Man and Superman Study Guide

First performed on the London stage in 1905, Man and Superman is an

extraordinary play precisely because it inverts so many of the traditional or expected roles of
theatre. On its surface, this play, by George Bernard Shaw, is a standard romantic comedy.
It does indeed have the trappings of this genre, providing light humour and satisfying romantic
pairings, along with the familiar dramas of unrequited love, debated inheritance, and secret
marriages. In this case, however, the play is unusual both because its style is somewhat
experimental and because it deals so deeply with complicated philosophical and political ideas.
Stylistically, the play stands out because of its long, nearly novelistic stage directions.
The narrator of these stage directions is an invisible but prominent character in the drama,
offering sarcastic, witty insights into the various characters' personalities. The play is also quite
long, with a particularly notable digression in the form of an extended dream sequence during
Act Three. It is not unusual for productions of Man and Superman to cut this dream
sequence out of their performances, in fact, simply because the play's run time is already quite
formidable. For these two reasons—the unusually literary stage directions and the pure length of
the script—Man and Superman resembles a novel more than a drama in certain regards. In
fact, it was published as a book in 1903, two years before even being performed onstage.
Man and Superman engages with the ideas of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche,
making it somewhat heavier than a standard romantic comedy. In particular, the play is
concerned with the concept of the übermensch, here translated as "superman." The übermensch,
according to Nietzsche, is an ideal future person or future state of humanity. George Bernard
Shaw's interpretation of the übermensch incorporates a new concept called the life force, which
can be thought of either as an instinct prompting people to reproduce in order to create a
superman, or as an abstract manifestation of the superman's characteristics. Shaw weaves this
complicated intellectual idea into the romantic dramas playing out among Bernard Shaw's
characters, who not only discuss philosophy, but who also are attracted to one another or reject
one another largely based on the urges created by the life force. The individual happiness
celebrated by romance as a genre is unpacked in this script, where romance becomes a mere step
in a broader human drama of perpetual improvement.
Furthermore, politics occupy an unusually prominent space in this play. Several of the
main characters are socialists, and the play tends to celebrate socialism. However, these fictional
leftists keep company with a wide variety of other politically-minded people. These include a
moderate liberal, an anarchist, and a billionaire capitalist. Ultimately, Shaw's most impassioned
socialist is also the character closest to becoming, or at least laying the groundwork for, a real
superman. Therefore, Shaw suggests, radical politics go hand-in-hand with radical betterment for
humanity and the world as a whole.
 Finally, Man and Superman engages with some very old ideas as well as some
newer and more controversial ones. Its structure echoes that of the Spanish legend of Don Juan
Tenorio, and many of the main characters directly correspond to characters from that original
legend. However, certain changes reflect Shaw's own perception of modernity. For instance,
while the original Don Juan was, according to legend, a predatory womanizer, the Don Juan
figure in this play is in fact pursued by a woman. This alteration teasingly points to the
increasingly elevated status of women in Shaw's England. Shaw himself was devoted to women's
suffrage, and he includes several thoughtful discussions among his characters about the trials of
life as a woman in Victorian society. At the same time, Shaw's Don Juan is a pursuer, not of
sensory pleasures, but of knowledge and meaning. In this sense, Don Juan becomes something of
a superman himself, since his aim is to improve himself, and, by extension, to improve society.
This play contains so many inversions, academic discussions, and political debates that
an audience member might easily miss a few major moments in the text. Luckily, its more
complicated ideas manifest within the context of a crowd-pleasing romantic comedy with mild
social critique, meaning that the play can be enjoyed on a number of levels: as a satisfying and
funny stage play, or as a complex, endlessly analyzable philosophical and political text.

Man and Superman Summary

This sprawling, eventful play begins with the death of a certain Mr. Whitefield in early
twentieth-century England. We never meet or see Whitefield himself at all—instead, the play's
events track the consequences of his death. The first of these consequences comes from a dispute
over the guardianship of Whitefield's daughter, Ann. Ann is a clever, relentless, and wildly
manipulative young woman, and her father's will stipulates that she be left in the care of not one
but two men. One of these men is Roebuck Ramsden, a cautious, respectable family friend
who has long acted as a kind of grandfather figure for Ann. The other man, Jack Tanner, is a
socialist firebrand and the author of a controversial guide to revolutionary politics. Ann is closer
to Tanner's age, and the two are old friends who have had a falling-out. However, when they are
left alone, the two flirt wildly. This is particularly shocking because Tanner's close friend
Octavius is in love with Ann, and expects to marry her. Meanwhile, Tanner and Ramsden can't
stand each other—Tanner thinks Ramsden is a hypocrite, and Ramsden thinks Tanner is
obnoxious. Ann, instead of choosing one of these men to be her guardian, insists that they work
together to care for her, as her father wished. Ann's mother Mrs. Whitefield is present as
well, but she is a somewhat weak-willed person who tends to cave to her daughter's intense
behaviours.
To this volatile mix, another character is added: Octavius's sister Violet. While Octavius
is a romantic aspiring poet, we soon learn that his sister is a blunt, practical young woman. She
arrives at Ramsden's house, where the others are gathered, with the news that she is pregnant. In
these conservative times, the news is considered shocking, especially since the others believe
that she's pregnant out of wedlock. However, Violet reports, she's actually secretly married. She
refuses to tell the others who her husband is, and she refuses to leave the country in order to hide
her pregnancy. The others are left in the dark, but the audience soon learns that Violet is married
to a wealthy American acquaintance named Hector Malone. Both Malone and Violet disappear
for much of the second half of the play, returning at the end.

