Drama File (Ibsen and Shaw)

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Drama File
Sarah Abdulaziz Abdussalam 7E3
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Contents
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1. Modernism
2. Realism
3. Henrik Ibsen
4. Henrik Ibsen’s Approach to Feminism
(Project #1)
5. “The Master Builder”
Epistemology, techniques, themes, characters
6. “The Master Builder”: A Kaleidoscopic Play
7. Autobiographical Elements in “The Master Builder”
8. Socialist Realism
9. George Bernard Shaw
10. “Heartbreak House”: as A Socialist Realist Play
11. Bibliography
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Modernism
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EXPERIMENTATIONS
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Modernism is a general term applied to a wide range of experimental trends in literature (and
other arts) in the late 19th century. These include symbolism: connotative rather than denotative writing;
expressionism: expressing feeling and imagination rather than representing external realities; imagism:
aimed to clarity, concision, exactness, and directness; surrealism: an attempt to breakdown the limits
between rationality and irrationality; structuralism: the study of context; minimalism: bareness of
vocabulary or dramatic settings; naturalism: a kind of realism where characters are subjected to external
forces; and realism. (Baldick, 2008: various pages)
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“For the modern critical spirit, nothing can be taken entirely seriously, nor entirely lightly.” Said
Eugene Ionesco, one of the leading playwrights in the theatre of the absurd. Behind the literary
convention of this theatre is a philosophical fear that human existence has no meaning. That is another
kind of modernist plays.
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CHARACTERISTICS
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Modernist literature is chiefly characterised by a rejection of 19th century traditions such as
metre and of their consensus between author and reader. Modernist writers tended to see themselves as
disengaged from bourgeois values, and disturbed their readers by adopting complex and difficult new
new forms, techniques, and styles such as free verse, stream of consciousness, allusion, juxtaposition,
multiple point of views, fragmentation, and nonlinear plots. Modern plays do not have to stick with a
single genre, they could be comedy or tragedy or both.
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Modernist writing is predominantly cosmopolitan, and often expresses a sense urban cultural
dislocation, along with awareness of new anthropological and psychological theories. It is originally a
response to the horrors of industrialisation and the first World War.
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IN CONTRAST TO CLASSICAL DRAMA
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Modern plays do not maintain the three unities nor the chronological order of events. The number
acts and scenes is not specified. The language is of everyday language. And the conflict arouses
observation, thinking, and argument. The characters can change their attitudes and believes instead of
being either good or evil all along.  
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Realism
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THE BEGINNING
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Realism started as a French trend in the middle of 1800s and lasted until the late 1900s. The major
realist works are Honore de Balzac’s “Illusions Perdus" (1837-43), Gustave Flaubert’s “Madame
Bovary” (1857), and George Eliot’s “Middlemarch” (1871-2).
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DEFINITION
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Realism is the attempt to reproduce faithfully the surface appearance of life, especially that of
ordinary people in everyday situations. (Kennedy and Gioia, 2010: 1553)
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REALISTIC THEATRE
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Realism was introduced to the Theatres by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Influenced by
the ideas of Sigmund Freud and others, many artists began to find a psychological approach to theatre
that emphasised the inner dimensions of the characters onstage. This was carried out both on the stage
in acting styles and outside of the stage in play writing. (Wikipedia contribution)
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CONVECTIONS
In realism the most important dramatical component is the characters. The characters are
condense. They do not act in the traditional way of delivering speeches in front of the audience. Instead
they are situated as the dramatic situation demand. They behave as if there was no audience. To
encourage actors further to imitate reality, the influential director Constantin Stanislavsky of The
Moscow Art Theatre developed a system to help actors feel at home inside a playwright’s characters.
One of the exercises in this system is to encourage actors search in their memories for similar personal
experience to the characters’. Realism includes a focus on everyday (middle-class) drama, ordinary
speech, and dull settings.  
