Idealism Versus Realism in Shaw’s Major Barbara

Abstract

protagonist of the play, supports idealism as she is determined to improve the condition of poor people from her Salvation Army Shelter. In contrast, her father Andrew Undershaft is associated with realism. Barbara believes in the selfless help to the poor while her father hates poverty and slavery. Naturally, Undershaft is the mouthpiece of Bernard Shaw who expresses his experience based on the realism because he focuses on day-to-day life. Barbara and her father are different because they have distinct point of view about life. As she studies the world, she says the spiritual world gives self-satisfaction and promotes human beings to humanism whereas her father believes on the present world where people have to work, earn money and become prosperous being active and creative. But finally, Barbara realizes that her belief is only a pretention as her father is ready to hand over his property to anyone who has capability to run his factory. So, realism gets victory over idealism. To test the hypothesis of this research work, the researcher has applied Marxism as a theoretical tool focusing on idealism and realism. Bernard Shaw as a socialist playwright expresses his idea through the mouth of Undershaft. Idealism and realism are two important concepts, and they go opposite in the play. Thus, this research work proves that idealism versus realism.