After this initial period of explosive drama, Tanner leaves England with his
chauffeur, Henry Straker. Among other things, Tanner, who believes that romance and
women will drain his energy and independence, wants to escape Ann's romantic pursuits. In fact,
Straker himself, who seems to view the dramas of these wealthy employers with distant
scepticism, firmly believes that Ann is after Tanner rather than Octavius and has been doing his
best to convince Tanner of as much. Ann herself spins an elaborate series of lies in an attempt to
get Tanner to invite her on his trip, but ultimately doesn't succeed, and the two are separated
while Tanner goes to Spain.
In Spain, Tanner and Straker are abducted by a somewhat ridiculous crew of would-be
revolutionaries led by a charismatic man named Mendoza. Tanner quickly befriends his
kidnappers, although, devoted as he is to progressive ideals, Tanner sees that Mendoza has no
real interest in socialist politics. While spending the night in Mendoza's camp, Tanner has a vivid
dream in which the mundane dramas of life in modern Britain time-travel and become part of a
Don Juan narrative. In this particular scene, Tanner himself becomes Don Juan, and finds
himself in hell. There he speaks with Ann, who has become an old woman, Ana—the Dona Ana
de Ulloa of the original Don Juan story. Since she lives in a more modern and secular era, Ann is
a strong-willed woman who goes after men based on her own desires. In the dream, though, she
becomes a devout Catholic and something of a rule-follower, and is horrified to find herself in
hell. Ramsden, meanwhile, is represented by a statue, who for the most part professes the same
stale and judgmental worldviews as the original Ramsden. Finally, Mendoza appears in the form
of the devil himself. The devil is nonthreatening but somewhat shallow and uninspiring, and
wants to keep Tanner/Don Juan in hell, a comfortable but boring place devoid of beauty. Don
Juan, though, wants to see heaven, and departs. Tanner/Don Juan wishes to become "superman,"
the intellectually and artistically ideal human, and can only do so by leaving behind comfort and
pursuing a more challenging and difficult path. The Devil and the Statue both find this goal
ridiculous: they do not subscribe to the Nietzschean idea of the constantly-improving man or the
essential life-force that allows man to continually improve. When Tanner wakes, the others have
come to rescue him: Ann, Ramsden, Octavius, Violet, and Malone. Ann is particularly eager to
talk to him and help him escape his captors. However, Tanner makes sure that Mendoza and his
men aren't arrested or punished, identifying them as friends and escorts.
In the final act, the characters have retreated to a Spanish villa. At this point, Malone's
father—an Irish-American businessman also named Hector Malone—arrives in England. He has
found out about Hector Jr.'s romance with Violet because he intercepted a letter between the two.
Malone tries to convince Violet that she should not marry his son, because he plans on marrying
him off to a high-born English heiress. Many of his motives come from a desire for revenge,
since the Irish potato famine devastated his family and country during his childhood. Violet
remains calm and cool throughout the exchange, and manages to convince Malone that she's
personally worthy of marrying his son, even if he still would prefer an aristocrat. Their
conversation is cut off by the arrival of the younger Hector Malone himself. He announces that
he is in fact already married to Violet, finally solving that particular mystery for the other
characters—Ann, Octavius, Tanner, and Ramsden are in fact looking on. And, Malone Jr. says,
he has no need of his father's approval or money. Instead, he plans on working to support
himself. The idealists Octavius and Tanner even offer Hector some money while he tries to
become financially independent. Hector refuses, basking in his independence, but Violet has less
faith in her husband. After the others have departed for various other errands, the older Mr.
Malone gives Violet a check, knowing that his son will have trouble making money. In fact,
Malone notes with satisfaction, Violet will be a better wife for his son than any aristocrat's
daughter.

This leaves the central love triangle unsolved, however, close to the end of the play.
Octavius confesses his love to Ann, but she turns him down, saying that her mother wants her to
marry Tanner, and that her father instructed her to do so in his will. Octavius, still convinced that
Ann loves him, believes that this is an example of her self-sacrificing nature. However, as she
departs, Mrs. Whitefield arrives and finds a crying Octavius. She tells Octavius he's been duped,
since she never told Ann to marry Tanner. However, she tells Octavius that might be for the best,
since Ann will crush his delicate spirit. Tanner, in the meantime, claims that he has no desire or
plan to marry Ann, or to marry at all. He finds Ann to be a bully, and bluntly says so. Octavius is
bewildered, meanwhile, asking Ann whether she'd marry a man who doesn't desire her at all, but
she explains that, from her point of view, it's a better match. Jack, she says, doesn't have any
unrealistic expectations for her to live up to. Octavius, meanwhile, is such a romantic that he'd be
happier heartbroken and single than faced with the day-to-day realities of marriage.

Tanner begins to fret that social pressure will force him to agree to marry Ann against his
principles. It seems, though, that he also desperately wants to marry Ann. When he objects to her
pursuit, she uses his own philosophy to convince him, telling him that the life-force has driven
them together. According to Tanner's own theory, the life-force causes women to pursue men for
their own needs, and she tells him he's no exception. As they talk, Tanner confesses his love for
Ann, and holds her so tightly that she faints. The other characters rush back to centre stage to
help revive her. When she comes to, she and Tanner announce their plans to marry—although
Tanner insists that he is not happy about the marriage, and will keep the ceremony as simple as
possible. Ann evidently finds this announcement charming, and Tanner's words are met with
lighthearted celebration and laughter as the play concludes.