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Henrik Ibsen
(1828-1906)
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HIS LIFE
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Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien in Norway. When he was six, his father’s business losses suddenly
reduced his family wealth to poverty. After a brief attempt to study medicine, young Ibsen worked as a
stage manager. Then, becoming known as a playwright, he moved to Oslo as artistic director of the
National Theatre. This practical experience gained him firm grounding in his craft. Discouraged when his
theatre failed and the king turned down his plea for a grant to enable him to write, Ibsen left Norway and
for twenty seven years lived in Italy and Germany.
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WRITING
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Ibsen described his approach to drama as follows in a theatre review:
"It is not the conscious strife between ideas parading before us, nor is this the situation in real life.
What we see are human conflicts, and enwrapped in these, deep inside, lay ideas at battle - being
defeated, or charged with victory.”
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In Italy and Germany, in his middle years (1879-1891), he wrote most of his famed plays about
small-town life introducing social problems to the stage. With success, Ibsen became more confident
and began to introduce more and more of his own beliefs and judgements into the drama, exploring
what he termed the "drama of ideas” (Wikipedia contribution). These plays aroused storms of
controversy.
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Although he is best known as a realist, Ibsen early in his career wrote poetic dramas based on
Norwegian history and folklore. He ended as a Symbolist in “John Gabriel Borkman" (1896) and “When
We Dead Awaken” (1899), both encompassing huge mountains that heaven-assaulting heroes try to
climb. Later in his life, Ibsen returned to Oslo.
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IBSEN AND REALSIM
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Henrik Ibsen introduced the mode of realism. He wrote a series of prose drama in which he
realistically portrayed middle class characters face conflicts in their lives and relationships. They are
often called “problem plays” because of their engagement of social issues, such as women’s place in
society (A Doll’s House). In actuality, the social problems in these plays serve as context for Ibsen’s real
concern, an examination of the complexities of human personality and psychology, especially those
aspects of our natures that are hidden or repressed because of society’s expectations. (Kennedy and
Gioia, 2010: 1553)
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Henrik Ibsen’s Approach to Feminism
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WHY
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Ibsen (1828 - 1906) was a writer of drama and realism. Realism by definition is "a manner of
treating subject matter that presents a careful description of everyday life, usually of the lower and
middle classes." In his realistic dramas Ibsen was merciless in his quest to uncover negative sides of
society, hypocrisy and dissimulation, use of force, and manipulative behaviour, and he made untiring
demands for truthfulness and freedom. Feminism was an issue among all classes during the 19th
century. Men are in a financially and ideologically superior position over women while women are kept in
a subordinate position and are confined to their homes as they are not economically independent and
have to rely on their husbands for support.
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What causes this situation to exist in the 19th-century Europe is the social context in which people
held the notion that men were supposed to be responsible to their families and provide all the
necessities that a family needed, while women were supposed to maintain their sacred duty of a good
wife and mother. Appearance was extremely important and a happy healthy idealised life was demanded
by a middle class man and his family.
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HOW
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There is hardly a literary work that has challenged these notions and meant so much to women`s
liberation in practically all cultures all over the world as A Doll`s House. The story did reflect the thoughts
of some middle-class women at the time which shocked the audience and caused protestors and theatre
closing in several cities. Many began to argue that the characters were Ibsen's way of advocating
feminism. Ibsen never confirmed or denied this.
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In A Doll’s House, Nora, the main female character is deprived of her identity and dignity and has
to be conformable to her husband’s ideology. has an epiphany about her life. She suddenly realizes that
she has known nothing but what the men in her life have told her; she has not been able to live or even
think for herself. It is then that she realizes how much she has been wronged, that she is only a plaything,
a doll to her husband. But there is almost no way out for a woman to fight against the male-dominated
world and the patriarchal system single-handedly. Therefore she chooses her own way of fighting for the
maintenance of her identity and dignity-- to leave her home and try her luck in the society. she took her
life choices in her own hands and stepped outside of the box society has made for her. She finally
declares “I am going to see if I can make out who is right, the world or I”
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”The Master Builder”
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EPISTEMOLOGY
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The play was first performed on 19 January 1893 at the Lessing Theatre, Berlin, with Emanuel
Reicher as Solness. It opened at the Trafalgar Theatre, London on the 20th of the following month, with
Herbert H. Waring in the name part and Elizabeth Robins as Hilda. The English translation was by the
theatre critic William Archer. Productions in Oslo and Copenhagen were coordinated to open on 8 March
1893. In the following year the work was taken up by Théâtre de l'Œuvre, the international company
based in Paris, and they mounted productions in Paris, London and other European capitals. The first U.S.
