高二英語(yǔ)（選修八）unit 4 備課參考 George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw was an Irish dramatist, a playwright, a socialist spokesman, a literary critic and a leading figure in the 20th century theater. He was born in Dublin. where he grew up in poverty. He educated himself by going to the library. Throughout his lifetime he had many causes which he believed in and supported, one such cause was woman's rights and equality of income. In 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He refused the money that went with the award, but did accepted the honour. Irish dramatist, literary critic, a socialist spokesman, and a leading figure in the 20th century theater. Shaw was a freethinker, defender of women's rights, and advocate of equality of income. In 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Shaw accepted the honour but refused the money. "Just as the historian can teach no real history until he has cured his readers of the romantic delusion that the greatness of a queen consists in her being a pretty woman and having her head cut off, so the playwright of the first order can do nothing with his audience until he has cured them of looking at the stage through the keyhole, and sniffing round the theatre as prurient people sniff round the divorce court." (from G.B. Shaw's preface in Three Plays by Brieux, 1911) George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, where he grew up in something close to genteel poverty. "I am a typical Irishman; my family came from Yorkshire," Shaw once said. His father, George Carr Shaw, was in the wholesale grain trade. Lucinda Elisabeth (Gurly) Shaw, his mother, was the daughter of an impoverished landowner. She was 16-years younger than her husband. George Carr was a drunkard - his example prompted his son to become a teetotaller. When he died in 1885, his children and wife did not attend his funeral. Young Shaw and his two sisters were brought up mostly by servants. Shaw's mother eventually left the family home to teach music, singing, in London. When she died in 1913, Shaw confessed to Mrs. Patrick Campbell: "I must write to you about it, because there is no one else who didn't hate her mother, and even who doesn't hate her children." In 1866 the family moved to a better neighborhood. Shaw went to the Wesleyan Connexional School, then moved to a private school near Dalkey, and from there to Dublin's Central Model School. Shaw finished his formal education at the Dublin English Scientific and Commercial Day School. At the age of 15, he started to work as a junior clerk. In 1876 he went to London, joining his sister and mother. Shaw did not return to Ireland for nearly thirty years. Most of the next two years Shaw educated himself at the British Museum. He began his literary career by writing music and drama criticism, and novels, including the semi-autobiographical IMMATURITY, without much success. A vegetarian, who eschewed alcohol and tobacco, Shaw joined in 1884 the Fabian Society, served on its executive committee from 1885 to 1911. The middle-class socialist group attracted also H.G. Wells - the both writers send each other copies of their new books as they appeared. "You are, now that Wilde is dead, the one living playwright in my esteem," wrote Wells after receiving Shaw's THREE PLAYS FOR PURITANS (1901). A man of many causes, Shaw supported abolition of private property, radical change in the voting system, campaigned for the simplification of spelling, and the reform of the English alphabet. As a public speaker, Shaw gained the status of one of the most sought-after orators in England. In 1895 Shaw became a drama critic for the Saturday Review. Articles written for the paper were later collected in OUR THEATRES IN THE NINETIES (1932). Music, art, and drama criticism Shaw wrote for Dramatic Review (1885-86), Our Corner (1885-86), The Pall Mall Gazette (1885-88), The World (1886-94), and The Star (1888-90) as 'Corno bi Basetto'. His music criticism were collected in SHAW'S MUSIC (1981). After lacing a shoe too tightly, an operation was performed on his foot for necrosis; Shaw was unable to put his foot on the ground for eighteen months. During this period he wrote CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA (1901) and THE PERFECT WAGNERITE (1898). "...I have no reason to believe that they would have been a bit better if they had been written on two legs instead of one," he said in a letter to the playwright St John Ervine. His friend had his leg amputated during WWI after being hit by a shell splinters. In 1898 Shaw married the wealthy Charlotte Payne-Townshend. They settled in 1906 in the Hertfordshire village of Ayot St. Lawrence. Shaw remained with Charlotte until her