Dear all, This is the George Bernard Shaws biography. Please read it the times you want and take your time to answer the following activity. its value is 10 points. When you finished, please print only the activity with responses and bring it to the class and don’t forget to write your name on it. Good luck¡ Meet George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw charmed and annoyed British Society for over half century. Witty, controversial, argumentative, and supremely self –confident, Shaw’s public personality was as distinctive as the plays he wrote. Not all of these qualities came naturally to him, however. Like his famous character Eliza Doolittle, Shaw transformed himself through hard work and perseverance. Shaw was born into a poor Protestant family in Dublin, Ireland. He attended school only briefly, but he learned about music at an early age from his mother, an aspiring singer. When he moved to London, hes was a very shy twenty-year-old with no professional training. During the next decade, Shaw read widely on his own. He also gained confidence by forcing himself to give talks at philosophical and literary societies. Eventually he became an outstanding public speaker. His most important association was with the Fabian Society, a group dedicated to establishing socialism in Britain through gradual reform. Shaw’s first ambition was to write novels, but his manuscripts were repeatedly rejected by publishers. In the mid-1880s, he began to work steadily as a journalist. Writing art and music reviews gave him the opportunity to display his witty prose style. Later he became the theater critic of a prominent magazine. Shaw argued for a theater of ideas to replace the sentimental theater that dominated Victorian stages. He was a gread admirer of Henrik Ibsen, whose plays exposed the hypocrisy and complacency of Norwegian society. After publishing a study of Ibsen in 1891, Shaw decided to write his own plays. Shaw hoped to use the power of drama to ¨force the spectator to face unpleasant facts.¨ At first his plays were performed only rarely because British audiences considered them too provocative. Shaw promoted himself by publishing the plays with long prefaces in which he forcefully argued his views. By the early 1900s, he gained recognition as one of Britain’s leading playwrights. Among his most famous works are Caesar and Cleopatra (1898), Major Barbara (1905), Pygmalion (1912), Heartbreak House (1919). Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. He continued writing almost until his death at age ninety-four. ¨(T)he demand now is for heroes in whom we can recognize our own humanity.¨ ¨With the single exception of Homer there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I despise so entirely as I despise Shakespear (sic) when I measure my mind against his.¨ Focus Activity Personal Response If you could have the opportunity to talk with George Bernard Shaw, What would you like to ask him? Is George Bernard Shaw a person who inspires you to overcome in life despite of troubles? Yes/no. Why? Recall and interpret 3. Was George Bernard Shaw a self-confident person? Yes No 4. Did he attend to school for a long time? Yes No 5. Did he born in a rich catholic family? Yes No 6. Was George Shaw’s mother an aspiring waitress? Yes No 7. When he moved to London, was he a very shy twenty-year-old with no professional training? Yes No Evaluate and connect 8. What were the writings that gave George the opportunity to display his witty prose style? 9. What was the first Shaw’s ambition? 10. Why did George use the power of drama? *Reading further You might enjoy reading this play by Shaw: Major Barbara is a comedy that attacks conventional ideas about poverty and philanthropy.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 02:33:26 +0000