“Freedom” by G.B. Shaw: Questions and Answers

 

1) Why according to Shaw no man is perfectly free?

Ans- According to Shaw there is no perfectly free man on earth because logically this is impossible. Whether humans like it or not, they must sleep for one-thirds of their lifetime; wash and dress and undress; they must spend a couple of hours eating and drinking; they spend as much time from travelling from one place to another. For half the day they are slaves to their natural requirements, which they cannot shirk.

2) Do all social and governmental regulations aim at regulating man’s slavery?

Ans- Shaw says that the object of all honest Governments should be to prevent the unnatural slavery of man to man. But he regretfully observes that the actual motive of all Governments is just the opposite. The Government simply enforces the slavery of man to man and calls it freedom. They also regulate the norms of slavery and try to keep the greed of the master class within bounds. This does not leave the repressed class any freer because they have to choose between one master and the other.      

3) What does Shaw think of the right to vote?

Ans- Shaw thinks that the governments simply deceive the public by promising that they have the power to govern the country themselves by getting to choose their representative through their right to vote. A general election is held every five years. At the election, two of their rich friends, who are divorced from the pains the commoners, become the candidates for the election. The candidates themselves are unworthy; therefore, in spite of having the right to vote the people are not free to do whatever they would like to do.

4) How is man’s slavery to nature pleasant?

Ans- Shaw believes that man’s slavery to nature is pleasant because even though she (nature) forces man to eat and drink, she makes eating and drinking pleasurable so much so that some people simply live to eat. The comforts of civilised society and family life are so great that young people are eager to get married and join building societies to realize their dreams.

5) How can slavery be ended?

Ans- Shaw points out that man’s slavery to man is unnatural and must be prevented at any cost. He says that poets do not praise slavery. They say that no man is good enough to be another man’s master. Shaw uses the example of Marx who had advocated that law could only stop slavery. Because there were no proper laws against slavery in those times there were continual civil wars. Thomas More also raised his voice against such a social evil. He believed that peace could be achieved only by compelling everyone to do his own share of work with his own hand and brains, and not to put it on anyone else.

6) What means does the master class use to maintain the upper hand over the slave class?

Ans- The master class through its Parliaments, schools and newspapers, makes the most desperate efforts to prevent the mass from realizing their slavery. By directly controlling their thoughts, the master class prevents the slave class from forming a derogatory opinion of them. Whenever the prople complain, they are told that they themselves are responsible for their misery because of their own wrong choice of their representative. When they try to protest about the system of voting they are reminded that they have been given the Factory Acts and the Wage Board, and free education, and the New Deal, and the dole. They always reassure the slave class that they do not need any more than has been already given to them.

7) How do the master class prevent the upheaval of the downtrodden masses when lead by famous figures?

Ans- Shaw says that whenever famous writers protest against the imposture of the master class, they teach the people that they are traitors of the country. Shaw gives the examples of Voltaire and Rousseau and Tom Paine in the eighteenth century, or Cobbett and Shelley, Karl Marx and Lassalle in the nineteenth or Lenin and Trotsky in the twentieth century.  These people are declared atheists and libertines, murderers and scoundrels; and often it is made a criminal offence to buy or sell their books. If their disciples make a revolution, England makes war upon them and lends money to the other powers to join her in forcing the revolutionists to restore the slave order.

8) How is the master class led to accepting the righteousness of human exploitation?

Ans- Shaw regrets that though “the prodigious mass of humbug is meant to delude the enslaved class only, it ends in deluding the master class more completely”. A gentleman whose mind has been formed at a preparatory school run by the master class itself, followed by a public school run by the government and university course, is completely under the false notion of created history and dishonest political economy and snobbery taught in these places. The gentleman’s education teaches him to think highly of himself. He thinks that being socially superior to the commoners is his right to get his work done by the other underprivileged people.  He sincerely believes it to be his duty to shed his blood and the blood of others to the last drop in order to defend such a nation which has bestowed so many favours on him.

9) Why do most workers or women vote for their social superiors?

Ans- Shaw notes that great men like Aristotle believed that men must be made ignorant idolaters before they can be made obedient workers and law abiding citizens. One must pretend to have God-like-superiority in order to draw the attention of their social inferiors. Women are no exception to this rule. Shaw notes that when women were enfranchised and given the right to sit in Parliament, first use they made of their votes was to defeat all the women candidates who stood for freedom of the workers and had given them years of distinguished service. They had elected only one titled lady of great wealth. The reason behind such mistaken choice is due to human nature. Human nature can of course be changed through education. But education is provided by the Government and the Government would never like to educate the masses to think against the existing system.

10) How does a civilized society protect its citizens?

