War is Politics of Mass Hysteria: A Study of Shaw’s Arms and the Man

Abstract

Bernard Shaw, a foremost Irish dramatist has taken up themes such as prostitution (Mrs. Warren’s Profession), war, religious intolerance, the superiority of creativity (Man and Superman), the perils of democracy (The Apple Cart) and training in refinement (Pygmalion) etc. He’s an iconoclast who has used humour to undermine traditional notions on each and every aspect of life. The intolerance of organized religion towards the vision of divinity is shown in Saint Joan. His wit and wisdom make the reader read through lengthy discussions without being bored.  My paper, “War is politics of Mass Hysteria: A Study of Shaw’s Arms and the Man” argues that the modern warfare which has become ferocious, senseless and unheroic makes no distinction between civilians and combatants. The Shavian argument that denounces and ridicules war as negative thing is pertinent even today when the lone super power has been waging one war after another in the name of democracy or combating terrorism. The need of the hour is to ask the question whether it’s worthy to glorify and accept modern warfare in all its ugly manifestations or find an alternative means to achieve alternative world order based on ‘equality amidst diversity’. My paper also compares and contrasts Shavian argument with ideas of Tolstoy, the author of War and Peace and Freud, the father of Modern Psychology.