performance was at the Carnegie Lyceum, New York, on 16 January 1900, with William Pascoe and
Florence Kahn. (Wikipedia contribution)
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TECHNIQUES
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The techniques used in the play are chiefly realism and symbolism. The setting of place and time
are real. The issues discussed in the play were also real and contemporary, not romanticising. The
characters and their language are also realistic, nothing poetic about them. Furthermore, there is an
employment of the Norwegian tradition, that is to celebrate the completion of the roof of a new building
by throwing a party for the workers after placing a festive wreath on the highest point of the roof.
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The other technique is symbolism. The symbols are the wreath which symbolises challenge,
Solness was trying to do the impossible carrying a wreath to the top of the building. And the fire, the
garden, when Solness challenged God, the black dress, and the dolls which symbolise Aline’s unsatisfied
passion of motherhood. In addition, the characters idolised things. For instance, Sonless is an idol for the
old generation, and Ragnar and Hilda are idols for the new generation.
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THEMES
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The title theme is the old generation, and the decline of its system, order, philosophy, ethics, etc.
In the face of the new generation, and the raise of its order, philosophy, ethics, etc.
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CHARACTERS
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Halvard Solness, master builder. It appears that all of the main characters in this drama are cut
off from humanity: they are isolated within their own self-delusions. None is more paranoid than the
protagonist Master Builder, Halvard Solness. He is paranoid in both senses of the word: he shows
unreasonable suspicion of those around him—particularly of the younger generation, and he has an
exaggerated sense of his own importance. Afraid that “some day the luck must turn,” Solness is sure that
“the younger generation will come knocking on my door” demanding of him to “Make room!” (Ibsen
140-1). He accuses his employees, Knut and Ragnar Brovik of conspiring against him: “[. . .] they’re really
a clever pair of fellows [. . .]. But then the son chose to go and get engaged. And then, of course, he
wanted to get married—and to begin to build on his own” (136). Defiantly, and from his position of self-
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importance, Solness declares: “I’ll never retire! Never give way for anyone! Never of my own
accord” (128)! But he is concerned that he may be forced to step down: Doubting his sanity, he is sure
that Dr. Herdal is “keeping an eye” on him because Aline, Solness’ wife, must have confided in the doctor
that Solness is mad (138-9).
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Solness held the common religious belief that God has a plan for individuals’ lives. He concluded
that God allowed his house to burn and his children to die so that Solness would not be attached to any
earthly thing; so that he would then focus solely upon being a master builder of churches for the greater
glory of God (204). In anger and defiance, he rejected God’s plan and was determined to be his own
“free” master builder—to build “only homes for human beings.” Solness blamed God for his controlling
and manipulative personality: “He, who gave the troll in me leave to domineer, just as it liked. He who
told them to be on hand night and day to serve me [. . .]” (Ibsen 204). Solness uses this “devil made me
do it” rationalization to justify most of his despicable behavior toward others—others he claims are there
merely to serve him. When Hilda declares that she will leave and that he should devote his life to his
duties toward his wife, Solness proclaims that it is “too late. These powers—these [. . .] Yes, devils! And
the troll in me too. They’ve sucked all the life-blood out of her. [. . .] And now she’s dead—for my sake.
And I’m living, chained to the dead. [. . .] I—I who can’t live without joy” (194).
