NAME - SOURAV KUMAR

ROLL NO - 20
PAPER - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

KJ SOMAIYA COLLEGE OF ARTS AND COMMERCE

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, NOV 2021

RESEARCH ARTICLE

TITLE - An examination of ambivalent attitude to marriage and

women in Bernard Shaw's Play 'Candida'

Introduction

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and a political
activist. With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical
allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation. Shaw's works
concerned themselves mostly with prevailing social problems, specifically with
what he saw as the exploitation of the working middle class. Shaw was a socialist
and a member of the Fabian Society. He wrote 60 Plays, most of which deals
with social themes such as marriage, religion, class government and health care.
Two of his greatest influencers were Henrik Ibsen and Henry Fielding. Ibsen's
Plays and Fielding's expulsion from playwrighting inspired him to write his own
plays on social injustices of the world around him. His major works are - Man and
Superman, Pygmalion and Saint Joan. In 1925, he was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Literature.

Candida is a comedy by Bernard Shaw published in part of his 'Plays Pleasant'.

The central characters are James Morell, a clergyman, the protagonist of the play
Candida, Morell's wife and Eugene Marchbanks, who tries to win Candida's
affections. The play questions Victorian notions of love and marriage, asking
what a woman really desires from her husband. The subject of the play is 'the
wife of a clergyman who must choose between her husband and her young
lover'.

Candida the play is written on the economic and social ground of contemporary
England. It powerfully depicts the social problems of family, love, marriage and
sex relations. Shaw objects to marriage and family because these institutions are
based on false economic and false biology. As a socialist he demands that all
women should be equally paid for. The institution of family rests on a foundation
of fraud that can be clearly seen in Candida, the play. James Morell thinks he
provides security, defense and livelihood, honor and prestige but in reality It is
Candida who provides comfort for the man and manages everything.

Aim -
To question Victorian notions of love and marriage, calling on what a
woman really desires from her husband.

Objectives:
● To study Candida as an action towards love, marriage and the roles of
woman in nineteenth century English Society.
● To show Candida as an unconventional woman and a 'New Woman'.
● To Study Shaw's Play Candida as a 'Problem Play'.
● To be Concerned with the inhuman and exploitative treatment of poor
workers by the upper class people in the Play.

Literature Review:

Bernard Shaw main aim through Candida was to bring reform in society and
emancipate the humanity from all evils and vices. In writing Candida, Shaw has
saluted an old established institution: marriage, but the treatment applied to it is
somewhat comic. The women freedom, love and marriage is a question mark in
Victorian society. Candida the play bears to Henrik Ibsen's play 'A Doll's House'
but Shaw however reversed it. In 'A Doll's House', Nora the protagonist is a doll
and a puppet in the hands of her husband Torvard but the tables are turned in
Shaw's Candida as Morell, a high principled fellow is actually a puppet. It is his
wife Candida who is responsible for his success.
In a dramatic situation, Candida is forced to choose between her husband Morell
and her young charismatic lover Eugene Marchbanks, but She chooses Morell,
the weaker of the two.

The researcher has tried to analyse the standout character Candida as the
strongest but she chose Morell, the weaker of the two, is also because of the
class consciousness in Candida. In the play she has been portrayed as a bold
and courageous woman but could not function such quality in society as it is
based upon capitalism where women have no access, so they are compelled not
to leave their husband at any cost.

Hypothesis:

The plays of Bernard Shaw represents 'the drama of ideas' which is a type of
discussion in which clash of ideas and hostile ideologies reveals the most actual
problems of social and personal morality. Candida is a drama of ideas as there
are number of social problems that have been discussed in a witty and original
manner.

The statement of the hypothesis includes -

H1) To show love, marriage and family
life that have been realistically and
forcefully stated in the play.
H2) To show Shaw's attempt in
imposing highly powerful role to his
female character in making a revolt
against patriarchal domination.

Research Methodology:

This research work will include close reading of the text, historical and feminist
material including sources. For a better understanding of the work, the
researcher has focused from the playwright as well as from the character point of
view, as James Morell the cleric in the play is a Christian Socialist, allowing Shaw
himself a 'Fabian Socialist' - to weave political issues, current at a time in the
play.

The research Aporoach used by the researcher is a 'Qualitative and

Descriptive' Approach. It is engaged in order to find out the ways in which
Bernard Shaw has presented his views on the notions of victorian love and
marriage, class consciousness by collecting the data from his play. In addition,
discussion would be done on the basis of parallel kind of study particularly in
addition to Henrik Ibsen.

Sample Design
It refers to the technique or procedure the researcher would adopt in selecting a
sample in an efficient method of conducting research. The researcher has used
non-probability sampling method in creating a sample because the researcher
primary objective is to derive a hypothesis about the topic in research.

