Born in Dublin, George Bernard Shaw has always been regarded as an English writer.
At the age of 20, he moved to London with his mother and began his career as a theatricalist, and most of the screenplay scenes were selected in London, with the exception of which was called "The Other Island of the British".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="44" > Irish character</h1>
The protagonist, Doyle, is an astute man, and his little friend Bo Rao was originally a British, and they worked together for a British company.
At the beginning, Doyle identifies a fake Irish liar, Haffegan, who ironically thinks that Doyle is an authentic Englishman.
But Doyle was miserable, and he seemed to see through his weakness as an Irishman early on: he had been fantasizing. All energy and time were wasted, which eventually led to backwardness and poverty.
Because of this, Doyle chose to escape, and he was away from his hometown Rosscullen for 18 years.
But then he came back.
But the hometown is still poor. This time he was angry.
"The diligence of the Irish is inhumane, almost more diligent than that of a polyp. The British know how to deal with work, they have to do it, he can do it, and it is difficult to do it without a perfunctory attitude; but the Irishman has to keep doing it, as if he will die immediately if he does not work. ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="45" > Irish identity</h1>
In Shaw's pen, the Irish are such contradictions and sufferings. Deeply in love with his hometown, but spiritually fleeing from it, he denounces the colonial intentions of the British and thinks of using British efficiency to change the character of Ireland.
It's not so much that Doyle is caught up in identity, but even Shaw himself.
"The Other Island of the British" is actually a stage play written by George Bernard Shaw for the Abbe Theatre at the invitation of Yeats. Unfortunately, the play did not take place at the Abbe Theatre. The reason was simple, he did not conform to the mainstream public opinion in Ireland at that time.
For a long time, the island of Ireland was a british territory.
During the reign of King George III, a special decree was also issued to prohibit the performance of some plays in Ireland except for private buildings and English royal licensed theatres.
Therefore, before the establishment of the Abbe Theatre, the image of the Irish in the play was only two categories: alcoholism and sadness.
Yeats and Mrs. Gregory changed all that. They all aim to restore Ireland's independence and its traditional language and culture, and to speak out on behalf of Ireland's position. An Irish Renaissance movement in full swing began.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="46" > European citizens of Shaw</h1>
But George Bernard Shaw went against them.
Shaw's The Other Island of the British Triggers a Re-discussion of Irishness, and Shaw was reluctant to acknowledge the existence of the Irish in his later years.
He said: "There is no such thing as an Irish race, we are all a mixed race: Spanish, Scottish, Welsh, British, and even a little Jewish."
He prefers to call himself a citizen of Europe.
For this reason, shaw's writership label has never been uniform: is it a British writer, an Irish writer, or an Anglo-Irish writer?
In China, Shaw is usually placed in the sequence of English writers. In the world of Anglo-American literature, George Bernard Shaw was generally labeled an Anglo-irish writer.
In Ireland itself, Shaw has truly been recognized as an Irish writer for nearly fifty years. Many people still want to call him, the dramatist who lives in England.
George Bernard Shaw died on November 2, 1950.
And 71 years later, when we re-read George Bernard Shaw, can we understand the sadness and expectation in his heart?
Some people say that he is Lu Xun of Britain. But he has more humor.
George Bernard Shaw's epitaph had only one sentence: "I have long known that no matter how long I live, this kind of thing will happen sooner or later." ”