From “Will” To “Life Force”: The Lebensphilosophie Thoughts In Bernard Shaw’s Early Works

George Bernard Shaw(1856-1950),Anglo-Irish writer,had been very productive in a variety of creative fields especially as a playwright.He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925.Compared with Bernard Shaw’s plays,there is insufficient attention to his early novels and critical essays.In addition,most of Bernard Shaw’s late plays have been studied from multiple angles and dimensions,but the research perspectives of his early plays are relatively unitary.Most of the existing studies show awareness of social class conflicts.Combined with a variety of theoretical perspectives and research methods,this dissertation focuses on the early works of Bernard Shaw,such as Major Critical Essays,Cashel Byron’s Profession,Plays Unpleasant,Plays Pleasant,Three Plays for Puritans,Three Plays for Puritans and philosophical comedies.With close reading of the mentioned texts,the dissertation aims to track and disclose the shaping process of Bernard Shaw’s Lebensphilosophie thoughts in his early works.According to the dissertation,the presence of Will in his early novels and critical essays signifies the sprout of Bernard Shaw’s theory of Creative Evolution.Shaw agreed with Schopenhauer on metaphysical split of Will and Representation,but not on pessimistic tendency.In defense of Ibsen,Shaw praised the role of Will in breaking the bandage of duty to decayed social moral ideal.When commenting on Wagner’s works,Bernard Shaw observed the shift from optimism to pessimism in Wagner’s expression of Will.Praising Wagner’s early optimism,Shaw abandoned Schopenhauer’s pessimism completely and found faith in Will from Wagner’s early works.More over,Shaw attempted to personalize Will in his most successful early novel,Cashel Byron’s Profession.The dissertation depicts that Shaw’s first drama collection,Plays Unpleasant,have often been tagged as “problem play” regardless of the more essential conflict between individual Will and social oppression.The Will bearers in Plays Unpleasant are Shaw’s new women.Driven by Will,women in Plays Unpleasant challenged decayed moral ideals of late Victoria Era.These female images shared the temperament of Siegfried in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.In his next drama collection,Plays Pleasant,Shaw continues the praise of Will by exposing Idea as objectivized Will in disguise of wellmade play.Dialogues of the characters in Plays Pleasant displays the opposition between individual Will and decayed social moral idealism.Shaw replaced the final resolution in well-made formula with an open end,and turned well-made play into drama of ideas.By reversing the plot patterns in well-made play,namely “war and love”,“love triangle”,“historical figure” and “family reunion”,Shaw reveals the triumph of Will against idealism in the conflict of ideas.The dissertation exposits that Shaw’s third drama collection,Three Plays for Puritans,extends the technique of Plays Pleasant,borrowing drama structures from melodrama and historical drama to reshape the characters into heroes of life.Three Plays for Puritans emphasizes the importance of recognizing the Self as the subject of Will in building the images of hero of life,whose charisma lies in the creation of new ethics based on the faith in life.The reason for dedicating these plays to Puritans is to call on those who had the courage to carry out religious reforms to act again,and replace the Puritan doctrine with the faith in life.Eventually,Bernard Shaw combined Will,reason and faith in his philosophical comedies to form “new trinity” of Life Force,which is the core of his theory of Creative Evolution.Specifically,Bernard Shaw first put forward the concept of Life Force in Man and Superman,and then expressed the “new trinity” composed of life,humanity and divinity in John Bull’s Other Island.A similar triangle structure,Will,Reason and Faith were well represented respectively by Undershaft,Cusins and Barbara in Major Barbara.With the strength from the balanced triangle,disillusioned Barbara transforms herself from a Christian idealist into a Life Force bearer.Shaw completed his philosophy of life when Barbara rekindled her faith in development of humanity and society.In his philosophical comedies,Bernard Shaw replaced the connotation of “God”to an unfinished state of development,therefore,universe was described as the process of God’s self creation driven by Life Force.Theologically,Shaw’s philosophy of life is similar to Religion of Humanity advanced by Auguste Comte.All in all,the dissertation concludes that Shaw’s philosophy of life in his early works shows a continuous evolution from the Will,objectification of will,the hero of life’s self exploration,to the combination of Will,Reason and Faith.By and large,Shaw’s philosophy of life is progressivism on the development of humanity and understanding of the ultimate driving force beneath the progress.Under the current circumstances,it is urgent to reflect on the essence and value of life.Some of Shaw’s artistic fables of life have been realized,and some are heralding the future trend.Interpreting Bernard Shaw’s works from the perspective of life philosophy helps fully reflect the relevance to the reality and classicality of his works.