The ‘unreasonable’ king of drama

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.” George Bernard Shaw lived by his own doctrine — always the unreasonable man, unafraid to challenge convention. With a pen sharper than a sabre, Shaw treated theatre not as a mirror to reflect society but as a hammer to reshape it — satire his chosen instrument.

Born in Dublin in 1856, Shaw moved to London in 1876. By his twenties, he had committed to writing and social reform, joining the socialist Fabian Society and penning scathing critiques of capitalism, class inequality and imperialism. As he attempted to earn a livelihood by writing, he was met with scant success at first.

In his lifetime, he wrote over 60 plays, earning the Nobel Prize in 1925 “for his work marked by both idealism and humanity”. In 1938, he won an Oscar for the screenplay adaptation of Pygmalion. But beyond accolades, his greatest contribution was his ability to make the audience laugh and think at the same time.

Among his many acclaimed works, Arms and the Man stands as a brilliant example of his talent for turning conventional ideas on their heads. Set during the Serbo Bulgarian War, the play satirises the romanticised notions of war. Through characters’ cynicism and disillusionment, Shaw tears down the illusion that war is noble or that love must be grandiose to be meaningful.

A fusion of razor sharp intellect and irreverence, Shaw’s dialogue sparkles with irony and wit. Critics also note that his characters often serve as mouthpieces for his social critique. “My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world,” he once quipped.

What distinguished Shaw from other 20th century writers was his fresh approach to problems and ideas. He gave a new turn to the modern concept of revolution: he made the progressive look conservative, the unconventional conventional, and entangled the reformer in the mesh of his own unimpressive reform. Through his works, he displayed that a good play need not have much of a story or even striking characters — that ideas were enough to make it successful. He made drama real literature and not merely a means of entertainment.

In his works, he attacked the futility of idealism, the hollowness of romanticism and the absurdity of social pretense, disillusioning characters of their beliefs and converting them to a realistic perspective.

Shaw has often been called the iconoclast of drama. He shattered all age old misconceptions and preferred not to tread the beaten track. Always argumentative, his works — a “play of ideas” — were a means to communicate to the public — and whatever he said, he said entertainingly. Shaw’s voice remains startlingly relevant even in modern times. His works are a reminder that great art doesn’t just reflect society, it questions it.