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When Hilde presses Solness for an explanation about how he could be responsible for the fire, he
exposes his delusions of grandeur. He explains to her how he must be one of those “few, special,
chosen people who’ve been graced with the power and ability to want something, desire something, will
something—so insistently and so—so inexorably—that they must get it in the end” (176-7). So, even
though the house fire did not come about as Solness had wanted it to, nevertheless, his very desire must
have caused it—just as his desire to have Kaia work in his office must have brought about the same idea
of this arrangement within Kaia’s own thinking (137). (Fleck., 2001)
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Aline Solness, Solness’ wife, certainly suspected that there was something going on between her
husband and Kaja. However, her whole identity is wrapped up in the words: “duty” and “sacrifice.” Being
the ever-dutiful wife and housekeeper, for example, she apologizes for barging in on Solness and Kaja “at
an inconvenient moment” (131), and she tells Hilde, a guest, that she will dutifully “do the best” she can
to help her put her clothes in order and to “getting a room made comfortable” for her (143). Although
she is bound by duty, she is a martyr in the sense that she intends for others to be reminded how much
she has suffered and sacrificed. For example, she still wears black clothes of mourning, even though her
children died about twelve years ago. They died because of her sense of duty: duty to feed them after
the fire in spite of the fact that she had a fever and could not produce adequate milk for them. Instead
of taking action to keep them alive, she adhered to the strict law of duty.
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She keeps nurseries in her home as monuments to the children she lost and to future children
that she will never have. The empty nurseries signify the emptiness that both he and Aline feel. Solness,
burdened by guilty feelings toward Aline for many years, finally expresses to her that he is “[b]oundlessly
in debt” to her. But he does not know exactly why since he has never “knowingly and intentionally”
caused her any harm. Nevertheless, “it feels as if a crushing debt” lay on him (162). Rather than
supporting her husband’s career and success, Aline can not bear the thought of Solness rising to the top.
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She even denies that he was ever on top before: “Yes, I hear people talk about that. But it’s utterly
impossible [. . .].” When Halvard Solness indicates that she may see such a thing soon, Aline replies, in
dread: “No, no, no! Please God I shan’t ever see that” (185-6)! Near the end of the drama, when Solness
tells Aline that he is going down below to be with his people, she responds: “Yes, down below. Only
down below” (Ibsen 207). She tries to use Hilde to have her “keep hold of him,” thinking that Hilde can
do this better than she can, to keep him from climbing up (202).
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Ibsen demonstrates Aline’s conservative nature in her grief that her home, which had been her
Mother’s and Father’s home, had burnt down—had been destroyed. She hates the fact that the land was
carved into lots and that strangers now live there; strangers that “can sit and look in at [her] from their
windows” (189). Although she gives the appearance of a noble and stoic woman, Aline is quite shallow
on the inside. She is not only jealous of Kaja and Hilde, she places herself far above them on the social
scale. She tells Hilde that “people would look at you a little” if she were to go out into the streets
dressed as she was (163). Aline was shattered when the fire took all of her possessions, especially
because she lost her precious dolls: she never got over that. However, when Hilde assumed that the loss
of Aline’s children was much worse for her, Aline could not figure out what Hilde meant when Hilde
referred to something worse than the loss of her possessions (190). The dolls symbolize Aline’s two
main traits: emotional immaturity and conservatism: She is controlled by dead ideas and beliefs and
cannot experience any of the “joy of life” that Solness and Hilde desire (Monarch “Works”).
