The Game of Masks and Desires. Notes on Bernard Shaw’s You Never Can Tell

Bernard Shaw’s Plays Pleasant are an example of realization of convention of realistic social dramaturgy as well as a proof of a serious reflection on condition and construction of the institution of marriage and the family of Victorian era. You Never Can Tell which is an object of analyses in this article raises the question of dramatization of behaviours of individuals, masks worn by individuals because of social situations, a strategy of seduction (social life as drama/game). The institution of marriage functions as an object of critique, a tool in the games between sexes and as an object of affirmation. The “duel of sexes” is the key problem of comedy. Bernard Shaw presents the mechanism of arousing of desire as well as demonstrating that love is a form of game and desire is the basic experience in the construction of human identity.

The Game of Masks and Desires. Notes on Bernard Shaw’s You Never Can Tell

Bernard Shaw’s Plays Pleasant are an example of realization of convention of realistic social dramaturgy as well as a proof of a serious reflection on condition and construction of the institution of marriage and the family of Victorian era. You Never Can Tell which is an object of analyses in this article raises the question of dramatization of behaviours of individuals, masks worn by individuals because of social situations, a strategy of seduction (social life as drama/game). The institution of marriage functions as an object of critique, a tool in the games between sexes and as an object of affirmation. The “duel of sexes” is the key problem of comedy. Bernard Shaw presents the mechanism of arousing of desire as well as demonstrating that love is a form of game and desire is the basic experience in the construction of human identity.