ELTWeekly Vol. 3 Issue#99 | September 26 | ISSN 0975-3036

Subscribe to ELTWeekly (FREE)

Md. Afrozuddin works as Assistant Professor of English at Sri Venkateswara Institute of Technology (SVIT), NH-44, Behind Anantha PVC Pipes, Hampapuram (V), Rapthadu (M), Anantapur – 515722.

The 19^th century saw the introduction of legislation that began a process of state intervention into the living and working conditions of the men and women of Britain. Many people’s living conditions were shocking and degrading.  As a young man, “Shaw worked for a firm of estate agents collecting tiny sums of rent from slum dwellers in Dublin.  Shaw hated this job and that it was through this experience that … he saw how gentleman actually behaved and how they made their money out of working men and women … Landlords, it seemed to him, were little better than thieves.”[1]

Shaw intended his first play to expose the practices of slum landlords and the corruption within local government that continued to line the pockets of those willing to exploit and abuse. At the time of its first performance in 1892, it excited a great of controversy, a sense of uproar which delighted Shaw and the reaction of the middle class audiences was understandable since they recognized the attack Shaw was making on them. (more…)