I. The features of Shaw’s plays:
1. Problem plays: He took the modern social issues as his subject with the aim of directing social reforms. Most of his plays are concerned with political, economic, or religious problems.
2. In his characterization, he makes the tricks of showing up one character vividly at the expense of another. His characters are the representatives of ideas, which shift and alter during the play.
3. The strong sense of comedy in his play are achieved through his witty dialogues, sharp satires, and vivid portrayal of characters.
II. The theme of Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s profession
1. The play is not only moral, but also has a strong realistic theme. The guilt for prostitution lies more upon the social system than immoral woman. He shows all human sufferings are consequences of the economic exploitation.
2. The play is a spiritual triumph for Vivie who experiences a journey from illusion to reality. At first, she is ignorant of the evil, and through a series of temptations, she understands the capitalist world better.
III. Yeats’ Poems:
1. “The lake isle of Innisfree”
The poem consists of three quatrains of iambic pentameter, with each stanza rhymed abab. Tired of the life of his day, Yeats sought to escape into an ideal “fairyland” where he could live calmly and enjoy the beauty of nature. The best remedy for the emptiness of his age seemed to lie in a return to simple life in the past.
2. “Down by the Salley Gardens”
The poem is about the fundamental questions on life: how to live and enjoy? The speaker’s lover bids “me” to take love and life easy. Love and life are like leaves and grass which have their own rule of living—nature determine it. Too much human effort will only spoil them. They are best when they are most natural. Yeats thinks there are too much human interference in modern life.
IV. T. S. Eliot’s “The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Written in the form of monologue, the poem is the song of a being divided between passion and timidity. It is about the impotence and futility of a modern everyman and his existence. Prufrock is an interesting tragic figure. He is a man caught in a sense of defeated idealism and tortured by unsatisfied desire. He does not dare to seek love because even if he could find it, it would not satisfy his needs. He compares himself with Hamlet. As a result of his timidity he has become incapable of action of any sort.
V. D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers
1. Theme: Sociologically, it is a novel about modern civilization, the “sickness of a whole civilization”. Psychologically, it is a case study of the Oedipus complex theory, for it deals with a son who loves the mother too dearly and hates the father too despisingly. The psychic conflict (between dark self and white self) in human relationships is the central theme of the novel.
2. The character analysis of Paul Morel:
He is a light, quick, slender boy. From his childhood, he is especially sensitive, artistic and imaginative, and he becomes extraordinarily dependent on his mother. When he gets older, his distorted relationship with his mother prevents him from loving girls as fully as he feels he should. Besides, Paul is also an artist, and a likeable young man adored by many girls.
VI. The features of stream of consciousness
1. The unspoken thoughts and feelings of their characters are described without resorting to objective description or conventional dialogue.
2. The flux of a character’s thoughts, impressions, emotions are often shown without logical sequence or syntax.