Man and Superman Character List

Roebuck Ramsden
Ramsden is a middle-aged gentleman who considers himself an intellectual pioneer and a
progressive thinker, though in truth, he has a conservative approach to politics and social life.
Indeed, he clings to once-new ideas advanced by Victorians such as Charles Darwin, believing
that this makes him an intellectually open person even while he closes himself off to newer
theories and concepts. George Bernard Shaw carefully evokes Ramsden's clothing, home, and
family in order to show how deeply conformist he actually is, and Shaw even notes in stage
directions that Ramsden shows a certain "expectation of deference." An old friend of Ann's
father, Ramsden is one of the two men assigned to care for her and her sister. He means well and
cares deeply about Ann, but his ideological differences from the nontraditional Jack Tanner
become a distraction for him. Vain and oblivious though he can be, Ramsden is fairly harmless
and serves mostly as a foil to Jack Tanner.
Octavius Robinson
Octavius is a young, orphaned bachelor in the social circle of the Ramsdens, the
Whitefields, and Jack Tanner. Though he's close with Jack, he shares few of his friend's fiery
attitudes. Instead, he's an artistic soul with the goal of becoming a poet. He's also a hopeless
romantic, and has been in love with Ann Whitefield for years. Because of his trusting attitude,
other characters, especially Jack and Ann, find him both lovable and easy to deceive. Octavius is
also Violet Robinson's brother, though in many ways, he displays more stereotypically feminine
traits while hers are more stereotypically masculine. Therefore, though he feels protective of her,
Violet is unwilling to be the object of pity. Octavius, on the other hand, somewhat enjoys the
emotional intensity of self-pity, causing Ann to remark that he will be happiest as a lifelong
bachelor.
Ann Whitefield
Ann is the older daughter of Mr. Whitefield, whose death is the catalyst for most of the
play's action. She is based on the character of Dona Ana de Ulloa in the original Don Juan story,
and is represented by an old woman, Ana, during Tanner's Don Juan dream sequence. However,
the ways in which Ann contrasts with the innocent piety of Ana serve as a commentary on
modern womanhood. Ann is neither innocent nor churchgoing. Rather, she's pragmatic to a fault,
and has no qualms about manipulating others in order to get her way. Therefore, she's able to
convince Tanner to marry her, and able to convince Octavius that he'll be better off without her.
She often claims that her own desires are actually commands from her parents, allowing her to
preserve her reputation as an innocent, obedient young woman while actually getting the things
she wants. In contrast with her counterpart, Ana, Ann has the contemporary woman's ability to
pursue her own goals and even to exert control over others. However, the virtuous femininity of
characters like Ana casts a shadow on Ann's own society, and, knowing this, she does her best to
seem as innocent as possible in order to gain sympathy from men.
John/Jack Tanner
Jack Tanner, a left-wing thinker and author of the book The Revolutionist's
Handbook, is one of the men left in charge of Ann Whitefield after her father's death. He
naturally draws attention with his charisma and provocative statements. Tanner corresponds with
the figure of Don Juan himself, and has a long dream in which he actually becomes Don Juan.
The ideas espoused by Don Juan in the dream and by Tanner in waking life are similar: both
reject conformist thinking and the pursuit of comfort, choosing instead to seek out "life-force"
and to pursue self-improvement with the goal of becoming an enlightened "Superman." Though
Shaw generally positions Tanner as the moral center of the play, his intensity and passion can be
almost comic at times, or can appear counter-productive. For instance, he assures Violet that she
needn't be ashamed of her pregnancy, but clarifies that this belief stems, not from sympathy with
Violet, but from a belief that women's sole purpose is reproduction. The play's strangest and
most complex character, Tanner eventually falls in love with Ann in spite of his initial
determination never to marry, having become convinced that marrying Ann is the inevitable
result of the life-force.
Violet Robinson
Violet is the sister of Octavius. She becomes pregnant at the beginning of the play, and is
secretly married to Hector Malone, Jr. Like Ann, she is able to get almost everything she wants,
but her chosen tool is not manipulation; instead, she's extremely direct, and doesn't hesitate to tell
others when she disagrees with them. At the start of the play, when Roebuck Ramsden and other
traditionally-minded characters condemn her pregnancy, Violet tells them that they've insulted
her and then stubbornly refuses to reveal her husband's identity. Later, when her husband's father
tells her that she isn't wealthy enough to marry his son, she coolly points out his prejudiced
attitude. People tend to listen to Violet and to respect her, even if they don't like her. In this way,
she contrasts with her brother, who is beloved, but not widely treated with respect.
Henry Straker
A working-class driver from London, Henry Straker speaks with a distinct Cockney
accent, which is the root of his nickname—the Cockney-esque "'Enry." He's a straightforward
and fairly literal person whose job and personality help highlight, through contrast, some of the
more high-flown or hypocritical notions held by his employers. After all, Straker is not only a
worker, but a technological expert who prizes efficiency and speed over painstaking work, thus
undermining some of the more romanticized visions of the worker that Jack and Octavius hold.
In spite of their differences, Henry and the play's upper-class characters get along well: they rely
on him to a great deal, and he regards them with sceptical but respectful distance. In a strange
twist, Henry also finds out that Mendoza is in love with his sister Louisa, giving him a more
personal stake in some of the play's events.
Mendoza
This socialist/anarchist revolutionary has an outsize personality—he's witty, intelligent,
articulate, and a hopeless romantic with an enormous crush on Henry Straker's sister Louisa.
While some of the play's politically-minded characters, such as Jack Tanner, have a more
academic approach, Mendoza likes to get right to the source of inequality by kidnapping and
robbing the rich in order to redistribute their money. He manages to persuade a loose band of
others to help him with this, including, eventually, Hector Malone Sr., who invests in Mendoza's
efforts. Mendoza is also Jewish and announces this fact, showing that he is not only an outsider,
but a proud one.
Hector Malone Jr.
The son of Hector Malone Sr, he is married to Violet. Unlike his wife, Hector is romantic
rather than practical. He values notions of honour so deeply that he becomes comical. For
instance, he insists, unrealistically, that he will become financially independent on his own for
the sake of marrying Violet, and has to be circumvented by his wife and father. Generally,
though Malone means well enough, Shaw does not take him particularly seriously. Since he is
only native-born American in the play, Malone's vices to a degree implicate all of his
countrymen and his culture more broadly.
Hector Malone Sr.
Hector Malone Sr., Violet's father-in-law (though he himself is unaware of this status for
much of the play) is an American billionaire. Born in Ireland and displaced by the potato famine
as a child, Malone very much wants to prove himself to the world at large and to the English
upper classes in particular. As a result, he is determined to have his son marry an aristocrat,
although he ends up feeling satisfied with Violet because of her tough and intelligent personality.
This rigid materialism makes Malone something of an avatar of the ruling class. Though he has
far more wealth than he needs, he pursues even more wealth and status out of a misguided desire
for revenge rather than out of actual hope for his son's well-being.
Mrs. Whitefield
The widow of Mr. Whitefield and Ann's mother, Mrs. Whitefield is notable mainly for
her inability or unwillingness to control her daughter. She is easily bullied by Ann, even though
she occasionally voices disagreement by criticizing her daughter's choices. Shaw makes clear
even in his stage directions that Mrs. Whitefield should be nonthreatening and powerless. She is
childlike and small, with a high voice. Therefore, though Ann is not technically orphaned, her
parents make few influential decisions, giving her an extraordinary amount of freedom.
Susan Ramsden
Susan, also called Miss Ramsden, is Roebuck's unmarried sister. She is conventional and
morally rigid, and therefore opposed to helping Violet during her unplanned pregnancy.
Man and Superman Glossary
sheepish
feeling embarrassment; lacking confidence
obstinate
stubborn
gregarious
sociable; talkative
starched
stiffened (fabric or clothing) with starch
fractious
inclined to unruliness or conflict
lascivious
feeling or displaying sexual interest
Trifling
Trivial or unimportant
Gentility
The state of being elegant or proper
Impute
Attribute or assign
Mendacity
Untruthfulness
Expiatory
Serving to make amends for
Mephistophelian
Wicked; mischievous (associated with Mephistopheles, the devil in the "Faust" legend)
Fecundity
Fertility (in a literal or figurative sense)
Metaphysics
A branch of philosophy dealing with basic abstract principles such as time, space, and
knowledge
Libertine
A person who chooses to indulge in sensory pleasure regardless of consequences; or the state of
choosing to indulge in sensory pleasure regardless of consequences
Catspaw
A person who is used by others as a tool
Superman
In a Nietzschean sense: a superior man who fulfills the ultimate purpose of human existence
Provincial
Associated with the part of a country outside its capital; in an extended sense, unsophisticated,
unworldly
Humbug
To deceive
Brigand
A person or member of a group that attacks and robs people in isolated areas
Coquette
A flirtatious or teasing woman
Consanguinity
The condition of being descended from a common ancestor
Apostasy
The abandonment or renunciation of beliefs, principles, and faith

