Matchett, Grace (1990) the Relationship of Parents and Children in the English Domestic Plays of George Bernard Shaw
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Matchett, Grace (1990) The relationship of parents and children in the English domestic plays of George Bernard Shaw. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1851/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The Relationship of Parents and Children in The English Domestic Plays of George Bernard Shaw by Grace Matchett Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Glasgow March 1990 0 Grace Matchett 1990 ABSTRACT The aim of this thesis is to bring a new critical perspective to the English domestic plays of George Bernard Shaw by analysing them in the light of Shaw's treatment of parent-child relationships. A domestic play is one in which the plot or problem centres around a family and in which the setting is that family's permanent or temporary home. The period 1890 and 1914 has been chosen for three reasons: first, it was during this time that Shaw began and succeeded in his career as a dramatist; secondly, this period saw the growth of the 'new drama' movement, which considered a discussion of sociological issues a prerequisite for responsible dramatic literature, and thirdly, changes within the theatre itself, most noticeably Granville Barker's seasons at the Court Theatre (1904-1907) gave Shaw the opportunity to have his work intelligently and artistically presented to a growing audience of literary discrimination and social awareness. Heartbreak House is included in this analysis because although not finished until 1917 it was begun in 1913. The thesis begins with an examination of the influences on Shaw which made the treatment of the parent- child relationship a central theme of his earliest plays. These are (a) Biographical (b) Sociological (c) Theatrical - (i) Nineteenth century Popular Theatre including Melodrama (ii) Ibsenism Section Two describes Shaw's treatment of parents and children in his novels. The aim of this section is to demonstrate that the family relationships that assume major significance in the plays are prefigured in the novels not simply thematically but formally. In Section Three the English domestic plays are placed in four categories under the schematic headings which sometimes overlap: (a) Single Parents Widowers' Houses, The Philanderer, Man and Superman, Pygmalion, Heartbreak House (b) The Return of the Absent Parent Mrs Warren's Profession, You Never Can Tell, Major Barbara (c) Substitute Parents You Never Can Tell, Candida, Man and Superman, Pygmalion Heartbreak House (d) Happy Families Getting Married, Misalliance, Fanny's First Play, The conclusion is that Shaw, in expressing his opinions on the relationships of children and their parents in the English domestic plays as well as in his other writings, was challenging the conventions of conventional middle-class society while at the same time expressing, perhaps compulsively, his personal quest for his own 'true' parents. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements v Declaration vi Key to Abbreviations vii PART ONE 1 The Biographical Context 1 Notes 11 2 The Sociological Context 12 Notes 27 3 The Theatrical Context 29 Notes 48 PART TWO 4 The Novels 51 Notes 75 PART THREE 5 Single Parents 76 Notes 122 6 The Return of the Absent Parent 124 Notes 183 7 Substitute Parents 186 Notes 223 8 Happy Families 225 Notes 264 Conclusion 266 Notes 271 Selective Bibliography 272 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to thank and to acknowledge the assistance of Professor Jan McDonald who supervised this thesis and to thank Dr Alasdair Cameron for his help. My grateful thanks to the Chairman and the Board of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama for their generosity in granting me leave of absence for research purposes and to Edward Argent, Director of the School of Drama for his encouragement. My thanks are also to Freda Matchett and to the late Eric Jones for their practical and inspiring encouragement. Thanks to Marian Fordom, Moira Gralton, Stewart Whyte and the McGregors for their patience and expertise. Special thanks to Kate and Gordon Neilson for their support, forebearance and the production of this work. I am indebted to The Society of Authors on behalf of the Bernard Shaw Estate for permission to quote from his works. V Powers of discretion are granted to the University of Glasgow library to allow this thesis to be copied in part or in whole without further reference to the author. vi KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS SHAW Unless otherwise indicated, references to Shaw's writings are to The Works of Bernard Shaw. 30 vols. London: Constable. 