Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw is famous for his innovative writing skill. As a prolific author, his creations manifest his skillful personality but with a difference.
Shaw is one of those few authors whose influence touched various social arenas apart from writing. He always remained one step ahead compared to his contemporaries on various platforms. His words make his mastery as a social reformer and philosopher visible even in modern times.
His emergence with his creations as a realistic and imaginative writer made him a universally accepted versatile dramatist. Even modern readers can easily sense his exceptional writing trait. His supremacy in sketching “modern comedy of ideas” is the food for many hungry minds searching for innovative thoughts.
However, possessing a vacillating mind also uncovers his different ways of thinking compared to other eminent authors. Due to this wavering between different opinions, he sometimes rejected and sometimes accepted several of his own ideologies.
According to many critics, George Bernard Shaw often felt oscillated between different thinking. Sometimes it appeared hard for him to decide which way he needed to pave. A wigwag between socialist-related idealism and feelings for the supermanship is audibly evident in his writings. Today’s readers can feel his swinging between the socially mingled democracy and the dictatorship.
In a word, the tendency to swing back and forth, for sure, unfolds the lack of solemnity. Eminent literary critic and novelist Ludwig Lewison beautifully defines this nature of Shaw. In his valuable analysis of the Irish dramatist, he penned that “Mr. Shaw is a writer of comedy with a tragic cry in his soul.”
Shaw’s journey as a writer unveils various unknown facts about his character. His tragic creations like Saint Joan compels readers’ soul to cry. The drama shows that as a genuine human being George Bernard Shaw supports the betterment of society and humanity. But at the same time, he depicts how some inhuman people in the societal periphery try to keep in hand absolute social dominance. And anyone who defies this chain of dictatorship will get punished severely. The main character Saint Joan in the play named Saint Joan also pays the price of honesty by giving her life. She dies because the powermongers in society want to eliminate her for their benefit.
The vivid description of both the opposite sides shows the playwright’s literary supremacy and his different way of characterization. On the one hand, Saint Joan’s character gives him recognition as a member of the kingdom of the upliftment of humanity. On the other hand, persons like the Earl of Warwick in the play compel readers to recognize the author’s thinking differently. For them, Shaw tries to conquest the grace of human hearts but with seeding pain in their souls.
As a literary genius, George Bernard Shaw remains one of the best dramatists even in the current century. It is hard to find an author like his stature. His skillful creations are the best examples of incomparable creativity in the literary world. In reality, all his achievements are unparalleled and bear the mark of a rare, different signature style that unlocks the scope of criticism.
