Man And Superman And Don Juan

263 Words2 Pages
Re-inventing Don Juan: Although many of Shaw’s plays were financial successes, not all of the critics admired his work. While many reviewers were intrigued by Shaw’s ideas, they did not appreciate his lengthy scenes of dialogue with little-to-no conflict. One such critic, Arthur Bingham Walkley once said that Shaw is “no dramatist at all.” In the late 1800s, Walkley suggested that Shaw should write a Don Juan play. Beginning in 1901, Shaw accepted the challenge; in fact, he wrote an extensive albeit sarcastic dedication to Walkley, thanking him for the inspiration. In the preface of Man and Superman, Shaw discusses the way Don Juan has been portrayed in other works, such as Mozart’s opera or Lord Byron’s poetry. Traditionally, Don Juan is a pursuer of women, an adulterer, and an unrepentant scoundrel. At the end of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Don Juan is dragged to Hell, leaving Shaw to wonder: What happened to Don Juan’s soul? Man and Supermanprovides an answer to that question. The spirit of Don Juan lives on in the form of Juan’s distant-descendant John Tanner. Instead of a pursuer of women, Tanner is a pursuer of truth. Instead of an adulterer, Tanner is a revolutionary. Instead of a scoundrel, Tanner defies social-norms and old fashioned traditions in hopes of leading the way to a better world. Yet, the theme of seduction – typical in all incarnations of Don Juan stories – is still present. Through each act of the play, the female lead, Ann Whitefield, aggressively pursues her

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