Man and Superman Themes

Victorian Hypocrisy
Beneath all its lofty philosophical statements and flights of Nietzschean theoretics, Man
and Superman remains firmly cast within a recognizable mold of witty romantic comedy. By
casting his more radical ideas within this standard mode, Shaw takes aim at what he saw as his
society's rote acceptance of Victorian ideals, built upon a foundation of hypocrisy. Violet, who is
pregnant (seemingly out of wedlock) seems to serve quite nicely as the stereotypical woman
whose stock has fallen in the light of a perceived failure of character on her part to conform to
expected modes of social convention. Such a state provides Tanner with the perfect opportunity
to play out his part as the progressive figure who sees what society does not: that Violet is the
victim of a flaw in society’s character. In the hands of a lesser dramatist, this might well have
been enough to set the two upon a journey eventually ending with their marriage and Violet’s
regaining of her social status based on the tacit consent of agreeing to conform in the future.
Instead, quite early on, Violet shocks Tanner and everyone else with unexpected moral
indignation at his liberal—perhaps even radical—rejection of Victorian conservatism.
Ultimately, Violet becomes the agent by which Man and Superman reveals the inherently
sexist hypocrisy displayed toward women from those on both sides of the political spectrum.
Nietzschean Evolutionary Dialectics
George Bernard Shaw cleverly repurposes the conventions of Victorian romantic
comedy in order to further his play’s examination of Nietzschean evolutionary dynamics.
According to Nietzsche, mankind’s intellectual and moral growth will eventually lead to the next
phase of evolutionary development: the übermensch, or overman—here translated as
"superman." In Shaw’s interpretation, this evolutionary advancement in humans is dependent
upon what he labels the Life Force, which is the urgent and unpredictable call for the
preservation of the species through the regenerative act of procreation. The feminine response to
the Life Force is to seek out the best potential mate through the natural gift of intuition. The
male’s gift of greater strength allows for the more physically fit to benefit from experience and
grow intellectually. Only when these ideally poised men and women are paired with one another
can the Nietzschean construct begin actually playing out. Jack Tanner is a firm believer in the
life force, which causes him to celebrate Violet’s pregnancy and to feel a great deal of internal
conflict about his own attraction to Ann.
Subverting Don Juan's Moral Failure
Shaw was motivated to write Man and Superman in response to a challenge from a
critic to retell the legendary story of the irredeemable Lothario, whose destiny takes him all the
way to hell itself. Tanner’s dream sequence is the part of this play most directly related to this
original “Don Juan” story, but even aside from that cluster of clear references, however, this play
is deeply concerned with overturning some of the conclusions of the original legend. In this
particular story, the Don Juan figure— Tanner—is not a relentless pursuer of women, and is
instead relentlessly pursued by Ann. In this sense, Shaw makes a comment about modern gender
dynamics, noting that the outwardly demure Victorian woman is in fact powerful and even
dangerous to men. Ultimately, Shaw re-evaluates the Don Juan story in light of Nietzsche's
philosophy, coming to the conclusion that the pursuer’s actions are not necessarily evidence of
moral weakness but are in fact a symptom of the vital life force driving human evolution.
Gender and Misogyny
According to Jack Tanner's Nietszche-influenced views, Violet Robinson's pregnancy
is in fact cause for celebration, since she is fulfilling her true purpose as a woman by
reproducing. While Shaw expresses sympathy with Tanner's views as a whole, he makes sure
that the grounded Violet condemns this point of view, making clear that her purpose as a woman
is not entirely reproductive. On the other hand, Shaw mocks some of the more conservative ideas
about womanhood held by characters like Roebuck Ramsden, who firmly believes that
pregnancy out of wedlock is worse than death. Finally, Shaw displays a healthy amount of
skepticism when it comes to Ann, who uses her mastery of Victorian feminine manners to
manipulate and torment others. Ultimately, this play promotes a rejection of romanticized or
exaggerated ideals of femininity. Whether those ideals of femininity purport that women should
be pure and innocent, or that they should be mystically tied to earthly reproductive processes,
they are, according to Shaw, unsustainable and self-serving, not to mention frustrating for both
men and women.
The Utility of Shame
One of Jack Tanner's earliest and most memorable diatribes has to do with the role of shame
among the British middle class. According to this view, which the play as a whole promotes, the
ideal of respectability at its core has very little to do with positive contributions to society and is
mostly based on the ability to feel and display shame at the proper time. Tanner is particularly
upset by the prevalence of shame when it comes to women's sexuality, arguing that the social
pressure to feel shame about pregnancy has caused Violet's own family and friends to reject her
and even to ignore her accomplishments. However, Shaw does make a case for the usefulness of
shame in some cases, to the degree that "shame" is sometimes synonymous with self-awareness.
Both Ann and Hector Malone, Jr., are completely without shame, unable to understand the way
that they each, respectively, cause pain to others and create practical problems for themselves.
What Shaw really seems to oppose is not the feeling of shame, which can lead to more moral
behavior, but the ostentatious display of it, which is both hypocritical and unhelpful.
Class and Work
While most of this play's primary characters are wealthy, they have a range of different
relationships to their wealth. These relationships can be broken into two general classes,
characterized best by Ramsden and Tanner. Ramsden is a conservative capitalist who generally
believes in sticking to the status quo, while Tanner is a revolutionary socialist. It's Tanner's more
progressive worldview that wins out in the moral universe of "Man and Superman," although
Shaw is sure to include some warnings for idealistic would-be revolutionaries. These warnings
usually come to us in the form of Henry Straker, the play's primary working-class character,
who finds socialists' obsession with the value of labor to be bizarre and who drily points out that
it is rich men rather than poor ones who identify as socialists. The socialists and anarchists
in Mendoza's crew of brigands are fodder for mockery too, what with their ill-articulated ideas
and exaggerated notions of heroic sacrifice. Still, for all this play's gentle mockery of socialism,
it comes down harder on the capitalist class. This includes not just the blustering Ramsden but
the vengeful, shortsighted Hector Malone, Sr., who believes that neverending upward mobility
will repair the damage done to the Irish people by colonialism.
British Identity
Britishness in "Man and Superman" gets put on display primarily through contrasts with other
nationalities and national identities—mainly Spanish and American. Shaw frames Spanish and
American identity as grand, showy, and loud, in contrast to the almost laughably timid and
indirect manners associated with Britishness. For instance, Shaw's American characters, the
Malones, are obsessed with earning money and leaving the past behind. Thus, the elder Malone
uses capitalism and business to separate himself from his humble Irish roots, while the younger
one does his best to work in order to make his way independently of his father. These American
characters are shameless and fiery, willing to fight openly in front of strangers. On the other
hand, the Spanish characters, such as Mendoza and his men, are almost premodern, unconcerned
with practical matters and driven by emotion. Shaw paints the Spanish landscape carefully,
noting that the hills in Spain are far more impressive and imposing than their English
equivalents. Compared to these two examples, British people and British nationhood appear
quiet and subdued, driven largely by shame and the desire to avoid open conflict or
acknowledgment of differences. Shaw tends to regard this tendency with affection, but,
interestingly, shows irritation with the way in which the British middle class has internalized this
vision of English respectability, using it to justify a culture of avoidance and shame under the
banner of "respectability" and British exceptionalism.
The Complexity of Happiness
At the play's end, Tanner announces to the assembled characters that his marriage to Ann will
not be a happy one, and in fact that the two have sacrificed all hopes of future happiness. This
announcement comes loaded with a strange irony, since everyone present, including Tanner,
seems fairly lighthearted in the face of an eternal farewell to happiness. As it turns out, this is
because, within the framework of man's evolutionary development into a Superman, happiness is
at best a minor virtue and at worst an evil. This is why Tanner is forced to leave the comforts of
hell in order to pursue truth in heaven within his dream: happiness leads to complacency and a
general abandonment of the call of the life-force, ultimately leading to an abandonment of one's
evolutionary potential. Therefore, the minor pleasures of happiness should in fact be sacrificed in
order to pursue the more rewarding and important work of moral development and following the
life-force.

