Which two statements would the author of the passage most likely agree with?
Shaw sought to convey progressive political and social ideas through comedic drama.
Shaw tempered his early extreme criticism of English society later in his life.
Shaw had a major formative influence on generations of playwrights.
Shaw played a major role in the political revolutions of his time.
Shaw was underappreciated in his lifetime because his ideas were highly controversial.
George Bernard Shaw
"You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'" This inspiring statement was made by the dramatic genius George Bernard Shaw.
If English drama today is both worth seeing on the stage and reading as literature, it is mainly due to the work of George Bernard Shaw in drama and dramatic criticism. Shaw was a drama critic for The Saturday Review from 1859–98. He gained considerable prominence by writing witty critical reviews while working there. He believed the plays that English audiences appreciated at the time were pretentious farces and highly melodramatic. He once said, "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." This clearly reveals his attitude toward the English audiences who he believed were stuck in primitive English customs. His freethinking spirit and views on equality for men and women were greatly appreciated in society.
A number of Shaw's early plays described the problems of capitalism. A brilliant example of this genre is his Widower's Houses. The Apple Cart is another of his plays that examines the theme of corruption in democracy with splendid wit and humor. His most famous play is Pygmalion, which wonderfully portrays the theme of equality for women. His quote "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing" is one which we all understand and appreciate even today. However, during his time, despite his earnest purpose to be taken seriously by society, Shaw remained essentially an entertainer and a master of all the tricks of the entertainment trade.
Shaw's style of writing became so popular that his plays actually came to be termed as "Shavian comedies." Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. Per Hallström, Chairman of the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy, states that, "His ideas were those of a somewhat abstract logical radicalism; hence they were far from new, but they received from him a new definiteness and brilliance. In him these ideas combined with a ready wit, a complete absence of respect for any kind of convention, and the merriest humor—all gathered together in an extravagance which has scarcely ever before appeared in literature."
