George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) insisted on being called Bernard Shaw. He was an Irish playwright, critic, political activist, and polemicist whose impact on Western theatre, culture, and politics lasted from the 1880s well beyond his death. Over his career, he produced more than sixty plays, among them major works like *Man and Superman* (1902), *Pygmalion* (1913), and *Saint Joan* (1923). Blending contemporary satire with historical allegory, he became the foremost dramatist of his era and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.

Born in Dublin, Shaw relocated to London in 1876. He initially found it difficult to make a name for himself as a novelist and writer, so he undertook an intense program of self-education. By the mid-1880s, he had gained respect as a critic of theatre and music. Politically awakened, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most notable pamphleteer. Though he had been writing plays for years, his first public success came in 1894 with *Arms and the Man*. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen, Shaw aimed to bring a new realism to English-language drama, using his plays as platforms for his political, social, and religious ideas. By the early 1900s, his reputation as a dramatist was solid, thanks to a string of critical and popular hits including *Major Barbara*, *The Doctor's Dilemma*, and *Caesar and Cleopatra*.

Shaw’s opinions were often controversial. He advocated for eugenics and alphabet reform, while opposing vaccination and organized religion. He drew criticism by blaming both sides equally for the First World War, and though not a republican, he harshly condemned British policy in Ireland after the war. These stances did not permanently harm his standing or productivity as a playwright; during the interwar years, he produced a series of often ambitious plays with varying levels of popular success.

In 1938, he wrote the screenplay for a film adaptation of *Pygmalion*, which earned him an Academy Award. His passion for politics and controversy never waned. By the late 1920s, he had largely abandoned Fabian gradualism and frequently wrote and spoke favorably about dictatorships on both the right and left, expressing admiration for Mussolini and Stalin. In his final decade, he made fewer public statements but continued writing prolifically until shortly before his death at age 94. He turned down all state honors, including the Order of Merit in 1946.

Since his death, scholarly and critical views on his work have fluctuated, but he is regularly ranked as second only to Shakespeare among British dramatists. Analysts acknowledge his deep influence on generations of English-language playwrights. The term *Shavian* has entered the language to describe Shaw’s ideas and his distinctive way of expressing them.

**Life**

**Early years**

Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class area of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw, née Gurly. His older sisters were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances and Elinor Agnes. The Shaws were of English descent and part of the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland, but George Carr Shaw—an ineffectual alcoholic—was among the family’s less successful members. Relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s; afterward, he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. He married Bessie Gurly in 1852; according to Shaw’s biographer Michael Holroyd, she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt. If, as Holroyd and others suggest, George’s motives were mercenary, he was disappointed, as Bessie brought little of her family’s money. She grew to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she lived what their son later described as a life of “shabby-genteel poverty.”

By the time Shaw was born, his mother had grown close to George John Lee, a flamboyant figure well known in Dublin’s musical circles. Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father; Shavian scholars remain divided on the likelihood. Shaw’s mother was not harsh with him, but he later recalled that her indifference and lack of affection caused him deep hurt. He found comfort in the music that filled the house. Lee was a conductor and singing teacher; Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was heavily influenced by Lee’s unorthodox vocal methods. The Shaw home was often alive with music, hosting frequent gatherings of singers and players.

In 1862, Lee and the Shaws agreed to share a house at No. 1 Hatch Street in an affluent part of Dublin, as well as a country cottage on Dalkey Hill overlooking Killiney Bay. Shaw, a sensitive boy, found the less pleasant parts of Dublin shocking and distressing, and was happier at the cottage. Lee’s students often gave him books, which the young Shaw read eagerly; as a result, he gained a thorough musical knowledge of choral and operatic works and became familiar with a wide range of literature.

Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated. His school experiences left him disillusioned with formal education; he later wrote that schools and schoolmasters were “prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents.” In October 1871, he left school to become a junior clerk at a Dublin land agency, where he worked hard and quickly rose to head cashier. During this period, he was known as “George Shaw”; after 1876, he dropped “George” and styled himself “Bernard Shaw.”

In June 1873, Lee left Dublin for London and never returned. A fortnight later, Bessie followed.