Man and Superman

Man and Superman is a four-act play by George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1903 and first performed in 1905. Shaw calls it a comedy joined to philosophy.

Radical writer John Tanner is named co-guardian of Ann Whitefield alongside the respectable Roebuck Ramsden. Tanner insists that marriage is a trap while Ann steadily arranges the conditions of his surrender, turning courtship into comic pursuit.

Octavius's idealized love for Ann, Violet's secret marriage, and Tanner's flight toward Spain test the difference between declared principles and practical desire. Even the bandit Mendoza mirrors respectable society, placing social roles under pressure.

In the third-act dream known as “Don Juan in Hell,” legendary figures debate marriage, evolution, art, and Shaw's “Life Force.” The long argument makes ideas themselves into drama, then returns to a comedy in which Ann acts more decisively than Tanner theorizes.

"Roebuck Ramsden is in his study, opening the morning letters. The study, handsomely and solidly furnished, proclaims the man of means. Not a speck of dust is visible: it is clear that there are at least two housemaids and a parlormaid downstairs, and a housekeeper upstairs who does not let them spare elbow-grease."