Skip to main content

The Realism of Shaw in the play



The Realism of Shaw in the play

In Bluntschli, Shaw has presented a realistic portrait of an average soldier, who is ready to fight when he must and is gland to escape when he can. Shaw has shown that a soldier is an ordinary
creature of flesh and blood, who suffers from hunger and fatigue, and who is roused to action only by danger. In short, as Sergius puts it, war is a trade like any other trade; it is the coward's art of attacking the enemy when one gets him at a disadvantage, and of avoiding to fight him on equal terms.
Of course, war is to be fought when absolutely necessary, but there should be no glorification of war. War is a brutal affair, and we should not sing songs of it. The cruelty and horror of war one highlighted through the relation of the horrible death of the twelve soldiers burnt alive in a farmhouse. In this way idealistic notions of war are punctured.
Both Sergius and Raina are disillusioned in their romantic or idealistic notions of war; they are also disillusioned in their romantic attitude to love. Raina had glorified Segius as a hero, and tales of his heroism had fed her love for him. On his return from the war, we get a scene of, 'higher love,"
between the two. He calls her his "Queen" and she calls him her "King", and her hero. Such romantic love, is a sham; it has no basis in fact and reality. As soon as Raina's back is turned, Sergius flirts with Louka. Raina also, is already in love with Bluntschili.

Shaw's views on love and war are characterized by strict realism. Shaw tells men that romantic war is only butchery and that romantic love is only lust. Shaw's objects not so much to war as to the attractiveness of war. He does not so much dislike love as the love of love. Shaw murmurs “ Wars if you must, but for God’s sake, not war-songs.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VLADIMIR AND ESTRAGON ARE REPRESENTATION OF MAN IN GENERAL. ACCEPT OR REJECT THE STATEMENT.

Q:      TO WHAT EXTANT VLADIMIR AND ESTRAGON ARE METAPHORS OF HUMANITY IN "WAITING FOR GODOT"? Q:       VLADIMIR     AND      ESTRAGON    ARE REPRESENTATION OF MAN IN GENERAL. ACCEPT OR REJECT THE STATEMENT. Q:      MAJOR CHARACTERS IN "WAITING FOR GODOT" ARE HUMAN BEINGS IN SEARCH FOR MEANINGS IN THE MEANINGLESS, HOSTILE UNIVERSE. Ans: Authors bring into play different modus operandi in their writings. Samuel Beckett makes use of allusions and references to characters to help the reader understand what the characters stand for. In his drama Waiting for Godot, Beckett's two main characters, Estragon and Vladimir, are symbolised as man. Separate they are two different sides of man, but together they represent man as a whole. In Waiting for Godot, Beckett uses Estragon and Vladimir to symbolize man's physical and mental state. Estragon represents the physical side of man, while Vladimir represents the intellectual side of man. In each way
Post a Comment
notesvilla.ml

Walt Whitman Writing Style

  Walt Whitman style Walt Whitman crafted one of the most distinctive styles in world poetry – a style that is instantly recognizable.  Among the particular trait s of that style are the following: a strong emphasis on the individual self, especially the self of Whitman in particular a strong tendency to use free verse in his poetry an epic tendency that tries to encompass almost every possible subject matter an emphasis on the real details of the everyday world but also on transcendent, spiritual themes an emphasis on life as it was actually lived in America , and yet a concern with all humanity; a focus on reality blended with an enthusiastic mysticism an emphasis on democracy and love of other persons an emphasis on speakers (in his poems) speaking honestly and directly, in fairly simple language accessible to most readers an emphasis on freedom of all sorts – physical freedom, social freedom, freedom of the imagination, and fre
Post a Comment
notesvilla.ml

Waiting for Godot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Grave

Waiting for Godot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Grave By David Kranes  Have you heard the one about the two tramps who were killing time? Or was it filling time? Is Samuel Beckett the stage poet of gloom? Or is he a baggy-pant burlesque comedian? (Bert Lahr acted in Godot; Buster Keaton in his Film.) Does the spirit involuntarily lift in the gaunt Irishman’s grove of denuded trees. . .or fall? Does the flesh fall and the voice arise? “We give birth astride the grave,” Beckett utters at one point. Some critics arm them- selves with the word birth; others with the word grave. Perhaps more of them ought to have chosen the word astride. Samuel Beckett, who always loved the shape and play of language, was fond of the epi- gram from St. Augustine: “Do not despair: one of the thieves was saved. Do not presume: one of the thieves was damned.” During this past year, in response to Beckett’s 1989 death, remembrances by writers such as Mel Gussow of the New York Times stress his quie
Post a Comment
notesvilla.ml