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Cold and detached are other adjectives to describe Aline. Hilde picks up on this right away when
Aline uses duty for the reason to do things instead of having genuine warm feelings toward others
(Ibsen 164). Solness, trying to atone for his guilt and trying to make up for Aline’s sacrifices for his
career, wants to cheer her up by looking forward to the future in their new home. But Aline reproves his
offer and declares “Halvard—you’ll never manage to build a real home again for me” (159)! Aline
continues to reinforce her identity by keeping Solness “down,” where she thinks he belongs. (Fleck.,
2001)
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Kaia Fosli, a book-keeper. We will move on now to discuss the women in this play and their roles
as co-dependents in relationship to Solness. “Dear little Kaja,” as Solness calls her in Act I, is a “little”
figure in this drama, but one that demonstrates the Master Builder’s fickle temperament. Kaja is young,
“a little over twenty,” and very naïve. Solness has led her to believe that he reciprocates her deep
emotional love for him, but she is full of self-doubt. Even after Solness expresses “I can’t do without you,
you see. I must have you with me here every single day (131),” she is terrified when she suspects that
Solness only wants her to stay so he can keep her fiancée, Ragnar, within his control. Although Solness is
clearly the controlling member of this duo, Kaja is a willing partner in his scheme to keep Ragnar in his
employ: “Oh yes, how lovely that would be, if it could be managed” (131). However, near the end of Act
II, Solness dismisses Kaja from his life, as like a piece of discarded furniture. Wrapped up in his new
dreams of joy and grandeur with Hilde, the Master Builder tells Kaja coldly, addressing her by her last
name: “And tell him [Ragnar] at the same time that I don’t need him in future. Nor you either. . . . Well, go
along home with the drawings, Miss Fosli. At once! Do you hear” (184)! (Fleck., 2001)
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Hilda Wangel, a character introduced earlier, in Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea. In so many ways,
Hilde is the opposite of Aline. Hilde enters the play, knocking on Solness’ door, just when the Master
Builder lamented to the doctor that “[s]ome day the younger generation will come knocking on my
door” (141). These are some of Hilde’s qualities we find during Act I and in the beginning of Act II:
cheerful (“laughing,” “delighted” (141)); flirtatious, as Dr. Herdal indicated (141); adventuresome—she
comes to Solness, broke, for him to make good on a promise to her when she was but a young girl; a
dreamer—“It’s simply lovely to lie and dream” (144); enthusiastic—“full of life” (147), “full of joy and
wonder” (156); idealistic—“It sounded like harps in the air” (147); innocent—“You said I was lovely in my
white dress” (148); romantic—“you said that you would come again in ten years’ time—like a troll—and
carry me away” (148); a thrill seeker—“I dreamt I was falling [. . .] It’s very exciting—when one falls and
falls” (163); affectionate—she hugs Aline for buying things for her (163), and she can not “bear that
horrid, ugly word [duty])” (164); and, finally, unpretentious—she does not care what others think about
the way she dresses (163).
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In many ways Hilde seems to be a Pollyanna. But we have already noted some traits that present
a more complex personality. To choose one concept to describe Hilde’s persona and identity, that would
be man-worship. She needs a hero, a man to look up to, to fulfill her life. She worships Halvard Solness,
as the Master Builder: “If you could build the highest church tower in the world, I thought you must
surely be able to produce a kingdom too” (151). Old enough to know what she was doing, naively, she
just marches right into the Master Builder’s life, expecting him to carry her off, even though he is
married. When Solness recalls stories of old where Vikings plundered and “carried off women,” Hilde
professes: “that must have been exciting” (179). The highlight of her life had been to see the Master
Builder climb to the top of the church tower he built when she was a young girl. As pathetic as that
sounds, she is seeking a repeat of that very experience—to see Solness once again on high.
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Hilde begins to “grow up” during Act II, when she begins to see flaws in the man she worships.
She has enough integrity to push Solness for answers to unexplained things and events. For example,
what about those empty nurseries; why is he putting empty nurseries into their new home (167)? She
finds out that the Master Builder did not have proper training, and thus why Solness was not an architect
“like the others” (169). Assuming one as great as he should be happy, she finds out otherwise: Solness
took no satisfaction even in providing homes for others to be happy in (171). She sees for herself how
mean he is when he would give no words of approval to Ragnar upon Ragnar’s report of his father’s
impending death: “you shouldn’t be like that,” she says to Solness (174). With insight, she listens to his
story about why he thinks he caused the fire. She knows something is wrong with him; maybe he has a
“sickly conscience” (177).
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Even though Solness is now less than perfect in her eyes, she nevertheless sticks with her
romantic dream and declares that she could live with a scoundrel who may carry her off “[i]f the
scoundrel was one [she’d] got really fond of” (179). Solness likens Hilde to a wild bird, but she plays on
the metaphor comparing her to a bird of prey (180). She realizes that she must take an active role in her
own seduction to be carried off by her Master Builder. First, she must persuade Solness to give Ragnar
the recognition and chance he deserves. Only after that noble deed can the Master Builder realize that
he can get along by himself.