Man and Superman Quotes and Analysis

He was born, as a matter of fact, in 1839, and was a Unitarian and Free Trader
from his boyhood, and an Evolutionist from the publication of the Origin of
Species. Consequently he has always classed himself as an advanced thinker
and fearlessly outspoken reformer.
Narrator
This play is as notable for its descriptive, witty stage directions as it is for its dialogue. This
particular stage direction reveals a great deal about the character of Roebuck Ramsden, providing
extra insight into his motives and self-image before he even utters a line. Though Ramsden is at
heart a deeply conservative person with a strong desire to maintain personal comfort and display
his respectable lifestyle, he fancies himself a progressive, open-minded person, having been
more open to new ideas in his youth. This self-image makes it harder tor Ramsden to have honest
conversations with other characters, especially Tanner, since he's unable to acknowledge that he
simply finds Tanner's ideas too radical and disruptive. Through stage directions, Shaw provides
grounds for actors and directors to give extra depth even to Ramsden, a fairly static character.
The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.

Tanner
This quote is the most concise summary of Tanner's problems with the middle-class society he
both belongs to and detests. He believes—and his belief is generally backed up by the play's plot
—that other people fear his ideas, not because their consequences are dangerous, but because he
rejects the shame that animates his peers' decisions. Tanner's biggest problem with this shame is
not that it prevents people from acting immorally, but that it becomes a status symbol in itself.
Therefore, even if there is no reason to feel shame, as Jack points out, people like Roebuck
Ramsden reflexively display shame and disgust in the face of anything new or different in order
to preserve the appearance of moral integrity.
I feel that I am too young, too inexperienced, to decide. My father's wishes are
sacred to me.

Ann
Ann is put in quite an unpleasant position by Tanner and Ramsden, who urge her to pick one of
them as a guardian, even while Ramsden forbids her to read Tanner's book, therefore
compromising her ability to make an informed decision. Ann, however, plays the moment to her
advantage, cleverly using Victorian cultural images of the innocent, obedient woman to negotiate
the best outcome for herself. Ann wants to preserve her own good reputation in the eyes of the
community, and therefore cannot choose the polarizing Tanner over the well-regarded Ramsden.
On the other hand, she wants Tanner to be her guardian, since she hopes to stay close with him
and ultimately marry him. Therefore she defers to her father's wishes, making herself seem as if
she has no agency, while simultaneously using the agency she does have to pursue Jack.
Oh please call me Ricky-ticky-tavy, "Mr. Robinson" would hurt me cruelly.

