Abstract
As a Nobel Prize winner, Bernard Shaw is undoubtedly one of the most prominent and prolific playwrights of the Victorian age. His works have exerted a great influence on world literature. The studies of Shaw and his works have achieved fruitful results. However, most scholars have long focused on Shaw’s early problem plays and paid little attention to his later political plays. In fact, Shaw discussed more serious themes such as social reality, political criticism and ethical ideals in his later years through unrestrained artistic creation. He wrote dramas in a rhapsodic way which represented the political crisis and fantasy of British society at that time. As a member of the Fabian Society, Shaw never gives up his ethical thoughts and his political rhapsody of social reform and development, which are clearly expressed in his later plays. As Shaw’s most important political satire, <i>The Apple Cart</i> is a case in point. In this play, Shaw combined current events, fantasy, and philosophic thought concerned by the public, criticized the British parliamentary system and bourgeois democracy at that time, and clearly expressed his political ideal and ethical appeal. That is to build a better world order, and reshape the virtuous social ethics and moral codes.
Highlights
The Apple Cart is Bernard Shaw’s 40th play and the most important political satire in his later years
The title of the play comes from an English idiom “upset the apple cart”, which is equivalent to what people say “upset wishful thinking”
The Apple Cart shows the crises of British cabinet, the bourgeois democracy, the reconcilable contradictions between Britain and America, and the unfavorable situations of Britain after the World War I in a panoramic way
Summary
The Apple Cart is Bernard Shaw’s 40th play and the most important political satire in his later years. The Apple Cart, which Shaw explicitly subtitles it “A Political Extravaganza”, combines social and political reality with imagination and fantasy, exposing and criticizing the British parliamentary system and the bourgeois democracy. In particular, showed a keen interest in practical politics and created a new form of drama called “political extravaganza”. The Apple Cart shows the crises of British cabinet, the bourgeois democracy, the reconcilable contradictions between Britain and America, and the unfavorable situations of Britain after the World War I in a panoramic way. Shaw accurately grasps the hypocritical nature of the so called democratic politics of the British bourgeoisie both in reality and illusion, which realizes his drama creations concerning social reality, and castigates such issues as inequality and injustice and realizes the ultimate goal of building a democratic and harmonious social system
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