Ans- According to Shaw, a civilized society has a Government which frames a constitution enumerating the rights and duties of the citizens. Absolute freedom of the citizens is restricted by the laws of the land, enforced by the police, who will oblige the citizens to do something and not do some others and to pay rates and taxes. If they do not obey these laws the courts will imprison them and if they go too far kill them. If the laws are reasonable and impartially administered the citizens have no reason to complain, because the laws increase their freedom by protecting them against assault, highway robbery, and disorder generally.  

11) How should an intelligent trade union movement conduct its affairs?

Ans- Shaw points out that it becomes very difficult for the employees to work under such tyrannical employers. They have only one remedy that of joining a trade union movement. The trade unions use the weapon of strike, which is the device of starving on the enemy’s doorstep until justice is done. The extreme form of strike—the general strike of all workers at the same moment—is also the extreme form of human folly, as, if completely carried out, it would extinguish the human race in a week’s time. And the workers will be the first to die. According to Shaw general strike is madness. Practical trade unionism would never sanction more than one big strike at a time, with all the other trades working overtime to support it.

12) What are Shaw’s views on working hours and retirement?

Ans- At the end of his essay, “Freedom”, G.B Shaw tickles our minds with a question that if we had unlimited freedom would we be able to handle it responsibly? Since absolute freedom is impossible, Shaw leaves his readers to decide for themselves that if they had a choice would they work eight hours a day and retire with a full pension at forty-five, or would they rather work for four hours a day and keep on working till the age of seventy. Shaw wittily concludes the essay by urging his readers to talk this proposition over with their wives and not try to send any replies to him.

13) “Nature may have tricks up her sleeve to check us if the chemists exploit her too greedily”. Critically comment on the statement.

Ans- Science and technology can definitely help produce machines and increase the production of food grains which would directly help equal distribution of wealth. The author reflects on the fact that though we can now cultivate the sky as well as the earth, by drawing nitrogen from it to increase the quality of grass to enhance the quality of food given to the cattle, and consequently improve our cattle, and butter and poultry, it might prove risky. Shaw here is talking about ecological disturbance which is the harsh reality of the modern world.

14) How did the author’s forefathers win freedom for themselves? Give some examples.

Ans- Shaw mockingly points out that whenever countries like England or America are attacked by external forces they try to prevent them. If the said countries are victorious in their assault they note it down in their history books as the glorious triumphs of patriotism. He gives a few examples. The forceful signing of the Magna Carta by King John; the defeating of the Spanish Armada; the beheading of King Charles; the acceptance of the Bill of Rights by King William; the issue and implementation of the American Declaration of independence; the victory of the battles of Waterloo and Trafalgar and the changing of the German, Austrian, Russian and Ottoman Empires into Republics.  

15) What, according to Shaw, are the factors that lead to the curtailment of freedom of common men?

Ans- According to Shaw a lot of factors contribute toward the curtailment of freedom of common men. First of all, man is a slave to his own bodily desires and needs. Secondly, he becomes a slave to the fancies of his employers to whom he has to remain obedient in order to feed himself and his family. Thirdly, he is slave to his landlord. Fourthly, the Government of his country, which extracts income tax from him. Fifthly, by the opaque education given to him by the Governmental institutions. Finally, his independence is mocked at through the flawed institution of voting and democracy.

Interpretation of Wordsworth’s Lucy Poems

“Lucy Poems” consists of five poems Wordsworth wrote when his mind was at the height of Romantic fancy and idealism. The obvious philosophical inspiration behind this was Rousseau’s Emile... The immediate model for Lucy has been much debated: some argue strongly, like Geoffrey Hartman, in favour of the poet’s sister, Dorothy Wordsworth, some find an image of Annette Vallon and some dismiss all of these in favour of the argument that Lucy is nothing but an ideal construct of the poet’s fancy. Whatever the case may be, the simplicity and beauty of the poems continue to attract the readers to an ideal Romantic world, where a few principles seek to make it different from the real one. The poems appeared in the 1800 edition of the Lyrical Ballads, which was itself a monumental collection of Romantic experiment.

She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways

The Text

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy tone
Half hidden from the eye!

Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!

This poem tells the tale of Lucy’s short journey of life in this world—her growth, perfection and untimely death. The poet informs us that Lucy lived a delicate and solitary life in the world of Nature unpolluted by human intrusion. She lived beside the springs of Dove and she was unknown to human beings who could otherwise praise the greatness of her mind. In her isolation she was also quite stranger to human love.

This kind of situation is very hard to explain and that is why Wordsworth resorts to rhetorical deice: he compares the fragility and the beauty of her existence to that of a violent which blooms by a mossy stone, where it remains half-hidden from others. He compares her unusual beauty to that of Venus, which is seen first in the evening sky shining with exceptional beauty in the midst of approaching darkness of night.