The treatment of women in a Victorian society on the basis of social, economic

and financial position was a question mark. Women were trapped under the table
of so called patriarchal society. If a woman is absent, will there be possible to
study literature at all? There is ultimately no life and no literature without women.
If such is the role of women in literature, then why are still Women not on the
same match with men? They are still walking on a tight rope to achieve rights
and social justice. Bernard show wanted a change in the treatment against
women, that is why he portrayed Candida as different to earlier victorian female
characters.

The researcher prime idea in selecting this play 'Candida' is to show the
hypocrisy and mentality of the higher classes under whom women and the
oppressed were sufferers. The writer as well as the researcher has analysed
Candida as a new woman who is dependent on herself, manages everything.
The researcher gave utmost importance to women character so that they will
fight and protest against this male stricted victorian society.
 Candida as a feminist study

Shaw was famous for his outspoken support of equal rights for women. The play
titled 'Candida' is named upon central character Candida whose name implies
her "candid" thought and actions towards love, marriage and the role of women in
nineteenth century.

Candida takes a conventional woman role as a home maker of the family but she
also embraces feminist ideals about marriage and liberated married relationship.
Right from the beginning, Candida is found at the helm of the affairs. She is fully
committed to family life and makes Morell practically free from domestic
responsibilities. She rejects the conventional offers that the patriarchal society
has to offer to a married wife - the husband status, the wealth and social security.
It is love and nothing else that compels her to live with Morell. Candida is a
mature woman, she knows the complexities of choosing a young man over her
husband. She explains the fact of difference between her own age and that of
Marchbanks. She also makes him realize that "life is not romance and poetry
only and that marriage life does involve domestic responsibilities."

Tentative Chapterization
I. Candida as an 'unconventional woman' and a 'new woman' of Victorian
era

Candida is an eponymous character after whose name the play is named

Candida. Candida was very good at managing people. She is an efficient
housewife who looks after her home, her children and her disorderly husband
very well. Nowhere in the play it is being seen that she is in love with Eugene
Marchbanks, her lover. It was one-sided infatuation of a teenager for a beautiful
and intelligent woman.

'New Woman'
The new woman was a feminist ideal that emerged in late nineteenth century and
had a profound influence on feminism into the twentieth century as well. The term
was used by 'Charles Reade' in his novel 'A Woman Hater', originally published
in the Blackwood's magazine.
Candida is the 'new woman' of Victorian era. Though economically she is
dependent on her husband, she does not think her position in her home a bit
inferior to her husband. Candida is not an emotional fool. She enjoys
Marchbanks romanticism and finds it flattering to be loved by a man much
younger than her. But she is also aware that one cannot live only by poetry.
According to Candida, Poetry and romanticism of Eugene cannot make her leave
her husband and her home.
Candida sometimes can be cruel as she could. She lets Marchbanks fall in love
with her even she knew very well that it would lead him nowhere. It is due to her
commonsense that Candida realizes Marchbanks is of no use to her. It is Morell,
her husband who can satisfy her instincts. Her choice is redundant : a spectable
woman's choice.

II. Hegemony of Patriarchy in G.B. Shaw's Candida

Candida carries Shaw's protest against social evil and inhumanity such as the
oppression of women in the society he lived. He thinks the most serious injustice
is done to women for they are unpaid in the industrial world are not allowed to
have any independent at all for their work in the family. To make a world of
equality, justice and freedom he gives a highly powerful role to his female
characters and make them a revolt against patriarchal domination.

In Candida, Shaw primarily focuses on the love, fidelity and marriage

commitment. James Morell, who is a clergyman of Church of England is a
Christian Socialist Union. Another character Miss Prosperine, works under
James Morell. She is portrayed as a woman of thirty, of lower middle class, neatly
but cheaply dressed. Portraying of women as working under male and that too,
from the lower classes shows the real condition of women.
When Morell was suffering from Measles, Candida is taking care of children
without her husband. This shows Candida is a self dependent woman who can
run household even without her husband.

Morell believes marriage is an institution. Marriage as an institution provides

male to show his power and female to be ruled out. Domestic life is ignoble as it
is based on the exploitation of woman. Therefore, it is observed through Candida
that she is bound by a sense of many responsibilities after she gets married. The
influence of societal norms and values, is what Candida in a way obey it. She
could not go beyond the constructed rules and regulations of the society.

A Stand against the system of Patriarchy : G.B. Shaw's Candida with

Ibsen's 'A Doll's House'

In both the plays we find two different woman with similar characteristics to some
extent as they stand against the system of patriarchy. They challenge the societal
norms and values by developing themselves as confident, hardworker and self
dependent woman. However, they differ in characteristics. Since 'Nora Helmer' in
A Doll's House chooses to stay alone by breaking a relationship with her
husband but Candida remains with her husband.

Ibsen's 'A Doll's House' is a domestic play where a devoted wife to her husband
always tries to do good things in order to make her husband happy. To save her
husband life she takes loan and putting herself in danger. She on the one hand
saves her husband life, on the other she saves his reputation of 'male ego' by
hiding secrecies of loan. Self-Sacrificing woman however changes at the end of
the play where she does not want to become her husband 'doll wife'. Portraying a
character like Nora, Ibsen is not happy at all with the inhuman social
conventional with marriage life.