1930-32. Where later works are quoted they are acknowledged in the notes. 1 I Immaturity 2 IK The Irrational Knot 3 LAA Love Among the Artists 4 CBP Cashel Byron's Profession 6 ShS Short Stories 7 WH Widowers' Houses 7 Ph The Philanderer 7 MWP Mrs Warren's Profession 8 CAN Candida 8 YNCT You Never Can Tell 10 MSM Man and Superman 11 MB Major Barbara 12 GM Getting Married vii 12 DD The Doctor's Dilemma 13 MIS Misalliance 13 FFP Fanny's First Play 14 PYG Pygmalion 15 HH Heartbreak House 16 BTM Back to Methuselah 19 Q The Quintessence of Ibsenism 23 OTNi Our Theatre in the Nineties Vol 1 24 OTNii Our Theatre in the Nineties Vol 2 25 OTNiii Our Theatre in the Nineties Vol 3 29 PPR Pen Portraits and Reviews viii PART ONE 1 THE BIOGRAPHICALCONTEXT* It is necessary to examine the personal background of Bernard Shaw, the stock from which he sprttng, and the influences to which he was subject at an early age, in order to assess their significant contribution to his presentation of parents and children in his English domestic plays. Shaw's father was George Carr Shaw. Born in 1814, he was the third son of a Kilkenny attorney and nephew of Sir Robert Shaw of Bushey Park who had been Lord Mayor of Dublin and later, in 1821, had received a baronetcy from George IV. George Carr Shaw could be said to be well connected. He was twelve years old when his father died, some time after which Sir Robert provided a cottage for the large fatherless family to live with their mother. Bernard Shaw was the son of a fatherless father who was raised in a one-parent family. George Carr Shaw was a partner in Clibborn and Shaw, a small firm of corn merchants when, in 1851, he married Lucinda Elizabeth Gurley who was sixteen years his junior and was the only daughter of Walter Bagnall Gurley. Shaw's maternal grandfather had married the daughter of a reasonably wealthy pawnbroker who had settled money on her and any children she might produce and this was the 'legacy' that Shaw's mother used to help to keep her children after they went to live in London. Bessie Shaw's mother had died young, so from the age of nine, she was brought up by her unmarried and hump-backed aunt Ellen Whitcroft who became a surrogate mother to a motherless daughter. Her younger brother, Shaw's Uncle Walter Gurley, was later 'taken over', as John O'Donovan puts it, by their uncle the barrister, now Kilkenny a squire .1 * Notes page 11 He eventually became a ship's doctor and between voyages spent time with his sister's family, an exuberant and exhilarating man with a Rabelaisian turn of wit. Bessie Shaw remembered her life with her aunt as very strict and unhappy but it was there that she received a good education and learned to play the piano, acquiring the thorough grounding in music that was to provide the source of her later independence. Bessie Shaw was eager to escape the tyranny of little Miss Whi tcrof t and there was no prospect of returning to live with her father who was about to re-marry. She found George Carr Shaw pleasant, humorous, and well-connected; she also believed him to have a pension of £60 a year. Warned by her family of the inadvisability of such a match on the grounds that they considered him to be a fortune-hunter and of his reputation for heavy drinking, she preferred to accept his assurance that he was teetotal. On the honeymoon spent in Liverpool she discovered that, while her husband might hope to become teetotal, he was in fact a drunkard. The new Mrs Shaw found herself considerably less well off after her gesture of independence. Shaw's own description of the early circumstances of his mother stated that: Everybody had disappointed her, or betrayed her, or tyrannized over her. She was not at all soured by this. She never made scenes, never complained, never nagged, never punished nor retaliated nor lost her self-control nor her superiority to spites and tantrums and tempers. She was neither weak nor submissive; but as she never revenged, so she also never forgave. There were no 2 quarrels and consequently no reconciliations. There were three children of the marriage: Lucinda Frances, born in 1853, who went on the stage in operetta and musical comedy; Elinor Agnes, born 1855 who died of tuberculosis in 1876 and was the only one of her children 2 for whom Bessie, reputedly, felt much maternal affection; and George Bernard, known in the family as Sonny, born in 1856.