death, although he was occasionally linked with other women. He carried on a passionate correspondence over the years with Mrs. Patrick Campbell, a widow and actress, who got the starring role in PYGMALION. All the other actresses refused to say the taboo word 'bloody' that the playwright had put in the mouth of Eliza. When she wanted to publish his love letters to her, Shaw answered: "I will not, dear Stella, at my time of life, play the horse to your Lady Godiva." The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen had a great influence on Shaw's thinking. For a summer meeting of the Fabian Society in 1890, he wrote THE QUINTESSENCE OF IBSENISM (1891), in which he considered Ibsen a pioneer, "who declares that it is right to do something hitherto regarded as infamous." Shaw's early plays, WIDOWER'S HOUSES (1892), which criticized slum landlords, as well as several subsequent ones, were not well received. His 'unpleasant plays', ideological attacks on the evils of capitalism and explorations of moral and social problems, were followed with more entertaining but as principled productions. "To a professional critic (I have been one myself) theatre-going is the curse of Adam. The play is the evil he is paid to endure in the sweat of his brow; and the sooner it is over, the better." (from 'Preface' to Saint Joan) . CANDIDA was a comedy about the wife of a clergyman, and what happens when a weak, young poet wants to rescue her from her dull family life. But it was not until JOHN BULL'S OTHER ISLAND (1904) that Shaw gained in England a wider popularity with his own plays. In the Unites States and Germany Shaw's name was already well-known. Between 1904 and 1907 The Royal Court Theatre staged several of his plays, including Candida. MORELL: Man can climb to the highest summits; but he cannot dwell there. MARCHBACKS (springing up): It's false: there can he dwell for ever, and there only. It's in the other moment that he can find no rest, no sense of the silent glory of life. Where would you have spend my moments, if not on the summits? MORELL: In the scullery, slicing onions and filling lamps. (from Candida) MAJOR BARBARA depicted an officer of the Salvation Army, who learns from her father, a manufacturer of armaments, that money and power can be better weapons against evil than love. Ironically the producer of the film version of the play, Gabriel Pascal, was eager to do business with Sir Basil Zaharoff, an arms dealer. PICKERING: Have you no morals, man? DOOLITTLE: Can't afford them, Governor. (from Pygmalion) Pygmalion was originally written for the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell. Later the play became the basis for two films and a musical. (Shaw's correspondence with the actresses Ellen Terry and Stella Campbell are available in book form.) Shaw's popularity declined after his essay 'Common Sense About the War' (1914), which was considered unpatriotic. With SAINT JOAN (1924), his masterpiece, Shaw was again accepted by the post-war public. Now he was regarded as 'a second Shakespeare', who had revolutionized the British theatre. Shaw did not portrait Joan of Arc, his protagonist, as a heroine or martyr, but as a stubborn young woman. And as in classic tragedies, her flaw is fatal and brings about her downfall. Uncommonly Shaw showed some sympathy to her judges. The play was written four years after Joan was declared a saint. In 1893 Shaw collaborated with Keir Hardie in writing the party program for the new Independent Labour party. Many of his playes also were philosophical addresses on the subject of individual responsibility or freedom of spirit against the conformist demands of society. Shaw was cofounder with the Webbs of the London School of Economics, and launched the petition against the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde. In 1897 he entered local government. In his plays Shaw combined contemporary moral problems with ironic tone and paradoxes, "Shavian" wit, which have produced such phrases as "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches", "England and America are two countries divided by a common language", "Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it", and "I never resist temptation because I have found that things are bad for me do not tempt me." Discussion and intellectual acrobatics are the basis of his drama, and before the emergence of the sound film, his plays were nearly impossible to adapt into screen. During his long career, Shaw wrote over 50 plays. He continued to write them even in his 90s. George Bernard Shaw died at Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, on November 2, 1950. He was cremated and it was his wish that his ashes be mixed with those of his