformation. Shaw’s attitude towards representative democracy differs from his early years to later. He insisted in his early Fabian tracts that the parliamentary politics can advance the socialist reformation by the expansion of adult suffrage. But he later gave an address upon the possibility of aristocratic-elite government while denying the governing ability of labor classes or common people in Ruskin’s Politics (1919). Shaw’s modified views appear as a suggestion for a new parliamentary system, with expressing the skepticism about adult suffrage and representative democracy, in The Intelligent Women’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928). The Apple Cart highlights the political indifference and ignorance of common people enjoying well-off lives in a virtual society in the late 20th century. It leads to the populism of politicians and the irresponsibility of the cabinet, which is consequently at the mercy of the plutocracy of huge conglomerates. The King Magnus tries to run for the House of Commons in order to reestablish democracy and fight the plutocracy, but his attempt is blocked by the sturdy parliamentarism. On the Rocks is staged in the situation where representative democracy can’t find any solution to the extreme unemployment rate. After his long helplessness, Sir Arthur, the Prime Minister, presents a reformation plan including the nationalization of the means of productions to resolve the economic crisis. But he feels frustrated from the strong opposition of the labor deputation as well as the conservative members. When labor classes and people become not the axis of reformation but rather its disturbance, representative democracy only drifts around without playing any role. As Shaw believes the reformative aspiration of King Magnus and Sir Arthur is what can never be abandoned, so he implies that their successors or descendants may inherit its cause. While the improvement of human beings by eugenic marriages may be nothing but a Shavian symbolic alternative for the development of life-force, there is no doubt Shaw looks forward to the reality in which the revolutionary Strong Man can come from a variety of classes.

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