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Hilde has the utmost confidence in Solness’ ability to climb back up to the top. The Master
Builder’s spirit is renewed after his encounter, or re-acquaintance, with Hilde. He views her as a different
kind of youth—one that he need not be afraid of; one that may help protect him from the “other” kind of
youth that is out to replace him. John Bemrose reflects about Hilde: “When she batters down his
defenses and enters his inchoate, infantile emotional life, he quickly becomes a prisoner of her
fantasized vision of him.” Bemrose offers a provocative idea that Solness himself is to blame for Hilde’s
unbalanced state because of his treatment of her when she was only twelve: his playful courting and
kissing of her was a form of “a spiritual rape for which she is now, unconsciously, demanding retribution”
(“Master”). Hilde persuades Solness to confront his fear of heights and to “climb as high as he
builds” (186). She becomes the impelling force that entices him into his fatal attempt to aspire again to
heights.
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Before that final scene, however, Hilde has second thoughts. By the end of Act II and into Act III,
Hilde matures considerably. Realizing that these are real people and lives she has been toying with, and
that she has been embracing a less-than-perfect hero, her mood is subdued—“with a shade of
bitterness,” and whispering “terribly exciting” to Solness’ proclamation that they shall hang the wreath
this evening (186-7). She has a heart-to-heart talk with Aline and feels great compassion. She determines
that she must leave, because, she states: “I can’t do any harm to a person I know! Not take away
something that belongs to her” (194). However, she quickly gets over these noble feelings when she is
consoling the Master Builder. He reminds Hilde of his need for her and of the benefits of a “robust
conscience.”
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Hilde springs to life again and proceeds to dream of the Master Builder making her castle. After
building that, he should then construct “the most beautiful thing in the world,” “Castles in the air” (197).
In a symbolic way, Hilde is “the projection of Solness’ desire to prolong his youth and to continue in his
work, building higher and higher monuments to his own glory” (Monarch “Works”). She may also
represent one of the bad devils Solness was worried that would get hold of him (178) and, in this case,
compel him to defy God once again. In any case, she persuades him to stand free and high one more
time. He climbs up to place the customary wreath upon the tower. Hilde is “terribly” excited. She grabs
the white shawl, waves it and shouts upward. Even upon learning of the Master Builder’s demise, she still
triumphantly brandishes the shawl and cries: “My – my master builder” (211). Once again she has seen
her hero on high and she heard music in the air. (Fleck., 2001)
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“The Master Builder”: A Kaleidoscopic Play
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THEOLOGY
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“The Master Builder” can be interpreted on many levels. For example, theology, feminism, and
psychoanalysis. First off, there is a religious layer in the play. Solness started his career by building
churches, then he moved to building homes, and finally he built towers. It is similar to the journey of
European man with religion. At the beginning they were religious, then they tamed the church and
restricted its influence, finally they moved to modern life and its materialism casting away the effect of
religion on them.
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FEMINISM
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Second, it can be read as a feminist play. The female characters are the weak and naive Kaia, the
submissive wife Aline, and the wild young Hilda. Kaia is easily manipulated by Solness who makes her
think that he is in love with her. He takes advantage of her to keep Ragnar working for him. Women at
that time were not taken seriously in working places and that is reflected in Kaia’s situation. Aline is very
submissive, she does everything merely because it is her duty to do it. She does not allow her own voice
to be heard. She dresses in black after the fire like it is expected from her to end her life ager losing her
children. Finally, Hilda the wild bird, she is persuasive, she goes for what she wants until she gets it. This
attitude of her, however, results in the death of the master builder who is an idol for the old generation.
As if to say that women taking their rights is the fatal end of the old system.
