Life and Times of George Bernard Shaw
Background to
Pygmalion
Authors are influenced by their own life experience
Also influenced by their times
(history)
What they experience is often reflected in their writing
However, we cannot assume that everything in an author’s work is a product of her/his own life.
Was born in Ireland in 1856
Moved to London in 1872 (his mother was having an affair)
Worked as a music and literature critic
Became successful as a critic in the 1880s
Was influenced by Norwegian playwright
Henrik Ibsen
Member of the Fabian Society – middle class socialists
Was in favour of women’s right to vote
(gained in 1918)
Was against the hypocrisy of the British class system
Was a pacifist, against World War I
Famous for his many plays, particularly
Pygmalion
and
Saint Joan
Felt that all his writing was didactic (meant to teach and inform)
Strong advocate of phonetic (alphabet sound) reform
He married in 1898
Marriage was celibate and unconsummated he often developed infatuations with his actress, but never slept with them
Was he gay?
Did he secretly hate women?
George V was king
Class structure was quite rigid
High class people often inherited money, but often lived beyond their means
Making money in industry was becoming socially acceptable
A person’s accent helped define their class
With the wrong accent, you could never get ahead in life
People didn’t usually move up in the class system
The working class lived in misery and poverty
Lots of alcoholism, abuse and prostitution
The Housing Question: where to put the working masses (who comprised most of the population?)
A Cockney is originally a person from a specific district of London
Cockney often generalized to be a member of working class Londoners
Had their own dialect (specific accent and vocabulary)
