Marriage in Well-Made Plays and George Bernard Shaw’s Plays: An Instance of Generic Discursiveness

Implementation of the institution of marriage in “happy ending” plays will depict this institution as a concept that is taken for granted in such plays (Stanton, 575). This position is taken by a number of scholars including Francisque Sarcey (1827–1899), one of the most important critics in the French theatre and Ellen Terry, one of the most important critics on Shavian plays. According to Terry, many regard most of Shavian plays as drawing room comedies or well-made plays due to their depiction of marriage in their resolution (John, 66). Although well-made plays treat marriage in their fixed exogamic and endogamic ways, the very divergence between exogamic representation of early well-made plays and endogamic representation of late instances undermines the holistic regard towards the representation of the institution of marriage in well-made plays. Furthermore, Shaw’s ambivalent treatment of the issue, making the audiences question their conventional expectations, is rooted in his borrowing from both positions in well-made plays and at the same time, not belonging to either of them. Therefore, Shaw’s ambivalent position towards marriage, alongside with divergent and differing treatment of this institution in early and late well-made playwrights will be studied through utilization of Derrida’s generic notions in “The Law of Genre” and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notions on dialogism. The ultimate findings of this paper will be the negation of exclusivity of the notion of well-made genre or Shavian genre when it comes to the issue of marriage as an exclusive remark of belonging. Furthermore, Shaw’s ambivalent treatment of marriage will be regarded as a borrowing and at the same time, escaping from the endogamic and exogamic treatments of early and late well-made plays.