Octavius
Ann has a teasing relationship with Octavius, using a manner of affectionate condescension with
him to keep him satisfied without directly telling him that she wants to marry him. Octavius, on
the other hand, is vulnerable to this maneuver to an absurd degree. He prefers for her to call him
by a childish nickname, which to him represents the hope that she might love him, than for her to
respectfully distance herself from him by calling him "Mr. Robinson." This quote shows that,
while Ann can be manipulative and unkind, Octavius is perhaps too eager to receive the scraps of
adoration she offers him.
What matter, if the slavery makes us happy?

Octavius
Octavius believes that his love for Ann will make him happy even if he gives up all
independence in order to marry her, while Tanner regards this choice as both a personal and a
moral failure. This throwaway question from Octavius becomes a driving contrast throughout the
play, since Tanner, too, will be forced to consider whether unhappily pursuing the demands of
the life-force will be a better option than happily and comfortably abandoning the quest for self-
improvement. In Tanner's case, however, it is in fact marriage to Ann that constitutes the most
self-sacrificing pursuit of the life-force, showing that, while each character faces similar
fundamental dilemmas, they make end up choosing very different lifestyles in order to negotiate
these options.
We suddenly learn that she has turned from these sillinesses to the fulfilment of
her highest purpose and greatest function—to increase, multiply and replenish
the earth. And instead of admiring her courage and rejoicing in her instinct;
instead of crowning the completed womanhood and raising the triumphal strain
of "Unto us a child is born: unto us a son is given," here you are...all pulling
long faces and looking as ashamed and disgraced as if the girl had committed
the vilest of crimes.

Tanner
When Ramsden, Ann, and Octavius learn that Violet is pregnant, they announce that Violet has
met a fate worse than death. Tanner's rage in response to them displays his fundamentally
different understanding of gender. While most of the play's characters regard it as a woman's
duty to be chaste and obedient, Tanner understands feminity in relation to the life-force. Since
the life-force is basically a drive to reproduce, Tanner regards Violet's pregnancy as the best use
of her womanhood. Violet herself is less open to this idea—she ends up feeling both offended by
Ramsden's accusations of immorality and impatient with Tanner's assumption that she wants to
be implicated or included in his politics.
That's because you confuse construction and destruction with creation and
murder. They're quite different: I adore creation and abhor murder. Yes: I adore
it in tree and flower, in bird and beast, even in you.

Tanner
In an early, flirtatious conversation with Ann, Tanner makes the case that destruction is a moral
good. Ann is skeptical about this idea, but to Tanner, it is apparent that preconceptions and
conventions must be destroyed in order to make way for the new. In a sense, Tanner is arguing
that the life-force—though he doesn't use that word—is a force of both destruction and creation,
since it destroys anything in its path in order to create new generations of people. For this reason,
Tanner links the virtue of destruction to his own attraction to Ann, giving us a hint that he will
ignore both social conventions and his own biases in order to marry her.
"That's because you never done any labor Mr. Robinson. My business is to do
away with labor. You'll get more out of me and a machine than you will out of
twenty laborers, and not so much to drink either."

Henry Straker
This jibe from Straker helps keep the play grounded in reality, and prevents it from getting
carried away by highflown abstract ideas. In this case, the highflown idea is socialism. George
Bernard Shaw generally treats socialism sympathetically, but still points out problems with the
socialist movement and its most ardent adherents. In this case the ardent adherent is Tanner, who
makes it known that he "believes in the dignity of labor." Straker, an actual laborer, corrects the
wealthy gentleman by pointing out that labor only seems virtuous and glamorous to those who
have no real relationship to it. With this exchange, Shaw does not so much undermine the ideals
of socialism as he does reject the premise that socialism is valuable only insofar as labor is
dignified or interesting.
Hell is the home of honor, duty, justice, and the rest of the seven deadly virtues.
All the wickedness on earth is done in their name: where else but in hell should
they have their reward? Have I not told you that the truly damned are those who
are happy in hell?

Don Juan
This speech, delivered by Jack Tanner's alter ego Don Juan, defines the play's relationship to
comfort and the virtues associated with a comfortable status quo—virtues like honor and duty,
which do the job of paying respect to and propping up that which already exists rather than
improving or reinventing it. Don Juan (and Tanner—the two are almost indistinguishable in this
moment) believe that humanity's existence is only justified if mankind rejects the comfortable
and familiar in favor of an uncomfortable journey of self-improvement. Hence, in Tanner's
dream, hell is comfortable and is in fact an enjoyable place for those who belong there. Men who
seek greater meaning will find the comfortable stasis of hell unbearable, however, and,
paradoxically, have to seek out the discomfort of heaven.
The Life Force respects marriage only because marriage is a contrivance of its
own to secure the greatest number of children and the closest care of them. For
honor, chastity and all the rest of your moral figments it cares not a rap.

Don Juan
This quotation, easily lost in the shuffle of Tanner's long and wordy dream, almost perfectly
summarizes the relationship between evolutionary philosophy and romantic comedy in this work
as a whole. Here, Don Juan asserts that marriage is still important and necessary—
foreshadowing Tanner's eventual marriage to Ann—but places it in an unfamiliar framework,
describing marriage not as a conscious choice made by two individuals but as a tool used by the
mysterious life-force to create new generations. Since the life-force dictates that the most
physically and mentally fit people will reproduce the most, and since intelligent people like Jack
Tanner are horrified by the thought of marriage and romance, we have to conclude, ironically,
that most successful marriages in this play will include at least one unwilling or reluctant
participant.
English rule drove me and mine out of Ireland. Well, you can keep Ireland. I
and my like are coming back to buy England; and we'll buy the best of it.

Hector Malone, Sr.

