Shaw died falling down a ladder while pruning a tree. He was cremated at his request, and his ashes were mixed with the ashes of his deceased wife and scattered in the garden of his home in his village.
George Bernard Shaw was born on July 26, 1856, in Dublin, Ireland. A poor family, an alcoholic father, and school life abandoned at the age of 15… Like almost every genius, Shaw is one of those who considers school life unnecessary. He is the only boy among his 3 siblings. Maybe that's why she's a staunch advocate for women's rights.
Shaw spent most of his childhood witnessing the violent fights of his parents. As a result, her mother goes to London with another man. Shaw stays with his father and despite being forced by his father to go to school, he quits school and starts working for a real estate agent. In 1876, when one of his sisters died, Shaw had to go to London with his mother. Although he lives in London, he will say he is Irish for life. He tries to complete his unfinished education with his own efforts by making use of the library of the British Museum.
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1913) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Shaw's early years in England are filled with disappointment. The 5 novels he wrote during this period were unsuccessful. But he is also the owner of the saying “Failure is the key to success”. In 1885, he wrote books, music, and painting reviews for newspapers. In fact, he always wanted to be a painter. Due to her mother's singing education, she is musically inclined and talented. He already says that he received his theater education from Meyerbeer, Beethoven, Hendel, Wagner, and Verdi, but especially Mozart, rather than writers. Widowers' Houses, which he wrote in 1892, is his first play.
Becoming interested in politics in the 1880s, Shaw became a socialist, believing in the necessity of change and reform. He joins the Fabian Society, which seeks to ensure that these ideas reach wide audiences and are better understood. Beatrice Webb, one of the famous names of British socialism, whom Shaw met at the Fabian Society and later became close friends with, said to him, “He is a very good friend. He was a man admired by many women. He was born with a lecherous personality. He could easily impress women with his blue eyes. Above all, he is a very pleasant conversation partner, who speaks impressively, and has good words, ”he says.
Shaw takes a liking to Charlotte when Beatrice Webb invites her friends Shaw and Charlotte Payne-Townshend to dinner at their house in January 1896.
On their return to London, Charlotte writes Shaw a loving letter. Shaw's response is: "Don't fall in love. Don't be me or anyone else, be yourself. As soon as you can't do without me, you're lost. Don't be afraid, if we want each other, we'll find out. All I know is that you made autumn very happy for me and that's why I will always love you." In July 1897, Charlotte proposes to Shaw. Shaw turns down the offer because he is poor and Charlotte is rich so he doesn't want people to see him as a treasure hunter. In April 1898, Shaw has an accident. As soon as Charlotte hears the news, she comes to visit her at home. That same year, Shaw and Charlotte are getting married. The couple, who has been married for 45 years, has no children. According to various sources, the husband and wife had a very sexual marriage. The common view in different sources is that their marriage was never perfect.
Although Candida, staged in 1894, is one of the first plays, it is a masterpiece. Shaw describes Candida as a mystery. The characters of the play are the pastor James Morell, his wife Candida, and the young poet Eugene Marchbanks. Eugene confesses his love for Candida, and the two men ask Candida to choose one of them at the end of the play. In the play, Shaw talks about love, marriage, and a woman's expectations from her husband, along with political issues.
In Caesar and Cleopatra, staged in 1899, Shaw's Caesar is not a heroic statesman, but a cold-blooded pragmatist who mocks himself and realizes his mistakes and thus achieves greatness. Caesar is more like a thinker who goes out to explore the world than a commander who goes out to conquer the world, an amateur writer who is interested in writing travel and war memoirs.
Considered the greatest playwright after Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw wrote nearly 60 plays. Shaw's theater is referred to as the "Comedy of Ideas" in the sources. The author's ideas on subjects such as the bourgeois class and the English moral code take place both in the characters and in the lines.
Shaw's Pygmalion was first exhibited in London in 1912 and quickly became one of his favorite plays. The plot of the game is based on the legend of Pygmalion in Greek mythology. Legend has it that the Cypriot sculptor Pygmalion sculpts a woman out of ivory. At the festival of Aphrodite, he begs the goddess to give him a woman who looks just like the statue he had made. Later, he will see that the statue he has made has come to life and turned into a woman. It has been a source of inspiration for many writers in Western Literature. In the work, phonologist Professor Higgins teaches Liza, an ordinary flower girl who speaks in the Cockney dialect (English used by the lowly people of London's East End) how to speak and behave, thus creating a new Liza.
George Bernard Shaw asked Alan Jay Lerner, who asked permission to make Pygmalion a musical, "What's the point? Is the music of my words, not enough for you?” says. My Fair Lady, the musical of the play, only comes into the spotlight with the permission of her heirs after the death of the author.
Shaw received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 for his masterpiece, Jan Dark, which was staged in 1924. Although he doesn't accept it at first, he gives up and takes it. The hero of the game, Jan Dark, is the French national hero. Shaw narrated the heroic life and death of Jan Dark with his unique narration in the play.
He also has an extraordinary life worthy of his extraordinary intelligence. Known as a women's rights advocate and socialist, Bernard Shaw is a strict vegetarian and sympathizer of Islam.
Shaw fell off a ladder while pruning a tree on November 2, 1950. He died of non-healing wounds. He was cremated at his request, and his ashes were mixed with the ashes of his wife, Charlotte Payne-Townshend, who died seven years earlier. Then those ashes were scattered in the garden of his house in the village of Ayot Saint Lawrence.