Man and Superman: A Comedy of Ideas
Shaw’s Man and Superman is a comedy of ideas. He has presented a good number of ideas in Man and Superman but his treatment of these ideas is comic rather than serious. Serious ideas have been presented with wit and humour. For this comic treatment of serious ideas the play is regarded as a comedy of ideas.
Shaw’s aim was to make certain ideas, which were unpalatable to the early twentieth century society, receive attention among the thinking public. In the wit and sparkle of a comedy he thought people would be interested, and once interest was created, the ideas presented along with the comedic would be less objectable . He has succeeded to a significant extent in his aim by presenting his unconventional ideas through a comedy. A comedy’s aim is to entertain people. Along with that aim Shaw has the second aim more important than the first, to make people listen to something important. In the play we see Show as a comedian with a serious purpose. Most of his ideas are original and unconventional. He has chosen the drama to be the medium to communicate his ideas. The substance of man and superman is of the utmost seriousness. But the presentation is with the utmost levity.
Shaw calls the play a philosophy for he has brought in all the subjects under the blue heavens into it for serious discussion. Sex, marriage, social reformation or education, religion or superstition, evolution or physical science all have been discussed in the play. Shaw also has expressed his view on happiness, on love, women, art, socialism, democracy, industrialization, morality, virtue, sin, death, peace, war, slavery and a host of other topics. His remarks on all these countless subjects are original and st...
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...oring. But here the dialogue is written with so much wit and humour that an audience does not have a dull moment in its entire performance. There are plenty of comic moments in the play. For instance, when Shaw wants to express the idea that the idle rich are no better than robbers he puts it thus.
Mendoza : I am a brigand : I live by robbing the rich
Tanner : I am a gentleman : I live by robbing the poor
This wit keeps us amused while Shaw drills his ideas into our heads. He has successfully dramatized philosophic ideas in a comic way.
In a drama of ideas characters talk about serious ideas. A drama of ideas often becomes boring but in Man and Superman serious ideas are presented with wit and humour. The dramatist doses not treat the serious ideas seriously rather comically. Therefore Man and Superman is a good example of comedy of ideas.
audience in his play. I will be analysing act one of the play to try
the play. It looks at the person he is and the person he becomes. It
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...es serious issues to be comical, the ability for Francis to fool and deceive both his guvnors up till the end of play seems almost humorous, arousing the comedic nature of the play. However, it is the mistreatment of Alfie that limits the comedy in the play from conflict, the more mature audience would feel outraged by the treatment of the 80 year old war veteran who is smacked over the head with an 'autographed cricket bat'. This is insensitive as it shows an elder being treated like an object to whack, and thus many may find some aspects of conflict in a severity light instead of in comedic nature.
William Shakespeare’s dramatic and poetic techniques and his use of hyperbole are used to describe the characters emotions and weaknesses. The use of dramatic irony is used to create personal conflict. This is done throughout the play to describe the characters concerns and their situations.
themes of the play and helps us gain insight on other characters. I find the following quote to be
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In Hamlet’s speech, Shakespeare’s efforts to target his Elizabethan audience develop the theme of the frailty of man. Shakespeare conveys this underlying theme of the play by subt...
To conclude, the graphic novel Watchmen presents the non-fantastic representation of a superhero, implying that not all heroes are like Superman. This notion is explored within the novel by mentioning the realistic motives of the characters choosing to become superheroes, by Rorschach’s representation and through the heroic reactions of the New Yorkers to a street crime. These elements all contribute to Watchmen’s uniqueness and complexity as a superhero comic.
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The play defies easy definition and various critics have labeled it variously as absurdist, existentialist, comical, burlesque, metaphorical or grim. The playwright on the other hand maintained that all through the creation of his work he strove to bring in the comic element and any tragedy that seems part of the play, may have crept in inadvertently and whenever it has been staged as a serious play, audience reaction to it has been cold.
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