Известные ирландцы: Джордж Бернард Шоу

Done by: Alimzhanov Victor George Bernard Shaw

Biography Bernard Shaw is considered one of the most cited authors in the world. His subtle and accurate humor, ironic manner of narration and ability to describe human life in all its manifestations captivated his contemporaries and proved fascinating for subsequent generations of readers. Decades after the Irish writer's death, his works continue to be relevant. Biography Bernard Shaw is considered one of the most cited authors in the world. His subtle and accurate humor, ironic manner of narration and ability to describe human life in all its manifestations captivated his contemporaries and proved fascinating for subsequent generations of readers. Decades after the Irish writer's death, his works continue to be relevant.

Childhood and youth Childhood and youth George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, in 1856. Father John Shaw sold grain, but soon went bankrupt and gradually became addicted to drinking. Lucinda Shaw's mother was a professional singer. In addition to the boy, two other children grew up in the family, girls Lucinda Frances and Elinor Agnes. As a child, Bernard attended Wesleyan College in Dublin, and from the age of eleven he attended a Protestant school, where special attention was paid not to the exact sciences, but to the religious education of children. At the same time, the pastors did not disdain physical punishments and beat the pupils with rods, which, as it was then believed, was only good for them. Young Shaw hated school and the entire education system, as he had seen it since his teenage years. He later recalled that he was one of the worst students in the class, if not the last. According to Bernard, educational institutions should deal not only with the mental, but also with the spiritual development of schoolchildren. At the same time, the learning process should not be so formalized.

At the age of fifteen, Bernard got a job as a clerk in an office engaged in the sale of real estate. His parents did not have the money to pay for his son's college education, but family ties helped the young man to take a good position at that time. His duties, among other things, included collecting money for housing from the poor. Memories of this difficult time are reflected in one of the early plays called "The Widower's House". Shaw also kept the books, doing it carefully and diligently. Subsequently, the future writer developed a legible handwriting, and typesetters easily deciphered his manuscripts.

A significant influence on the young Bernard was exerted by the musician George John Lee, with whom his mother became close even before the appearance of her son. The writer even suggested that he could be his biological father. Their families shared a house where music was constantly playing. In 1873, Lee left Dublin to go to England, and Bernard's mother soon followed him, taking both daughters with her. Young Shaw stayed with his father and tried to compensate for the lack of music in the house by mastering the piano on his own. Three years later, in 1876, Bernard still went to his mother in London, where he engaged in self-education and, under Lee's patronage, got a job at one of the newspapers, where he wrote a music column. Later, he worked for a while as a guest pianist.

Bernard Shaw and the Theater When he was a theater critic, Shaw became interested in the work of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. In 1891, he published the essay "The Quintessence of Ibsenism", in which he identified the main characteristics of the plays of the Scandinavian writer. During Bernard's youth, the stage was dominated exclusively by plays by William Shakespeare, as well as minor melodramas and comedies. According to Shaw, Ibsen became an innovator in European drama, taking it to a new level by revealing acute conflicts and discussions between the characters. Inspired by Ibsen's plays, in 1885 Shaw wrote the first of his "unpleasant plays" called "The Widower's House". It is believed that his biography as a playwright began with this work. At the same time, a new era of European drama was born, acute, topical, built on conflicts and dialogues, and not on the active actions of the characters.

This was followed by the plays "Philandering" and "Mrs. Warren's Profession", which literally stirred up prim Victorian England with their undisguised topicality, caustic satire and truthfulness. In the second work, the reformatory nature of Shaw's work was vividly manifested, raising political and social topics new to English literature and theater. Bernard complemented the genre of realistic drama with subtle humor and satire, thanks to which his plays gained extraordinary appeal and power of presentation. In terms of the humorous component, the Irishman has been repeatedly compared to Oscar Wilde. Having set an unprecedented precedent for those times with his "unpleasant plays", Shaw released a series of "pleasant plays". In the most popular of them, called "Weapons and Man," he opposed the idealization of war. The work has been filmed several times.