IJCAES Special Issue on
Basic, Applied & Social Sciences, Volume II, October 2012
[ISSN: 2231-4946]
New Ideas Generated By George Bernard Shaw
to the Plays of Caesar and Cleopatra of
Shakespeare
Partha Sarathi Kar
Research Scholar CMJ University
Abstract— The study is significant as it would not only explore the plays of George Bernard Shaw but
also explains the set up of the contemporary society. As the plays brought about a new era in creative
thinking mechanism and touched the grass-root level problems of humanity, the complex relationships
of human beings with the existence of class differences, existential philosophy, familial dilemma, status
of women of contemporary society they are undoubtedly a master piece for the development of
understanding of human life. The study on the proposed work is expected to bring out many facts
after the study of the selected plays of George Bernard Shaw
Key Words— George Bernard Shaw, Caesar, Cleopatra, Shakespeare etc.
I.
INTRODUCTION
The Modern English Drama has reached a great height in the 21 st century. The Modern English Drama in Prose
is the „Problem Play‟ as it deals with all kinds of problems of the day namely – social, economic and political. The
Modern Drama is also known as the „Drama of ideas‟ as it is an intellectual exercise, discussing various viewpoints
and offering arguments for and against the viewpoints. It was Henrik Ibsen who greatly influenced the style of
writing in English polarities. The Modern prose drama popularly known as the „naturalistic‟, „realistic‟, „problem
drama‟ or „the drama of Ideas‟ has become the mirror of modern life. Shaw was a disciple of Ibsen. Like Ibsen, he
used the drama as a medium for ventilating his ideas. According to A.C. Ward, „His plays are a continuous record
of the long struggle between artist and moralist‟.
II.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objective of the study is to highlight the new ideas generated by George Barnard Shaw on the play Caesar
and Cleopatra of Shakespeare.
III.
METHODOLOGY ADOPTED IN THE STUDY AREA
The research work deals with some of the major works of George Bernard Shaw like Major Barbara,
Pygmalion, Caesar and Cleopatra, and Saint Joan. The proposed work is based on the exploration of the theory of
creative evolution and the problems of life witnessed in his selected plays, to propagate his philosophy, customs,
religious thoughts, social conventions and politics along with economics and sciences. Complex human
relationships, class-consciousness, existential philosophy, familial dilemma, status of women of contemporary
society finds a new dimension in the framework of his play. The research is an attempt to focus on the sentiment of
the new modern era and to show the meaning and significant as it is represented by Shaw in his plays. For the work
secondary sources will be collected from published and unpublished books and other documents of Government as
well as Non-Government Organizations. Need based information will also be collected from various souvenirs,
published and unpublished thesis, dissertations, and newspapers.
IV.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW AND HIS IDEAS
Shaw‟s historical play explores at least these three viz., elaborate spectacle, erotic intrigue and flamboyant
histrionics. Shaw differ from the 19th Century historical drama in the fundamental respect that he often gives the
immediacy and familiarity of the present to the past. He sat forth Caesar in the same light, taking the platform from
Shakespeare. Shaw admittedly portrays historical characters based on modern analogies, rubbing off as much as
possible the patina of time from them. The remote and unfamiliar world of the nineteenth century historical drama
stands as a contrast to Shaw‟s world where contemporarily breaks through repeatedly.
In Caesar and Cleopatra, Shaw‟s second historical play, many commendable qualities are present, and in some
respects, it is one of the most remarkable modern historical plays. However, it flouts the conventional romantic
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Partha Sarathi Kar
history play by keeping love off the stage, it exploits elaborate spectacles and flamboyant histrionics of the
nineteenth century history play. It is much weightier and more impressive work than his first venture, The Man of
Destiny. The purpose of the play is to draw a great man in history. Caesar and Cleopatra is the first and only
adequate dramatization of the greatest man ever lived. He said, „I want to revive, in a modern way and with modern
refinement, the sort of thing that Booth did the last of in America: the projection on the stage of the hero in the big
sense of the word.‟ Shaw was highly dissatisfied with Shakespeare‟s sketch of Julius Caesar in the tragedy bearing
his name. Shakespeare‟s Caesar is relatively minor character speaking no more than 120 lines, and assassins
dispatch him soon after the play begins. It seems to have been Shakespeare‟s desire to portray Caesarism, rather
than Caesar. His presentation of Caesar as an irritable, pompous, deaf old man was a blasphemy in the opinion of
Shaw, who has a great admiration for Caesar. In the preface he says, „Shakespeare, who knew human weakness so
well, never knew human strength of the Caesarian type. His Caesar is an admitted failure.‟ And he offered his
Caesar as an improvement on Shakespeare‟s. Shaw had taken up Caesar‟s Egyptian war, the most difficult and
dangerous war Caesar had ever undertaken, for the theme of his drama.
