Bernard Shaw's Marriages and Misalliances

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxxv

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2. Shaw’s Early Writings: A Prologue to the Playwright

   • Richard Farr Dietrich

   Pages 1-19

3. The “Mystical Union” De-Mystified: Marriage in Plays Unpleasant

   • L. W. Conolly

   Pages 21-38

4. The Pragmatic Partnerships of Plays Pleasant

   • Jennifer Buckley

   Pages 39-56

5. Three Plays for Puritans: Decoy Marriages and Social Contracts

   • Lawrence Switzky

   Pages 57-74

6. Not Really a Philanderer

   • Rodelle Weintraub

   Pages 75-87

7. Shaw’s Salvation Trilogy: Man and Superman, John Bull’s Other Island, Major Barbara

   • Michel W. Pharand

   Pages 89-104

8. Marriage and Mating in the Plays of Bernard Shaw and Granville Barker, 1908–1911

   • Peter Gahan

   Pages 105-123

9. Ruled by Autonomy: Women’s Evolving Marital Choices from the Doctor’s Dilemma (1906) to Pygmalion (1914)

   • Ellen Ecker Dolgin

   Pages 125-142

10. From Ellie to Eve: The Quintessence of Marriage in Shaw’s Heartbreak House, Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress, and Back to Methuselah

    • Audrey McNamara

    Pages 143-157

11. Beyond Married Love: Shaw, Stopes, and Female Desire in the Drama Between the Wars, 1923–1934

    • D. A. Hadfield

    Pages 159-174

12. Definitions of Marriage: Village Wooing, On the Rocks, and The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles: A Vision of Judgment

    • Jean Reynolds

    Pages 175-190

13. Matrimonial Partnerships and Politics in Three Late Plays: “ In Good King Charles’s Golden Days ”: A True History That Never Happened, The Apple Cart: A Political Extravaganza, and Geneva: Another Political Extravaganza

    • Matthew Yde

    Pages 191-205

14. Back Matter

    Pages 207-229

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This book combines the insights of thirteen Shavian scholars as they examine the themes of marriage, relationships and partnerships throughout all of Bernard Shaw’s major works. It also connects Shaw’s own experiences of love and marriage to the themes that emerge in his works, showing how his personal relationships in and out of matrimonial bonds change the ways his characters enter and exit marriages and misalliances. While providing a wealth of new analysis, this collection of essays also leaves lingering questions for the reader to spark continuing dialogue in both individual and academic settings.  

• Acting
• Directing
• Dramatic Literature
• Classical Theatre Production
• Love
• Relationships
• British and Irish Literature

• Auburn University at Montgomery, Montgomery, USA

  Robert A. Gaines

Robert A. Gaines is Professor Emeritus at Auburn University Montgomery, USA, and holds a PhD from Indiana University. He has spent thirty-five years in university positions including Professor, Administrator, and Director of Theatre. His research interests are in classical theatre production, as are his publications, including John Neville Takes Command: The Story of the Stratford Shakespearean Festival. He has been a member of the International Shaw Society since its inception in 2004.

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