Candida
The sociopolitical climate of Shaw's England appears to have offeredthe playwright the subject of his conflict. In his 1895 essay on theproblem play, Shaw states the primacy of social issues in modern drama,expressing himself in dramatic rather than directly sociopolitical terms.One critical point is that a good problem play is good chiefly because ofthe emotional content of the human condition portrayed in the text. Social questions are produced by the conflict of human institutions with human feeling. . . . Now the material of the dramatist is always some conflict of human feeling with circumstances; so that, since institutions are circumstances, every social question furnishes material for drama. The institutions assumed that it was natural to a woman to allow her husband to own her property and person, and to represent her in politics as a father represents his infant child. The moment that seemed no longer natural to some women, it became grievously oppressive. Immediately there was a woman Question, which has produced Married Women's Property Acts, Divorce Acts, [and] Woman's Suffrage in local elections (Shaw 444).
This is partly aninherited skill that is ennobled in Candida by the love she has for Morell. When Candida asks howthings are at home, he replies, "The ouse aint worth livin in since youleft it, Candy. More generally, Shaw structures Candida to explore theobverse of the psychoemotional situation in A Doll House, presenting awoman who not only retains her persona but also lends nobility and dignityto it by enacting a role that enables a man to avoid the spoiling of hisprinciples, his persona. Candida is continuously engaged in theworld, protecting her husband from it so that he may function in therarefied environs of the liberal public lecture circuit. On the whole, Candida loves Burgess for what he is to herrather than blame him for what he is not. Indeed, it ismanifestly the case that, in the manner of her relationship with herfather, Candida does not withhold love from her husband for what he is not(that is what Nora chooses to do in Doll House) but instead loves him forwhat he is or can be. That situationleads to a whole range of considerations that make up the action of theplay: "Candida investigates the balance of power and need between a husbandand a wife. The fact that Candida makes Morell "master her, though he doesnot know it, and could not tell you a moment ago how it came to be so"(Shaw, Candida 74) tends to confirm Watson's thesis. Candida's serene brow, courageous eyes, and well set mouth and chin signify largeness of mind and dignity of character to ennoble her cunning in the affections (Shaw, Candida 20). Watson (115-6) cites Candida when making the point that historically womenenact power as a vital intelligence rather than physical strength,overcoming male domination by actually concealing their strength ofcharacter. Candida is caretaker for a way of life that she wishes shecould have in substance as well as in form and that her husband, in hisfatuous self-absorption, thinks she does have. Ask thetradesmen who want to worry James and spoil his beautiful sermons who it isthat puts them off.
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