George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

While Shakespeare is usually considered to be a supporter of the Establishment, Shaw was radically opposed to it and concerned with strengthening the working class. However, Shaw was intensely aware of Shakespeare as a precedent and influence on him second only to Ibsen, and Shaw treated many of the same subjects and character types. For example, Arms and the Man explores personalities analogously to Henry IV, Part 1: Captain Bluntschli views warfare as cynically as Falstaff (even using his pistol case like Falstaff, to carry sedatives: chocolate instead of sherry), while Sergius is a Hotspur-like headstrong hero (see Gallery 8, Images 5-8 for production shots). Louka is the assertive female attendant, like Ursula in Much Ado or Maria in Twelfth Night. St. Joan shares actions and characters with Henry VI, Part 1. The Taming of the Shrew has an uncouth woman educated by domineering males, as in Pygmalian. Caesar and Cleopatra shows the earlier career of Shakespeare's Cleopatra. Man and Superman has a Beatrice-like New-Woman in a relationship with the mysoginist John Tanner, a pure Benedick type, and so on. Shaw even wrote two skits about Shakespeare: "Shakes versus Shav" a puppet plsay in which they debate eachothers' virtues and defects, and "The Dark Lsdy of the Sonnets."