In the final stanza Wordsworth informs the reader of Lucy’s secluded way of life and her sudden death. Just as she lived unknown, she also died unknown. No person other than the poet could know that Lucy became one with Nature. Finally the poet suddenly becomes conscious of the immediate reality that she is no more alive in this world and is sleeping forever in her grave. He feels acute pain in his heart and abruptly ends the poet with equivocal words. Now he can feel the difference of his situation of utter grief that has been created by the loss from the one of divine bliss when she was alive.

[to be continued...]

The Character of Macbeth: As a Tragic Hero Villain and a Hero

Shakespeare must have conceived of Macbeth as a personality caught up between the old and the new world-views and ethos—the conventional one and the Renaissance one. The former defined man’s place on earth in terms of the biblical world-view presented in the first chapter of the Bible Genesis, which necessarily linked it to the concept of Great Chain of Being, and accordingly dictated the codes of conduct. The later yet to come out fully, on the other, was trying to supplant the old ones with the new and pseudo-scientific one, which was slowly but surely encouraging man to think beyond the traditional framework towards the direction of fullest use of the human potentials. The audience/readers feel sympathetic to Macbeth, not because he possesses the high stature of a tragic hero described by Aristotle. They understand that he is a villain and criminal, but at the same time they also share his “vaulting ambition”, which collides head-on with the ethical parameters in the play.

The play has been presented not only against this backdrop, but also against another situation, which much attention has not been paid to. Actually the play starts at the crucial juncture of Scottish history: the king Duncan has grown old and feeble and sensing this, the rebels and the king of Norway the kingdom attacked. Macbeth along with others must have been conscious of this opportunity as ambitious persons always look forward to. Much has been said and written about his association with the Witches, and even if we ignore them, we hear an echo of the Witches’ words from him on his first appearance on the stage:

“So foul and fair day I have never seen”

We may presume that the grand success in the battles with Duncan’s enemy whetted his ambition before his actual meeting with the Witches. And when he learns from them that “”, he gets greatly moved. His excitement at the “strange intelligence” from the Witches begins to transform into a potent ambition very soon at the fulfilment of the two prophecies as he is greeted by Ross:

“Glamis, and thane of Cawdor!

The Greatest is behind.”

Right from this moment Macbeth begins to feel a split in his personality created by the great pulls of morality on the one hand, and terrible anticipation of the royal reality:

“...why do I yield to that suggestion

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair...”

Of course, Macbeth demonstrates his good sense when he comments on the prospect of his kingship:

“...Present fears

Are less than horrible imaginings.”

Here it must be pointed out that the king does not act prudently in throwing out the proposal of holding communal feast at Macbeth’s castle in such a fluid condition in which a faithful man like the Thane of Cawdor betrayed his trust. This creates an unthinkable opportunity, which Macbeth must have thought a satanic one, if not providential, to seize upon, and his ambition begins to take the shape of a potent plan even before the hot-headed intervention of Lady Macbeth. Sympathetic critics tend to shift the blame on Lady Macbeth who, of course, resorts to emotional blackmail by underestimating his capability just to goad him towards curving out his way to the throne. But Macbeth, whom the bleeding Captain described with such superlative epithets as “valour’s minion”, “Bellona’s bridegroom” etc. should have withstood the insulting exhortations of his wife.

The real nature of Macbeth only comes out as soon as he commits the murder of Duncan and experiences the psychological and moral effects of the such a heinous act. Combined with this is Shakespeare’s presentation of the popular effects of usurping a rightful king. As Macbeth gets alienated from nature and faces the ordeal of the absence of divine grace, he does not learns from the prick of conscience. On the contrary he goes on to affirm his authority in a wrong way, and here again his authority gets snubbed by the intervention of Banquo’s ghost. It must be pointed out here that right from the Banquet Scene, Lady Macbeth’s powers also begin disintegrate and she cannot provide the same amount of support. However, while Lady Macbeth slowly shrinks from the external reality and recoils in her own personality, the opposite happens with Macbeth, who undergoes a total transformation of personality and becomes more and more dependent on the Witches. He becomes a tyrannical, treacherous and suspicious ruler. He emerges as a confirmed villain when he gets the wife and the child of Macduff killed. All these killings cannot be ascribed to the impact of the prophecies of the Witches.

At this point one is reminded of A.C. Bradley’s view that in Shakespeare’s tragedies character is destiny as a character like Macbeth is himself responsible for his downfall. But as Bradley was a Hegelian idealist, he did not consider the fact that the tragedy of Macbeth also involves the tragedy of the Scottish people who suffer just because of the misdeeds of a king. We are attracted to Macbeth because he shows something of a reflective nature and utters some wise words which arouse our sympathy because we share his human nature, his limitation and some of his flaws too. It is here in the theatrical phenomenon that the fall of the tragic hero effects the catharsis of “pity and fear”, that the character of Macbeth passes the test of the Aristotelian concept of tragic hero who vanishes from the scene forever leaving behind some greater understanding. The audience/readers learns from his experience that if not lived properly,

“Life’s but a walking shadow...

...it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.”