The Moral Vision In Georgre Bernard Shaw's Plays

Bernard Shaw may be one of the most controversial Nobel Laureates in literature. This dissertation endeavors to demonstrate from a defending perspective, that Shaw's so called comic drama does possess artistic depth. The overall outline of this dissertation is the very outline of Shaw's creation– his morality value, that is, there are neither good men nor scoundrels: there are just children of one Father; Human nature is only the raw material which Society manufactures into the finished rascal or the finished fellowman.This dissertation falls into two parts. Part one, Shaw's realistic theatre, focuses on Shaw's realistic method of approaching social evils, such as wealth gap, prostitution, bourgeois marriage, materialism etc. Part two centers on Shaw's religious aspiration– to create a new creed that fits the contemporary facts. Shaw has boldly affronted Victorian values. The satiric view of Victorian morality and sentimentality characterized Shaw's plays. His philosophy is concerned first and last with the question of human purpose: How should we act in this world, both individually and collectively? For Shaw, the true joy in life is being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.