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George Bernard Shaw · à 26.07.1856 in Dublin . 02.11.1950 in Ayot Saint Lawrence · George Bernard Shaw( Stage Name: Bernard Shaw) · Playwright, Critic in Newspaper about music, policy and social problems · Wrote ca. 65 plays and articles and continued his writing at the age of 90 until his death · Father: George Carr Shawàjobless, alcoholic, wife batterer, loutàstamped the life of his son in every way · Mother: Lucinda Elisabeth Gurly Shawàprofessional singeràleft son and husband · 1876àeducationàmoved to his mom to London · pursing his journalism careeràwrote prose and 5 novelsànever published · Shaw found flaws in capitalistic systemàfounded with friends Beatrice and Sidney Webb the Fabian Society, a middle-class Socialist groupà prominent members like H.
G. Wells · Wrote political articles in which he argued about the equality of income and advocated the equitable division of land and capital · Karl Marx said that capitalism was deeply flawed and was unlikely to lastàShaw was the same opinion · Wrote in an pamphlet in 1897 that socialism "will come by prosaic instalments of public regulation and public administration enacted by ordinary parliaments, vestries, municipalities, parish councils, school boards, etc" · In 1892 he wrote his first political play "Widower's houses" · From that time on he knew he was a good playwright because he vexed so many people with his social commentary · he went on to revolutionise the theatre by writing about current social and political problems whereas other playwrighters wrote "sentimental pap" · marriage in 1898 till 1943(Charlotte's death)with Charlotte Payne-Townsend, an Irish woman of independent means · in 1906 settled from London to Hertfordshire village · most of his plays dealt with issues such as poverty and women\'s rights and that socialism could help solve the problems created by capitalism · First world waràlife of Shaw changed forever: For him, the war represented the moral repugnancy of the Capitalist system, the last gasp of the British Empire, a tragic waste of young life under the guise of patriotism. · He began to write anti-war articles called Common Sense About the War · Shaw found himself as a social pariah and was even accused of treason of England · After the war he started finding to himself and slowly began rebuilding his renown first with a series of five plays about \"creative evolution,\" including Saint Joan in 1923. