The Life and Career of George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw was an iconoclastic writer and speaker who embraced many subjects that his peers had not yet dared to embrace. He is considered to be the best and most significant playwright since William Shakespeare. His life and career were focused mainly on social reform. Bernard was born on July 26, 1856 in Dublin, Ireland. His parents were mother Lucinda Elizabeth Garly and father George Carr Shaw. His father and grandfather were both alcoholics. His mother was from Carlow. She was a musically gifted and taught singing and music lessons (Kunitz 1268). Bernard was the third and youngest sibling in his family. He had two older sisters (Weintraub 655). Bernard's father's and grandfather's alcoholism caused Bernard to hate both alcohol and tobacco. His abstaining from drugs also led him to be a vegetarian, an animal rights activist and to be against using medical vaccinations (Kunitz 1268). During Bernard's teenage years, his uncle tutored him. He attended many different schools off and on, but his real education is said to have come from his mother's love of music, art, and drama (Kunitz 1268). When he was in his early teens, Bernard's mother left his father. She moved to London to further pursue a musical career, though all she ever did was teach music. She took Bernard's sisters with her, and Bernard followed some years later (Kunitz 1268). In London, he, his mother, and his sisters were poverty stricken for the next ten years, until he started making money from being a drama critic in a London newspaper (Kunitz 1268). At the age of fifteen, while still living in Ireland, Bernard took an apprenticeship job at a real estate company (Kunitz 1268). He started ... ... middle of paper ... ...01, Caesar and Cleopatra- 1901, Captain Brassbound's Conversation- 1901, Man and Superman- 1903, John Bull's Other Island- 1907, Major Barbara- 1907, The Doctor's Dilemma- 1911, The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet- 1911, Getting Married- 1911, Misalliance- 1914, Fanny's First Play- 1914, Overruled- 1916, Androcles and the Lion- 1916, Pygmalion- 1916, Heartbreak House- 1919, Back to Methuselah- 1921, Saint Joan of Arc- 1924, The Apple Cart- 1930, Farfetched Fables- 1951, Shakes versus Shav- 1951, Why She Would Not- 1956 Bibliography: Works Cited Batson, Eric J. "Bernard Shaw." Cyclopedia of World Authors. 1958 ed. 964-968. Kunitz, Stanley J and Howard Haycraft. "Shaw, George Bernard." Twentieth Century Authors. 6th ed. 1966. 1268-1270. Weintraub, Stanley. "Shaw, George Bernard." Encyclaepedia Britannica. 1977 ed. Vol. 16: 655-659.
Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. McQuade, Donald, ed., pp. 113-117.
Bernard Marx was alienated in the Brave New World because of his general appearance. As an Alpha Plus, Bernard was unusually short and ugly. Suggested by Fanny, Bernard's condition resulted from an error when he was still in a bottle, the workers "thought he was a Gamma and put alcohol into his blood surrogate." Bernard did not fit in the structured order of the Brave New World and was therefore shunned by others. The error resulted in Bernard developing outside the barriers of his caste level. His ugliness and short stature led Bernard to become a perpetual outsider, alienated by society. As an outsider, Bernard was cynical of the order and structure of the Brave New World. He eschewed Electric Golf, and other social amusements in favor of loneliness and solidarity activities, such as, thinking. Bernard attempted to find a way "to be happy in some other way," in his own way, not the established way.
Bernard goes against the grain in the way he looks, acts and thinks. He does not follow the cultural standard and is therefore despised and teased, and is labeled a freak.
Bernard’s isolation, resulting from a physical deformity, allows him to fully explore his individuality. Bernard’s height constantly attracts scorn and ridicule from both Alpha’s and lower caste members, and they treat him as a foreigner because he appears different to them. Constantly battered by derision from all castes, Bernard “feel[s] an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behave[s] like one…”(65). Isolation from society provides Bernard time in solitude, affording him the means to question society’s motives for mocking him. Bernard’s lack of faith in society drives him further apart from its inhabitants, creating a cycle that advances Bernard’s isolation from his peers and, in turn, promoting his individuality. Furthermore, the people surrounding Bernard have always taken interest in his physical shortcomings. They gossip about his deformity, suggesting alcohol in his system and a mix-up in the embryonic stage as possible reasons for it. Society isolates Bernard because of his physical stature, “…and [his]...
Bernard was born as an alpha, the highest caste. Unfortunately, he was born with multiple birth defects. Bernard was short and slightly disfigured, making him stick out compared to everyone else's genetic perfection. Because of this, Bernard was made fun of a lot by other people in the community making him feel lonely, even though he was born
In spite of Bernard’s height issue, he is not a timid character. He is not afraid to state his opinions on matters or to stand up for what he believes is wrong. Since Bernard does not truly belong in the Brave New World’s society as he would like, he can more eas...
Damrosch, David, et al., ed. The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. B. Compact ed. New York: Longman - Addison Wesley Longman, 2000. p. 2256
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud, short as Arthur Rimbaud was born on October 20, 1854 in Charleville, France. His parents were Frederic Rimbaud and Marie Catherine Vitale Cuif (NNDB). His father was an irresponsible army captain who spent only a little time with his family and then left the family when Rimbaud was six (Encyclopedia Britannica). His mother, though under the hardships of life, raised up her children and made them become pious and well-mannered (Encyclopedia Britannica). Before Rimbaud was nine, his mother taught him at home, then they moved to the Cours d’Orleans in 1862 for a better neighborhood (Encyclopedia Britannica). His mother would punish the children by making them learn Latin verse in a strict way if they had made
Damrosch, David, et al., ed. The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. B. Compact ed. New York: Longman - Addison Wesley Longman, 2000.
Ed. Peter Singer. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 1991. 294-302.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Greenacre, Phyllis. A. M.D. Swift and Carroll. New York: Int. J. University.
In 1885 he started learning to play violin. Beginning in 1885 he received his primary education at a Catholic school in Munich; in 1888 he changed over to the Luitpold-Gymnasium, also in Munich. However, he didn't like his school and he did not get along with his form-master so left this school in 1894 without a degree and joined his family in Italy where they had settled.
Damrosch, David, et al., ed. The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. B. Compact ed. New York: Longman - Addison Wesley Longman, 2000.
Young Edgar traveled with the Allans to England in 1815 and attended school in Chelsea. In 1820 he was back in Richmond where he attended the University of Virginia and studied Latin and poetry and also loved to swim and act. While in school he became estranged from his foster father after accumulating gambling debts. Unable to pay them or support him...