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PSYCHOANALYSIS
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Finally, the play could be read as a psychological investigation of a powerful man’s fall. Master
builder Solness wrecks his family's lives in order to be regarded as an "artist" in his trade. In Ibsen's
psychological analyses, he reveals the negative forces (he calls them "demons" and "trolls" in the minds
of these people. His world is threatened and threatening. It turns out that the world is in motion; old
values and previous conceptions are adrift. The movement shakes up the life of the individual and
jeopardises the established social order. Here we see how the process has a psychological as well as a
conceptual and social aspect. Yet what starts the whole process is the need for change, something
springing forth from the individual's volition. (Great Norwegians website)
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Autobiographical Elements in “The Master Builder”
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There are many factors in the play that reflect the real life of its author Henrik Ibsen. For instance,
Ibsen started his life as a poor boy from a small village. He worked his way up the social ladder building a
literary legacy. Mr. Solness came from a small village and built his legacy just like Ibsen.
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They both were imitated by other people. Ibsen being the pioneer of realistic dramas, was
imitated by a lot of playwrights including George Bernard Shaw. Also there have been numerous
adaptations of Ibsen’s work, particularly in film, theatre and music. Mr. Solness’ work also was copied by
other builders, and some of them tried to take his own place.
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The principal model for Hilda was Fraulien Emilie Bardach, of Vienna, whom he met at
Gossensass in the autumn of 1889, the time he wrote “The Master Builder.” He he found with her a
temporary "high, painful happiness" in a brief affair. She was an eighteen years old student who lured
Ibsen just like Hilda lured Solness.
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An equally obvious influence is Ibsen's relationship with Hildur Andersen, whom he met as the ten-
year-old child of friends and who, when she had reached the age of twenty-seven, became his constant
companion.[18] He wrote of Hildur as "his bird of the woods", the phrase he initially uses to describe his
character Hilda, but the character refuses this, accepting only that she is a "bird of prey", as was Bardach.
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In the character of Solness, Ibsen is drawing parallels with his own situation as the "master
playwright" and the consequences in his own life. That it was emptied out of pleasure and spoiled others’
around him. That Ibsen was offering a parable was noted in a review of the first London staging, when
the translator, Edmund Gosse, was asked to explain the meaning of the work. "An allegory of Dr Ibsen's
literary career", he replied. (Wikipedia contribution)
!
!
!
13

Socialist Realsim
Socialism is defined as an economic system characterised by social ownership of the means of
production and co-operative management of the economy. It started with the publication of Carl Marx’s
book “Capital.” The idea developed to rule some countries. Most prominently the Soviet Union. The
Soviet leader, however, were tyrants and used violence to force their ideals on people. Later on, the
political wing of socialism managed to be rational and it is popular in nowadays Europe.
!
Realism, of course, is the representation of everyday life and situation of ordinary people in
literary works. Combined together, socialist realism is a literary movement that was adopted by the
socialist politicians to summarise their dogma in literature. They used realism to represent the struggle
fro socialism in a positive and optimistic light. (Baldick, 2008: 310)
!
The significance of socialist realism is that it tells about the mentality about that time. For,
example, George Bernard Shaw’s “Heartbreak House” was written in the eve of the First World War. The
setting and the timing were real, the characters reflected the real criteria of the British society at the
time, and the ideas contemplated in the play were the ones trending in that period of time.
!
 
14

George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950)
!
IN HIS OWN WORDS
!
“ I am a bachelor, an Irishman, a vegetarian, an atheist, a teetotaller, a fanatic, a humorist, a fluent
liar, a Social Democrat, a lecturer and debater, a lover of music, a fierce opponent of the present
status of women and an insister on the seriousness of art. “ (Rod, 2011: 1)
!
HIS LIFE
George Bernard Shaw was born in Ireland. His father was an alcoholic and treated his mother
badly. At the age of fifteen, Shaw’s first jobs were an office boy and a clerk, an ill paid land labourer in
Dublin. Later on, he started writing on music and literary criticism. The effect of his early life is obvious in
his works. For he defended women’s rights and workers, and pushed towards a social reform as a
socialist. He was one of the founders of the London School Economist and the Labor Party. During his
life time he won many prizes, including Nobel, after writing more than sixty plays.
