Critical Analysis - Candida : GB Shaw

Critical Analysis -Candida - GB Shaw

[alert-success] Candida - GB Shaw

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[alert-primary] Critical Analysis [/alert-primary]

          Shaw's modern idea of "Art for art's sake" is shown by the way Candida looks. It is a comedy-mystery play with three acts and the subtitle "a mystery," which fits well. Candida is one of Shaw's "Plays Pleasant." It was written in 1894 and came out for the first time in 1898. The three main plays in "Plays Pleasant" are "Arms and the Man," "Candida," and "You Never Can Tell" (1896). Candida has always been one of Shaw's most well-known plays. In it, Shaw tells us everything we need to know about a happy marriage.    

        The title of Candida tells you a lot about the main character, Candida, and how she acts. This common English name comes from the word "candid," which means "open and honest." This describes the main character in Shaw's play. Shaw's characters are his mouthpieces and they portray his perspectives.     

           "Do you think that things that make people act like fools are less real and true than things that make them act like adults? They are more true because they are the only things that are true."  

        Candida, also known as "ménage à trois" or "the eternal triangle," is when two men love the same woman and she is already married to one of the men. 

"Wicked people are those who don't love, so they don't feel shame. They can ask for love, even though they don't need it, because they have the power to give it. They have nothing to give, after all." 

        As a play about ideas, it tries to get people to think in a completely different, unusual way. Candida, her husband the Reverend James Mavor Morell, and a poet named Eugene Marchbanks are at the centre of the story. Candida and Morell are married, but Marchbanks falls in love with Candida. Morell is the personification of traditional morality, but he doesn't do what he says he should do. Candida doesn't like any of these things about the poet, so she chooses her husband over him. Here, the idea of marriage is called into question, but the answer is very logical and practical. The wife stays with her husband, and she reminds the poet-lover of what a happy, stable marriage and household looks like. 

"That's what poets do: they talk to themselves out loud, and everyone else can hear. But sometimes it's nice not to hear someone else talk." 

        Shaw is an iconoclast, which means he wants to change society from a set of rules to a set of facts. If Candida has her own opinion, it's because Shaw wanted there to be "a new woman" on the horizon who speaks for all women in society and has their power over chances. They should have a strong sense of independence, self-confidence, clear thinking, moral courage, and emotional control. 

        Candida is not only a good wife, but she is also the longest character in the play and makes decisions based on common sense, not anger or passion. She takes care of everything, making Morell realise that he didn't do enough to comfort Marchbanks. She was fully aware of herself. "Think for yourself," G.B. Shaw's one constant idea, fits well here. Shaw's way of focusing the lenses of his camera is to shed new light on old, worn-out ideas and practises, and Candida stands tall in every way. 

        Candida is a thoughtful play, even though it's set in the Victorian era, because it looks at relationships and marriage with a modern point of view.