The 'new woman' in plays by Harley Granville Barker and his contemporaries

The portrayal of women in selected plays by Harley Granville Barker is examined in this study, along with the playwright's depiction of the "New Woman." Barker's female stage characters are compared with female dramatis personae in selected plays by playwrights, i.e., John Galsworthy, George Bernard Shaw, and Elizabeth Robins.;Barker's life and work was by mid-century all but forgotten. Yet during the first decade of the twentieth century Barker enjoyed great popularity. Additionally, Barker was a successful actor and director, and toward the end of his life he produced, as a theatre critic and scholar, Prefaces To Shakespeare.;A historical overview is presented in Chapter One of the women's movement in England between the 1850s and 1920. The major leaders and the different philosophies and tactics in the women's emancipation movement contributed to the passage of the Bill in 1918 that allowed women the right to vote. The emergence of the "New Woman" was both the cause and the result of the women's movement.;The plays The Fugitive and A Family Man by Galsworthy, Getting Married and Misalliance by Shaw, and Votes for Women! by Robins are examined in order to identify those female stage characters who can be defined as "New Women.";In Chapter Three The Marrying of Ann Leete, The Voysey Inheritance, Waste, and The Madras House by Barker are presented and the "New Woman" dramatis personae are identified, as being in conflict with society by seeking equality, humanity, and independence.;In Chapter Four Barker's portrayal of the "New Woman" is compared to the depictions of women in the works by Galsworthy, Shaw, and Robins. It is concluded that Barker's portrayals of the "New Woman" demonstrate a more honest and inclusive depiction than the creations by Galsworthy, Shaw, and Robins. Moreover, the latter dramatists use their plays and stage characters as mouthpieces for their social-political beliefs, while Barker illuminates the lives of his characters by allowing them to speak with their own, complex voices.