However in Candida, Shaw has presented or portrayed a strong and bold woman
Candida, who like Nora shows his rebellious nature against traditional concept of
women as being submissive.

The main intention behind comparing and contrasting Ibsen's A Doll's House with
Shaw's Candida is that Ibsen was proponent of using female characters in
theatre and also raises social issues through his plays which inspires Shaw and it
is Ibsen's influence upon him which is the result of Shaw's plays, which primarily
focuses on the social issues of the time like problems of family, marriage and
generally the issue of women.

III. Candida as a 'Problem Play'

a) Problem Play
 b) Candida as a Problem Play
a)
A Problem Play is a type of drama that was popularized by the Norwegian
playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was used to a greater effect by Bernard Shaw in his
plays. It deals with controversy social issues in a realistic manner, to expose
social ills and to stimulate thought and discussion on the part of the audience.
Discussion Play is the modern subtype of modern problem plays, in which
social issues are not incorporated into a plot but expounded in the give and take
of a sustained debate among the characters.
Earlier the term problem play is applied to a group of Shakespeare's plays
especially Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure and All's well that Ends
Well. These plays are bitter comedies.
The most important exponent of problem play was Henrik Ibsen. In a series of
plays Ibsen addressed a range of problem, most notably restrictions of woman
lives in 'A Doll's House', sexual transmitted disease in 'Ghosts'. Ibsen's drama
proved influential which was seen in the plays of Bernard Shaw. Candida, Apple
Cart, The Widower's House plays of Bernard Shaw are the problem plays.

b) Candida as a Problem Play

Candida is a typical problem play. Shaw in this play raises burning issues by the
characters of the plays, he has brought such situation that makes us to think
about the issues.

The realistic view of life - The central problem play in the play is whether a
woman should continue to stay with her husband even when they go out with her
love with whom there is a much greater compatibility. Shaw chooses an
apparently stereotypical love triangle, in which a married woman falls in an extra
marital affair. But he characteristically turns the table as woman is neither driven
out by her husband or does she elope with her lover, eventually she stays back
with her husband Morell because he is weaker than Marchbanks. Candida is
thoroughly a practical minded woman in the play. However the play has a
unconventional sense of pleasantness, it is not allowing the institution of
marriage to be seriously challenged by love.

Socialism - Candida the play deals with Christian Socialism. Candida’s father,
Mr. Burgess is a coarse, ignorant, self-made man, pompous and pushy.
Successful in business, he respects only money. James Morell Christian
Socialism is pitted against his father in law whose unshamed exploitation of the
poor workers, the pastor uses his influence to deprive the vulgar exploiter of poor
workers of his contracts. The problem of employer-employee relationship is
skilfully focused and elaborated through discussion between Morell and Mr.
Burgess. Morell dislikes Burgess for his inhuman and exploitative treatment of his
employees and for this reason he called Burgess a 'Scoundrel'.

Shaw uses his wit and humour to make people read his plays. In Candida, if
Candida had gone with Eugene Marchbanks, her lover, it would have been
sensational, melodramatic conclusion but Shaw adopts the dramatic method of
attacking domestic life within. Alike other plays Shaw does not give the solution
of problems but he leaves on readers to identify the problem and finds the
solution of problems by the characters of the play which represents the issues of
society.

IV. Conclusion

Candida by G.B. Shaw is written on the social and economic ground of

contemporary England. It powerfully depicts the social problems of family, love,
marriage and sex relations.
Candida is a 'drama of ideas' and so there is a discussion of a number of social
problems and an exposure to a number of our ideas and ideals. The central
problem in the play lies in the decision of a woman whether to stay with her
husband or her young lover and the problem has been discussed through
Morell-Candida-Marchbanks relationships. Shaw used a conventional plot in
Candida but reversed the basic situation of domestic comedy. Conflict in Shavian
(an admirer of G.B. Shaw writings) drama is unique.

In Candida there are clashes of ideas rather than external physical combat.
Conflict is made more dramatic by paradox and anticlimax which provides
characters with complexities and made them more interesting. The institution of
marriage and family, exploitation of workers and issues of university education
are discussed from various angles, it is 'drama of ideas'.
To sum up, it can be said Shaw deals with social problems and evil of the society
of their own times.
REFERENCES

George Bernard Shaw Candida Peacock Books; Latest edition (16 January
2021)

Henrik Ibsen A Doll's House Maple Press (1 August 2011)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candida_(p

Candida: an Unconventional Woman - Worldwidejournals.com

http://pintersociety.com › Ras...PDF
GB Shaw's Candida and Mahesh Dattani's Where There's a Will

https://en.m.wikiquote.org › ...
George Bernard Shaw - Wikiquote