Hector Malone, Sr. is this play's purest avatar for capitalism and its failures. Cleverly, Shaw
doesn't make him a totally greedy and unsympathetic person. While he may not be very
appealing, he's motivated by a certain underdog backstory and a logic that will make some
degree of sense to audiences: after having the British ruling class decimate his family and home,
Malone wants to recover his dignity by essentially buying his way into that ruling class. This
strategy, of course, helps nobody—it won't get Malone his childhood back, and it will harm his
son and Violet. By giving Malone these childish but understandable motivations, Shaw makes
his class of robber baron capitalists appear more human and therefore more vulnerable. Malone's
brand of capitalism, Shaw points out, is fueled by an irrational, traumatized desire for
dominance, whereas revolutionary politics are in fact more coolheaded and logical.
You have offered to tell Jack that I love him. That's self-sacrifice, I suppose; but
there must be some satisfaction in it. Perhaps it's because you're a poet. You are
like the bird that presses its breast against the sharp thorn to make itself sing.

Ann
Here, Ann astutely points out that love serves different purposes for different people. Octavius,
because of his romantic personality, will in fact be happiest if he is pining over a lost love—and
will be forever disappointed if he actually gets what he's been searching for. One way in which
this play differs from a typical romantic comedy is that not all of the main characters find love,
and furthermore, that marriage is rarely the most suitable manifestation of love. Therefore, while
Ann may be a selfish person, she's also often correct, and in this case, she accurately diagnoses
Octavius's needs.

Biography of George Bernard Shaw

Born July 26th, 1856, in Dublin, George Bernard Shaw is one of Ireland's most famous
writers and a prolific playwright, novelist, and critic, although he is known as much for his
outsize personality and views as for his fiction. Shaw's mother, responsible for much of his
literary and artistic education as a child, moved to London during his teen years. He followed
suit at the age of twenty, choosing to relocate to London in order to pursue a writing career. His
early focus was the novel, and he wrote five, none successful. In the meantime he began to
explore politics, eventually joining the Fabian Society, a non-revolutionary socialist group. Shaw
put his writing skills to work on behalf of the society by editing the group's collection Fabian
Essays in Socialism in 1889.
Commercial success arrived for Shaw, not through his novels, but through criticism. In
1885 the widely read Saturday Review hired Shaw as a theater critic. Shaw found much popular
drama shallow and unoriginal, and his criticism eventually developed into writing plays of his
own, in part as vehicles for criticism of popular dramas. His first plays were published as a
collection, Pleasant and Unpleasant in 1898. The "Pleasant" portion included the plays Arms
and Man, Candida, and You Can Never Tell. Widower's Houses and Mrs. Warren's
Profession were included among the "Unpleasant." Soon after, he published Anthony and
Cleopatra, followed by Man and Superman in 1923. Man and Superman, as well as the segment
of its third act titled Don Juan in Hell (which is often performed by itself) represented a newly
mature phase in Shaw's playwriting career. He followed Man and Superman with a number of
other successful plays which would eventually be regarded as classics of English-language
drama: Major Barbara in 1905, The Doctor's Dilemma in 1906, Pygmalion in 1912, and Saint
Joan in 1923. Many of his works, including Man and Superman and Saint Joan, reevaluated and
adapted popular stories from history and legend.
His reputation and popularity cemented by these early twentieth-century works, Shaw
won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1925. His play Pygmalion was adapted as the musical My
Fair Lady, first for the screen in 1938 and then for the stage in 1956. The success of My Fair
Lady helped carry Shaw's popularity into the latter part of the century and on to today. He died in
1950.

Critical Essay Shaw's Method and Technique

Of Man and Superman, Shaw himself said that he had written "a trumpery story of
modern London life, a life in which . . . the ordinary man's main business is to get means to keep
up the position and habit of a gentleman and the ordinary woman's business is to get married."
This suggests that the play is a comedy of manners replete with farcical elements, a play which
represents no real break in the tradition of the Victorian theater. Indeed the dramatist insisted
early and late that he was not an inventor in dramatic technique. In the play are to be found such
familiar romantic and melodramatic elements as a will, a love triangle, the apparently fallen
woman, and an episode involving capture by brigands. Among the long-lived comic types are the
mother bent on marrying off her daughter; the brash, impertinent servant who knows more than
his master; and such caricatures as that of Malone, the American millionaire. In character
portrayal, he almost always depends upon overstatement, and such exaggeration is strictly in the
tradition of the comic writer and satirist.

Like many earlier dramatists, including Shakespeare, to say nothing of Shaw's Victorian
predecessors and contemporaries, the dramatist develops situations by means of a series of
misunderstandings, which may be called "mistaken awarenesses." Thus he is able to build up in
each successive act a series of amusing, often exciting climaxes. Early in Act I, for example, the
audience witnesses a Ramsden confident that he is the sole guardian of Ann Whitefield and
determined to see to it that the revolutionist Jack Tanner shall not come near her. Then, when
Jack appears, Ramsden learns that, very much against his will, the younger man is to serve as co-
guardian of the young lady. Dramatic irony of this sort is always satisfying to an audience. In the
same act, the Violet Robinson-Hector Malone subplot gets underway and begins to provide
counterpoint to the main action. Like the main plot, it develops the sex theme and reveals woman
as the dominant partner in the love game. Before her appearance, all believe that Violet has
disgraced herself. Here Shaw develops and sustains one of the finest examples of dramatic irony
in modern drama. The counter-discovery, that is, the correction of mistaken awareness, is
expertly handled: Violet is revealed as a respectable married woman. These situations lend
themselves wonderfully to the development of character. Jack is given the opportunity to voice
his advanced ideas, particularly in contrast to Ramsden, the old-fashioned liberal, when he
protests against his new and unsolicited responsibility, and more particularly when he eloquently
defends Violet, only to be excoriated by the young lady. Nor is all this irrelevant to the main
theme, for it shows both Ann and Violet as young women who, each in her own way, are
determined to get their own ways.

As the play progresses, Shaw continues to make effective use of dramatic irony. The
initial dialogue between Jack Tanner and Straker lets the audience know that the blissfully
ignorant Tanner is the one marked down as Ann's prey, not young Octavius. Ann enters, unaware
that Jack has received Rhoda's note giving the true reason why the younger sister cannot join
Tanner on the motor trip, and is caught in a lie — firsthand proof that she is absolutely
unscrupulous in her pursuit of the male. Enter Hector Malone. All but Violet are unaware of the
fact that he is her husband, and once more Shaw realizes the comic possibilities of the situation,
which nicely balances the earlier one involving Violet. Jack volubly defends Hector and earns
only the American's indignation.
In Act III, Shaw introduces a story element as melodramatic as any to be found in the Victorian
theater. Not only are the protagonist and his chauffeur made captive by brigands in the Spanish
Sierra, but it is revealed that Mendoza, the brigand leader, had been driven to a life of crime
because of unrequited love for a young lady. Coincidence of coincidences, she turns out to be
Louisa Straker, the chauffeur's sister.