wife, Charlotte - she had died seven years before, "an old woman bowed and crippled, furrowed and wrinkled," as Shaw depicted her in a letter to H.G. Wells. Since the days of the silent films, Shaw had been a fan of motion-picture. He also played in the film Rosy Rapture - The Pride of the Beauty (1914). Shaw did not like much of the German film version of Pygmalion (1935), and the penniless producer and director Gabriel Pascal persuaded the author to give him the rights to make films from his plays. "Mr Pascal, you're the first honest film producer I have ever met," Shaw told him at their first meeting and gave him a pound note. Pygmalion, produced by Pascal and directed by Anthony Asquith and David Lean (uncredited), was a great success. In one article, Pascal was picked with the Pope and Hitler as one of the ten most famous men of 1938, but his career ended in the financial fiasco of the spectacle Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). Among several other films inspired by Shaw's plays are Saint Joan (1927), How He Lied to Her Husband (1931), Arms and the Man (1932), Major Barbara (1941), and My Fair Lady (1964). Pascal's co-director in Major Barbara was David Lean, but for thousand pounds Lean agreed to give the full credit to Pascal. For further reading: Bernard Shaw by G.K. Chesterton (1909); Bernard Shaw by H.Pearson (1942); Bernard Shaw by E. Bentley (1957); Bernard Shaw: Man and Writer by A. Williamson (1963); A Guide to the Plays of Bernard Shaw by C.B. Purdom (1963); Bermard Shaw by E.R. Bentley (1967); Concordance to the Plays and Prefaces of Bernard Shaw by E.D. Bevan (1971, 10 vols.); Bernard Shaw: Art and Socialism by E. Strauss (1978); The Genius of Shaw, ed. M. Holroyd (1979); Bernard Shaw: The Darker Side by A. Silver (1982); Bernard Shaw: A Guide to Research by S. Weintraub (1992); Bernard Shaw: The Ascent of the Superman by Sally Peters (1996); Shaw by M. Holroyd (1988-93, 4 vols., authorized biography) - Suom.: Suomeksi julkaistu myös Järjen sanoja sodasta. Selected works: · IMMATURITY, 1879 · THE IRRATIONAL KNOT, 1880 · LOVE AMONG ARTIST, 1881 · OUR CORNER; CASHEL BYRON'S PROFESSION, 1882 · AN UNSOCIAL SOCIALIST, 1883 · FABIAN ESSAYS ON SOCIALISM, 1889 · THE QUINTESSENCE OF IBSENISM, 1891 (- see Henrik Ibsen) · WIDOWER'S HOUSES, 1892 · ARMS AND THE MAN, 1894 - Sankareita - film 1932, dir. by Cecil Lewis, starring Barry Jones, Anne Grey, Angela Baddeley · CASHEL BYRON'S PROFESSION, 1885 - Herra Byronin ammatti · CANDIDA, 1987 - suomentajina mm. Helmi Setälä, Helvi Erjakka · THE MAN OF DESTINY, 1897 - Kohtalon mies · THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE, 1897 - Pirun oppipoika - film 1959, dir. by Guy Hamilton, starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Eva Le Gallienne · THE PERFECT WAGNERITE, 1898 · PLAYS PLEASANT AND UNPLEASANT, 1898 · THE PHILANDER, 1898 · YOU NEVER CAN TELL, 1899 · FABIANISM AND THE EMPIRE, 1900 · CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND'S CONVERSION, 1900 - Kapteeni Brassboundin kääntymys · CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA, 1901 - Caesar ja Cleopatra - film 1945, dir. by Gabriel Pascal, starring Claude Rains, Vivien Leigh, Cecil Parker, Stewart Granger · THREE PLAYS FOR PURITANS, 1901 · MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION, 1902 - Rouva Warrenin ammatti · JOHN BULL'S OTHER ISLAND, 1904 (stage play 1907) · THE COMMON SENSE OF MUNICIPAL TRADING, 1904 · MAN AND SUPERMAN, 1905 · ON GOING TO CHURCH, 1905 · MAJOR BARBARA, 1905 - Majuri Barbara - film 1941, dir. by Gabriel Pascal, starring Wendy Hiller, Rex Harrison, Robert Morley, Robert Newton, Marie Lohr, Deborah Kerr · DOCTOR'S DILEMMA, 1906 - Lääkäri pulassa - film 1958, dir. by Anthony Asquith, starring Leslie Caron, Dirk Bogarde, John Robinson · DRAMATIC OPINIONS AND ESSAYS, 1906 · GETTING MARRIED, 1908 · MISALLIANCE, 1910 · SOCIALISM AND SUPERIOR BRAINS, 1910 · FANNY'S FIRST PLAY, 1911 - Fannyn ensi-ilta · OVERRULED, 1912 · ANDROCLES AND THE LION, 1912 - Androkles ja leijona · GREAT CATHERINE, 1913 - Suuri Katariina · PYGMALION, 1913 - suom. - film 1935, dir. by Erich Engel; film 1938, dir. by Anthony Asquith, starring Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller, Wilfrid Lawson, Scott Sunderland; My Fair La dy in 1964, dir. by Ceorge Cukor, starring Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde White · PEACE CONFERENCE HINTS, 1919 · HEARTBREAK HOUSE, 1920 - Särkyneiden sydänten talo · BACK TO METUSELAH, 1922 · SAINT JOAN, 1923 - Pyhä Johanna (trans. by Matti Norri) - film 1957, dir. by Otto Preminger, starring Jean Seberg, Anton Walbrook, Richard Widmark - movie version utilized a screen version by Graham Greene - "I always wanted to make