Man and Superman story
Man and Superman is a four-act drama written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to a call for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. Mr. Whitefield has recently died, and his will indicates that his daughter Ann should be left in the care of two men, Roebuck Ramsden and John Tanner. Ramsden, a venerable old man, distrusts John Tanner, an eloquent youth with revolutionary ideas, whom Shaw's stage directions describe as "prodigiously fluent of speech, restless, excitable (mark the snorting nostril and the restless blue eye, just the thirty-secondth of an inch too wide open), possibly a little mad". In spite of what Ramsden says, Ann accepts Tanner as her guardian, though Tanner doesn't want the position at all. She also challenges Tanner's revolutionary beliefs with her own ideas. Despite Tanner's professed dedication to anarchy, he is unable to disarm Ann's charm, and she ultimately persuades him to marry her, choosing him over her more persistent suitor, a young man, Tanner's friend, named Octavius Robinson.
9 total · 4 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| female sexuality | major | It is spelled out initially that women compulsively manipulates things to the end of nature, i.e. reproduction |
| hominid evolution | major | Shaw comments on how the behavior of men and women relates to human evolution |
| romantic courtship | major | Ann pursued Tanner relentlessly and the play culminated with their impending nuptials. |
| the future of human evolution | major | As Shaw notes in "Epistle Dedicatory", and the title of the works hints at in invoking Nietzshe's "Superman", the work is related to the direction in which evolution might be taking us. |
| coping with the death of a parent | minor | Ann grieved for her late father. |
| father and daughter | minor | The late Mr. Whitfield and Ann as indicated by Ann |
| female independence | minor | The story is built on the premise that women must have male guardians even as it portrays cunning and competent females that could easily fend for themselves |
| mother and daughter | minor | Mrs. Whitfield and Ann |
| rivalry | minor | Ramsden and Tanner are rivals over political ideology |