Pygmalion and Major Barbara: A Comparative Study of the Two Father Images 对比研究《皮革马利翁》和《芭芭拉少校》中的两位父亲形象文献综述

 2021-10-06 13:57:55

毕业论文课题相关文献综述

George Bernard Shaw was born on July 26 in 1856 in Dublin, Ireland. There were three children in his home and he was the only boy. Once upon a time, Shaws family belonged to the landowning upper-middle class, but till his fathers generation, the family went from bad to worse. Originally, his father featherbedded in the government, later on changed into doing food business because of heavy drinking, but he was unable to support the whole family. When looking from this aspect, Shaws father image to some extent can be regarded as the prototype of the drunkardDoolittle, Elizas father in Pygmalion, and such life background also endows Shaw with rich creative inspiration for his later writing career.

Bernard Shaw once respectively studied in the local Catholic and Protestant churches, but he had to drop out of school and worked as an apprentice in a real estate agency to help his father provide for the family when he was less than fifteen years old. A few years rent account management and particularly renting out experience made Shaw see for the first time a series of social problems resulted from the disparity between the rich and the poor, which also provided him with numerous perceptual materials for drama creation in the future.

Bernard Shaw is the only person to be awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925 and an Oscar in 1938, for his respective contributions to literature and work on the film Pygmalion adapted from his play of the same name. He was also a very productive writer and created more than 60 plays in his life. Nearly all his writings address prevailing social problems, but have a vein of comedy which makes their stark themes more palatable; Pygmalion and Major Barbara are no exception. Issues which engage Shaws attention usually include education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege.

In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the rapid development of natural science and industry not only bring the enormous growth of the wealth, but also promote the production of various new theories. In this context, people began to abandon the Christian doctrine and pursue the maximization of material wealth because they realized that God could not save them or make them satisfied but money could. Major Barbara and Pygmalion, Shaws two most outstanding comedies were produced during this period of time, mainly revealing the essence of the capitalist society and exposing the ugly face of the exploiting classes to the public. Most readers and scholars focus on the analysis of Eliza and Professor Higgins in Pygmalion, as well as the heroine in Major Barbara, but few of them attach importance to the two father images, Doolittle and Undershaft in the plays. Nevertheless, the depiction of the two father images can best reflect Shaws intention of writing, for he is against Oscar Wildes aesthetic view Art for Arts Sake, and argues that art should reflect the pressing social problems. Therefore, a comparative study of the two father images in ShawsPygmalionand Major Barbara is bound to assist people in figuring out the writing intention and enhancing a deep understanding of Shaws thematic concerns as a realistic playwright and Fabian socialist. Major Barbara and Pygmalion will be successively reviewed.

1. Previous studies on Major Barbara

The characterization and plot arrangement of Major Barbara vividly show us the mien of George Bernard Shaw as a master of language and the greatest playwright after Shakespeare. However, only a few domestic and foreign scholars have ever done literary study of this masterpiece mainly because the character traits in the play are bright and themes are relatively clear. It is estimated that there are only about 24 academic articles published on cnki.net between 1996 and 2013, in particular, over ten are published during the nearly six years.

In recent years, with the development of the capitalism in many European and American countries, the problems of capitalism and hierarchy gradually appear. Problems reflected in Major Barbara can cause the resonance of readers day by day, so a lot of scholars, especially Chinese scholars reread and did some researches on the play, most focusing on the study of its subjects. For example: Chinese scholar Zhang Minai (2008) sharply points out, judging from Major Barbara, we can figure out Bernard Shaw hates the bourgeoisie, and regards them as the unscrupulous who just care about the wealth. They don't have the justice principle and merely want to grab the biggest wealth from those workers who create materials. In Major Barbara, reflecting the problem of the secular life in the society is one of the striking features of the drama, as Wei Jinmei (2011) claims. She also explains that in order to better depict the themes, Shaw concentrates on the issues of economy, religion, family and education, but the most important one is that of poverty. Zhou Gongyan (2011) further indicates that in the era of monopoly economy, the monopoly capitalists can control the government agencies by controlling the countrys economic lifeline, and thus the government becomes the institution to safeguard their own interests.

There are also some scholars conducting analyses of the character images and language characteristics but eventually return to the discussion of themes. Frank Harris (1921) points out that in Shaws long life, there is nothing more important than his concern for women, and Barbara is a typically successful image that reflects the idea. Grene Nicholas (1984) equally regards the character portraying of Barbara as Shaws care for women, for he highlights that women need to jump out of the cage in the patriarchal society, pursue their own liberation, participate in social activities, and females shall be no longer an accessory of males. Chinese scholar He Ning (2009) studies the language features of Major Barbara in three aspects: detailed instructions of the stage, large section of the dialog and spoken language and the dialect. Finally, he puts forward that Undershafts dialog accounts for a large space of the conversation, which not only implies he is the most influential figure in the drama, but also reveals the theme of the script: on one hand, poverty is the root of all evil and we can buy everything with great power; on the other hand, the so-called salvation army and the upper class are of no use but to teach the religious morals. Chen Maoqing (2011) makes a comparative analysis of Andrew Undershaft in Major Barbara and Mother Courage in Mother Courage and her Children from the perspective of pursuing money and ignoring morals, and concludes that though having the same pursuit, they share different destinies due to the disparity of the material wealth amount as well as revealing the disadvantage of the capitalist society in which money is the king.

2. Previous studies onPygmalion

Pygmalion derives its name from the famous story in Ovids Metamorphoses, but what happens when George Bernard Shaw tries to translate such an allegory into Victorian England? Since its publication in 1912, the haze has been plagued by scholars at home and abroad. Thus, Pygmalion has been the natural concern of much criticism. Especially, after Yang Zongxians translation was well-known among the public in 2001, many Chinese scholars conduct numerous researches on the play. There are about 52 academic articles published on cnki.net between 2001 and 2013. Different from the situation of Major Barbara, scholars attach more importance to its characterization rather than thematic analysis.

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