Victorian Hypocrisy
Beneath all its lofty philosophical statements and flights of Nietzschean theoretics, Man and Superman remains firmly cast within a recognizable mold of witty romantic comedy. By casting his more radical ideas within this standard mode, Shaw takes aim at what he saw as his society's rote acceptance of Victorian ideals, built upon a foundation of hypocrisy. Violet, who is pregnant (seemingly out of wedlock) seems to serve quite nicely as the stereotypical woman whose stock has fallen in the light of a perceived failure of character on her part to conform to expected modes of social convention. Such a state provides Tanner with the perfect opportunity to play out his part as the progressive figure who sees what society does not: that Violet is the victim of a flaw in society’s character. In the hands of a lesser dramatist, this might well have been enough to set the two upon a journey eventually ending with their marriage and Violet’s regaining of her social status based on the tacit consent of agreeing to conform in the future. Instead, quite early on, Violet shocks Tanner and everyone else with unexpected moral indignation at his liberal—perhaps even radical—rejection of Victorian conservatism. Ultimately, Violet becomes the agent by which Man and Superman reveals the inherently sexist hypocrisy displayed toward women from those on both sides of the political spectrum.
Nietzschean Evolutionary Dialectics
George Bernard Shaw cleverly repurposes the conventions of Victorian romantic comedy in order to further his play’s examination of Nietzschean evolutionary dynamics. According to Nietzsche, mankind’s intellectual and moral growth will eventually lead to the next phase of evolutionary development: the übermensch, or overman—here translated as "superman." In Shaw’s interpretation, this evolutionary advancement in humans is dependent upon what he labels the Life Force, which is the urgent and unpredictable call for the preservation of the species through the regenerative act of procreation. The feminine response to the Life Force is to seek out the best potential mate through the natural gift of intuition. The male’s gift of greater strength allows for the more physically fit to benefit from experience and grow intellectually. Only when these ideally poised men and women are paired with one another can the Nietzschean construct begin actually playing out. Jack Tanner is a firm believer in the life force, which causes him to celebrate Violet’s pregnancy and to feel a great deal of internal conflict about his own attraction to Ann.
Subverting Don Juan's Moral Failure
Shaw was motivated to write Man and Superman in response to a challenge from a critic to retell the legendary story of the irredeemable Lothario, whose destiny takes him all the way to hell itself. Tanner’s dream sequence is the part of this play most directly related to this original “Don Juan” story, but even aside from that cluster of clear references, however, this play is deeply concerned with overturning some of the conclusions of the original legend. In this particular story, the Don Juan figure— Tanner—is not a relentless pursuer of women, and is instead relentlessly pursued by Ann. In this sense, Shaw makes a comment about modern gender dynamics, noting that the outwardly demure Victorian woman is in fact powerful and even dangerous to men. Ultimately, Shaw reevaluates the Don Juan story in light of Nietzsche's philosophy, coming to the conclusion that the pursuer’s actions are not necessarily evidence of moral weakness but are in fact a symptom of the vital life force driving human evolution.
Gender and Misogyny
According to Jack Tanner's Nietszche-influenced views, Violet Robinson's pregnancy is in fact cause for celebration, since she is fulfilling her true purpose as a woman by reproducing. While Shaw expresses sympathy with Tanner's views as a whole, he makes sure that the grounded Violet condemns this point of view, making clear that her purpose as a woman is not entirely reproductive. On the other hand, Shaw mocks some of the more conservative ideas about womanhood held by characters like Roebuck Ramsden, who firmly believes that pregnancy out of wedlock is worse than death. Finally, Shaw displays a healthy amount of skepticism when it comes to Ann, who uses her mastery of Victorian feminine manners to manipulate and torment others. Ultimately, this play promotes a rejection of romanticized or exaggerated ideals of femininity. Whether those ideals of femininity purport that women should be pure and innocent, or that they should be mystically tied to earthly reproductive processes, they are, according to Shaw, unsustainable and self-serving, not to mention frustrating for both men and women.