In Caesar and Cleopatra, Shaw deals with a man who is the master of his mind, the conceiver of ideas which
he manipulates for his own purposes. Shaw‟s Caesar is quite different from the Caesar of Shakespeare, arrogant and
ambitious and yet bestriding the narrow world, like a Colossus. His Cleopatra, too, is not the Cleopatra of
Shakespeare, the epitome of the eternal and irresistible feminine, whom age cannot wither nor custom state her
infinite variety. It is a puritanical play based on war against romance and heroism. In this play, Shaw has produced a
play of artistic creation in the portrait of Caesar. Caesar is a Shavian hero. Shaw represents Caesar not so much as
bestriding the earth like a Colossus, but rather walking the earth with a sort of stern levity, lightly touching the
planet and yet spurning it away like a stone. Shaw was highly dissatisfied with Shakespeare‟s sketch of Julius
Caesar in the tragedy bearing his name. As is already mentioned, in the Preface he says, “Shakespeare, who knew
human weakness so well, never knew human strength of Caesarian type. His Caesar is an admitted failure.‟
Therefore, he offered his Caesar as an improvement on Shakespeare‟s. Caesar and Cleopatra is a noteworthy play
from many points of view. It began a new way of handling historical subjects, material, informal, humorous, yet full
of meaning. The play contains many brilliant scenes and fine phrases. There is no play of Shaw more certain to hold
its own on the British stage. This play does not aim at proving and general proposition, and comes much nearer to
being a play than most of his works written in dramatic form.
The play opens with Caesar, in whom evolutionary instinct is active and who feels that, his genius has been,
constricted by the profession of a warrior, standing before Sphinx. He meets Cleopatra, a girl of sixteen, trying to
escape the invading Romans. Shaw‟s heroin administers a distinct shock to those who have read Shakespeare. She
believes that Romans have „long noses, and ivory tusks and little tails, and seven arms with a hundred arrows in
each; and they live on human flesh.‟
Caesar and Cleopatra is an attempt at the portraiture of a truly great man. It is Shaw‟s ninth play, but it is here,
in the character of Caesar, that we get for the first time a clear idea of his conception of a great man. Caesar is
Shaw‟s greatest character thus far. He is a man of rare magnanimity and power; he is a master not only of his mind
but also of his environments; he has a purpose of his own and he is endowed with a tremendous will which enable
him to manipulate things and beings for the accomplishment of his purpose; he is possessed of wonderful restraint
and clemency; he is immune from the weakness which flesh is heir to; he is, says Shaw, naturally great.
„Shakespeare‟s Caesar might have been a successful importer of bananas; Shaw‟s is a genius whose every speech
has the sound of a genius‟. Shaw‟s Caesar is a very great man but is he the real Julius Caesar? Shaw‟s says,
„Shakespeare‟s Caesar is the reduction ad absurdum of the real Julius Caesar. My Caesar is a simple return to nature
and history.” Shaw‟s Caesar is in many respects a different man from the Caesar of history. He has represented
Caesar as too great to find any joy and peace in this world.
Shaw has attributed to Caesar the qualities of absolute disinterestedness in worldly affairs, freedom from
worldly ambition and aversion to political and military glory.
V.
CONCLUSION
In the preface Shaw says, „Shakespeare, who knew human weakness so well, never knew human strength of the
Caesarian type. His Caesar is an admitted failure.‟ Here „His‟ is Shakespeare. It is Shaw who portrayed the
character of Caesar and Cleopatra unlike Shakespeare‟s week representation of Julius Caesar. With his excellence
and unparallel writing, Shaw‟s writing not only raised enthuses in general but has also in some extent touched the
history and had shown a new dimension in this sphere. Hence, we find a sea difference in the explanation and
representation of Caesar and Cleopatra play of Shakespeare by George Barnard Shaw. It was Shaw‟s likeness of
Caesar that made him draw a different dimension of the character, very much unlike what Shakespeare represented.
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New Ideas Generated By George Bernard Shaw to the Plays of Caesar and Cleopatra of Shakespeare
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