a picture of it. Perhaps that was the great mistake: I loved the play so much that I didn't analyze it. I realized only later that the play is actually a very intellectual, analytical rendition of the story of Saint Joan. It's not a emotional story, and it just wasn't moving enough to get the masses to follow. Even the play, as I found out later, was never a big popular success." (Otto Preminger in Who the Devil Made It by Peter Bogdanovich, 1997) · IMPRISONMENT, 1925 · THE SOCIALISM OF SHAW, 1926 · THE INTELLIGENT WOMAN'S GUIDE TO SOCIALISM AND CAPITALISM, 1928 · THE APPLE CART, 1929 - Amerikan keisari · BERNARD SHAW AND KARL MARX, 1930 · WHAT I REALLY WROTE ABOUT THE WAR, 1931 · screenplay (with Frank Launder): HOW HE LIED TO HER HUSBAND, 1931 - film dir. by Cecil Lewis · DOCTOR'S DELUSIONS, CRUDE CRIMINOLOGY, AND SHAM EDUCATION, 1932 · ESSAYS IN FABIAN SOCIALISM, 1932 · THE WORKS OF BERNARD SHAW, 1930-32 (30 vols., revised as Ayot St. Lawrence Edition, 1931-32; Standard Edition, 36 vols., 1947-52) · MAJOR CRITICAL ESSAYS, 1932 · TOO TRUE TO BE GOOD, 1932 · OUR THEATRES IN THE NINETIES, 1932 · MUSIC IN LONDON, 1890-94, 1932 · AMERICAN BOOBS, 1933 · PREFACES, 1934 · VILLAGE WOOING, 1934 · THE SIMPLETON OF THE UNEXPECTED ISLES, 1935 · WILLIAM MORRIS AS I KNEW HIM, 1936 · THE MILLIONAIRESS, 1936 - Miljoonaperijätär - film 1961, dir. by Anthony Asquith, starring Sophia Loren, Peter Sellers, Alistari Sim, Vittorio de Sica · LONDON MUSIC IN 1888-1889, 1937 · "IN GOOD KING CHARLES'S GOLDEN DAYS", 1939 · EVERYBODY'S POLITICAL WHAT'S WHAT, 1944 · SIXTEEN SELF-SKETCHES, 1948 · BUOYANT BILLIONS, 1948 (perf. and pub. Zurich) · FARFETCHED FABLES, 1950 · PLAYS AND PLAYERS, 1952 · SELECTED PROSE, 1953 · SHAW ON MUSIC, 1955 · THE ILLUSIONS OF SOCIALISM, 1956 · SHAW ON THE THEATRE, 1958 · AN UNFINISHED NOVEL, 1958 · SHAW'S DRAMATIC CRITICISM: 1895-1898, 1959 · HOW TO BECOME A MUSICAL CRITIC, 1960 · PLATFORM AND PULPIT, 1961 · SHAW ON SHAKESPEARE, 1961 (ed. by E. Wilson) · THE MATTER WITH IRELAND, 1962 · G.B.S. ON MUSIC, 1962 · RELIGIOUS SPEECHES, 1963 · HEARTBREAK HOUSE, 1964 · THE COMPLETE PREFACES OF BERNARD SHAW, 1965 · SHAW ON RELIGION, 1967 · SHAW: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, 1969-70 (2 vols.) · THE ROAD TO EQUALITY, 1971 · COLLECTED MUSIC CRITICISM, 1973 · BERNARD SHAW'S PRACTICAL POLITICS, 1976 · THE PORTABLE BERNARD SHAW, 1977 · THE GREAT COMPOSERS, 1978 · THE COLLECTED SCREENPLAYS OF BERNARD SHAW, 1980 · EARLY TEXTS, 1981 (12 vols.) · SHAW'S MUSIC, 1981 (3 vols.) · SHAW ON DICKENS, 1984 · AGITATIONS, 1985 · THE DIARIES, 1885-1897, 1985 · SELECTED SHORTER PLAYS, 1987 · COLLECTED LETTERS, 1965-88 (4 vols.) · BERNARD SHAW'S BOOK REVIEWS, 1991 · THE COMPLETE PREFACES, 1993 · THE DRAMA OBSERVED, 1993 · UNPUBLISHED SHAW, 1996 Below are words of wisdom in the form of inspirational quotes and motivational quotes by George Bernard Shaw : A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. George Bernard Shaw Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say 'Why not? George Bernard Shaw Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. George Bernard Shaw A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold. George Bernard Shaw The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them. George Bernard Shaw We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. George Bernard Shaw When I was a young man I observed than nine out of ten things I did were failures. I didn’t want to be a failure, so I did ten times more work George Bernard Shaw A happy family is but an earlier heaven. George Bernard Shaw Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich something for nothing. George Bernard Shaw He who has never hoped can never despair. George Bernard Shaw If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well dance with it. George Bernard Shaw Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. George Bernard Shaw In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it. George Bernard Shaw We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy. George Bernard Shaw Life is not a "brief candle". It is a splendid torch that I want to make burn as brightly as possible before handing on to future generations. George Bernard Shaw Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. George Bernard Shaw Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world. George Bernard Shaw Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get. George Bernard Shaw People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them. George Bernard Shaw Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. George Bernard Shaw We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. George Bernard Shaw 單位：湖北省荊門市　姓名：李國(guó)　E_mail：liguo619@