Coincidence and mistaken awareness are to be found even in the Don-Juan-in-Hell

interlude. The old crone who makes inquiry to the first soul she meets turns out to be Dona Ana
and learns that she is speaking to her one-time lover and "murderer" of her father.

In Act IV, Malone receives and reads the note Violet had intended for Hector. This is
none other than a variation of the eavesdropping device so common in the popular theater,
certainly from Shakespeare's day forward. Mistaken awareness abounds in this act. Malone
believes that his son is pursuing a married woman and then learns that Hector is Violet's
husband. One may note how this episode also balances the one in the first act. In the main plot, it
is Ann's final rejection of Octavius and Jack's realization that he cannot escape her which provide
the best examples of mistaken awareness and subsequent discoveries.

But if Man and Superman is "a repertory of old state devices," to use Reuben A. Brower's
term, it is also much more. For one thing, Shaw is a master of inversion. In his play, the
Victorian Womanly Woman as heroine is replaced by the Vital Woman who relentlessly tracks
down her man. He was honest and modest enough to point out that he had not invented the
pursuing female in literature: Shakespeare and many others had anticipated him in drama, and
the passionate pursuing female flourished in non-dramatic narrative of the Ovidian tradition. But
as far as nineteenth-century and particularly Victorian drama was concerned, Shaw was an
innovator. If Barrie did anticipate him in depicting a servant who was more knowledgeable than
his master, Shaw nevertheless, in the character of Henry Straker, made adroit use of just such an
inversion. Comic inversion is again illustrated in the characterization of Mrs. Whitefield. Many a
mother in popular drama had been intent on marrying off her daughter, but where else is one to
be found with the same motive for such intention? Mrs. Whitefield was devoted to Octavius as if
he were a favorite son; one would expect her to welcome him as a son-in-law. But no, Tavy was
too nice a boy to be victimized by Ann, whereas Jack would be a match for her. There are good
examples of Shavian inversions in the Don-Juan-in-Hell interlude also. Hell is the place where
one does nothing but enjoy himself; Heaven is a boring place. Hell is the home of the Seven
Deadly Virtues in whose names most of the world's misery has been caused. The Devil, a would-
be gentleman and democrat, is the one who lauds love and beauty and who wants everyone to be
happy. Don Juan is anything but a condemned sensualist and murderer; he is a high-minded
idealist dedicated to pure reason.

It certainly is not to be assumed that Man and Superman is only a composite of comic
reversals, farcical incidents, and melodrama often involving type characters. As Shaw himself
wrote in the dedicatory epistle, "This pleasantry is not the essence of the play." It remains a
comedy and a philosophy. Yet one can understand why from the first performance, the play has
been hailed even by those who have not the slightest interest in or knowledge of the philosophy.
It happens to be good theater. And if it is filled with talk, talk, and more talk; the talk is dramatic,
especially in the sense that it individualizes and develops the many characters.

Shaw is adept at varying the style of speaking from one character to another. The
contrasting "voices" in the play go far to explain Harley Granville-Barker's instructions to the
cast he was putting through rehearsal: "Do remember, ladies and gentlemen, that this is Italian
opera." One may add to this Shaw's own remark: "My sort of play would be impossible unless I
endowed my characters with powers of self-expression which they would not possess in real
life." His success in individualizing the oral style of his characters may be illustrated by
comparing the speeches of Ramsden and Tanner. The outmoded Ramsden does talk like "a
president of highly respectable men, a chairman among directors, an alderman among
counsellors, a mayor among alderman." Except when scandalized by Tanner's brash remarks, he
sounds like the dignified member of Parliament used to success through the "withdrawal of
opposition and the concession of comfort and precedence and power." In contrast, Jack's style is
more like that of the public-park and street-corner orator. It has an exciting, intense quality
appropriate to the man who prided himself on being an iconoclast and has learned, as Shaw did,
that the way to attract attention is to startle or to shock people. And it is Tanner who is master of
the many sallies, jests, epigrams, and aphorisms in the play. He does not hesitate to call Ramsden
"an old man with obsolete ideas" and Ann "a boa constrictor," or to declare that "morality can go
to its father, the Devil." To Octavius, whose own discourse offers such a marked contrast, he
comes out with "perfectly revolting things sometimes." But they do not revolt the audience —
quite the contrary.

Violet, who knows and has gotten exactly what she wants, namely, a rich husband,
speaks far differently from Ann Whitefield. She minces no words; she is always direct, to the
point. To the crushed Jack Tanner who had rushed to her defense, she says tersely: "I hope you
will be more careful in the future of things you say." And to Hector she offers this practical
counsel: "You can be as romantic as you please about love, Hector; but you must not be romantic
about money." Ann, the Vital Woman and Violet's intellectual superior, can and does speak lines
completely appropriate to one posing as the weak, helpless, and completely dutiful daughter. She
easily hoodwinks Granny Ramsden and has led Octavius to believe that she is the ideal
Womanly Woman. When Tanner gloomily admits that he must serve as one of her guardians, she
gushes delightedly: "Then we are all agreed; and my dear father's will is to be carried out. You
don't know what a joy that is to me and my mother!" But alone with Jack and aware that he sees
right through her, her style of discourse changes. She is his match in the wit's combat.

Man and Superman is operatic in another way. The longer speeches, notably those made
by Jack Tanner, are bravura pieces, comparable to the arias in grand opera. Examples include
Tanner's conceding that he cannot wholly conquer shame, his description of the true artist when
he endeavors to enlighten the lovesick Octavius, his defense of Violet, and his denunciation of
the tyranny of mothers and of the institution of marriage. Don Juan's memorable peroration when
he announces his intention of leaving Hell and going to Heaven provides another good example.