The Utility of Shame
One of Jack Tanner's earliest and most memorable diatribes has to do with the role of shame among the British middle class. According to this view, which the play as a whole promotes, the ideal of respectability at its core has very little to do with positive contributions to society and is mostly based on the ability to feel and display shame at the proper time. Tanner is particularly upset by the prevalence of shame when it comes to women's sexuality, arguing that the social pressure to feel shame about pregnancy has caused Violet's own family and friends to reject her and even to ignore her accomplishments. However, Shaw does make a case for the usefulness of shame in some cases, to the degree that "shame" is sometimes synonymous with self-awareness. Both Ann and Hector Malone, Jr., are completely without shame, unable to understand the way that they each, respectively, cause pain to others and create practical problems for themselves. What Shaw really seems to oppose is not the feeling of shame, which can lead to more moral behavior, but the ostentatious display of it, which is both hypocritical and unhelpful.
Class and Work
While most of this play's primary characters are wealthy, they have a range of different relationships to their wealth. These relationships can be broken into two general classes, characterized best by Ramsden and Tanner. Ramsden is a conservative capitalist who generally believes in sticking to the status quo, while Tanner is a revolutionary socialist. It's Tanner's more progressive worldview that wins out in the moral universe of "Man and Superman," although Shaw is sure to include some warnings for idealistic would-be revolutionaries. These warnings usually come to us in the form of Henry Straker, the play's primary working-class character, who finds socialists' obsession with the value of labor to be bizarre and who drily points out that it is rich men rather than poor ones who identify as socialists. The socialists and anarchists in Mendoza's crew of brigands are fodder for mockery too, what with their ill-articulated ideas and exaggerated notions of heroic sacrifice. Still, for all this play's gentle mockery of socialism, it comes down harder on the capitalist class. This includes not just the blustering Ramsden but the vengeful, shortsighted Hector Malone, Sr., who believes that neverending upward mobility will repair the damage done to the Irish people by colonialism.
British Identity
Britishness in "Man and Superman" gets put on display primarily through contrasts with other nationalities and national identities—mainly Spanish and American. Shaw frames Spanish and American identity as grand, showy, and loud, in contrast to the almost laughably timid and indirect manners associated with Britishness. For instance, Shaw's American characters, the Malones, are obsessed with earning money and leaving the past behind. Thus, the elder Malone uses capitalism and business to separate himself from his humble Irish roots, while the younger one does his best to work in order to make his way independently of his father. These American characters are shameless and fiery, willing to fight openly in front of strangers. On the other hand, the Spanish characters, such as Mendoza and his men, are almost premodern, unconcerned with practical matters and driven by emotion. Shaw paints the Spanish landscape carefully, noting that the hills in Spain are far more impressive and imposing than their English equivalents. Compared to these two examples, British people and British nationhood appear quiet and subdued, driven largely by shame and the desire to avoid open conflict or acknowledgment of differences. Shaw tends to regard this tendency with affection, but, interestingly, shows irritation with the way in which the British middle class has internalized this vision of English respectability, using it to justify a culture of avoidance and shame under the banner of "respectability" and British exceptionalism.
The Complexity of Happiness
At the play's end, Tanner announces to the assembled characters that his marriage to Ann will not be a happy one, and in fact that the two have sacrificed all hopes of future happiness. This announcement comes loaded with a strange irony, since everyone present, including Tanner, seems fairly lighthearted in the face of an eternal farewell to happiness. As it turns out, this is because, within the framework of man's evolutionary development into a Superman, happiness is at best a minor virtue and at worst an evil. This is why Tanner is forced to leave the comforts of hell in order to pursue truth in heaven within his dream: happiness leads to complacency and a general abandonment of the call of the life-force, ultimately leading to an abandonment of one's evolutionary potential. Therefore, the minor pleasures of happiness should in fact be sacrificed in order to pursue the more rewarding and important work of moral development and following the life-force.