!
SOCIALISM
!
Influenced by his reading, he became a dedicated socialist and a charter member of the Fabian
Society, a middle class organisation established in 1884 to promote the gradual spread of socialism by
peaceful means. Like many socialists, George Bernard Shaw opposed Britain's involvement in the First
World War. He created a great deal of controversy with his provocative pamphlet, Common Sense About
the War, which appeared on 14th November 1914 as a supplement to the New Statesman. It sold more
than 75,000 copies before the end of the year and as a result he became a well-known international
figure. However, given the patriotic mood of the country, his pamphlet created a great deal of hostility.
Some of his anti-war speeches were banned from the newspapers, and he was expelled from the
Dramatists' Club. (Simkin, 1997)
!
HIS STYLE
!
He brought a kind of wit into drama that is provocative paradox that was meant to tease and
disturb, to challenge the complacency of the audience. Over time the desire to unsettle, to shock, even
to alienate the audience became one hallmark of modern drama. (Ramazani and Stallworthy,2012: 1906)
He employed sarcasm, language, music, and irony in his plays.
!
MUSIC
!
He developed a wide knowledge of music, art and literature under the influence of his mother, a
singer and vocal music teacher, and as a result of his visits to the National Gallery of Ireland. Therefore,
music is of importance in his plays. And many of them were made into musicales. For example, the
musicale “My Fair Lady” was adopted from “Pygmalion.”
!
15

Heartbreak House: as A Socialist Realist Play
!
There are many remarks imposed in the play in favour of Socialism. First, there is the house that is
open to everyone to reside in it. It is perfectly a socialist idea to have a collective ownership of
something like if there is no private property.
!
Second, when Ellie Dunn was talking to Hesione Hushabye about Marcus, she said he is a
“Socialist…[who] despises rank, and has been in three revolutions fighting on the barricades.” So a
socialist is introduced as a hero, a worrior who fights for his principles and ideals.
!
Third, when she was talking about Mazzini and his poverty, she said that she is proud of it. It is a
hint that an honest man cannot be rich in a capitalist system.
!
Fourth, when she was about to marry the city capitalist Boss Mangan, she used the word ‘sell,’
which is of significance “I shall pretend to sell myself to Boss Mangan to save my soul from the poverty
that is damning me by inches.”
!
Fifth, the characterisation chosen by Shaw makes every character in an equal rank to the other.
There is no hero nor antihero. All of the characters are allowed to develop and to give speeches equally.
These speeches sometimes attack the capitalist system. For example, when Captain Shotover asks,
“What then is to be done? Are we to be kept forever in the mud by these hogs to whom the universe is
nothing but a machine for greasing their bristles and filling their snouts?” In a capitalist system, there is a
free market based on a private ownership. According to socialists, those few individuals who dominate
the free market get richer and the poor get poorer which is unfair. They also reinforce their dominance
in society and control the politicians who are too self consumed to see what is coming. And this is the
point of the Captain objection in the previous quote.
!
Sixth, when the Captain was describing England as a drifting ship with a drunken captain and that
Englishmen must learn their business. Hector asked him, “ And what may my business as an Englishman
be, pray?" He said, "Navigation. Learn it and live; or leave it and be damned." This stresses the socialist
view that society as a whole should own and control their land.
!
16

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Bibliography
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Baldick, Chris. (2008). Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms.
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Kennedy, X. J. and Gioia, Dona. (2010). An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.
!
Susan J. Fleck. (2001). Ibsen’s Master Builder.
(http://www.susanfleck.com/Philosophy/502_Ibsen_Builder_w2w.htm)
!
Preece, Rod. (2011) Animal Sensibility and Inclusive Justice in the Age of Bernard Shaw
!
Simkin, John. (1997) George Bernard Shaw
(http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jshaw.htm)
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Ramazani, Jahan and Stallworthy, Jon. (2012) The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume F
17

Drama File (Ibsen and Shaw)

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Drama File (Ibsen and Shaw)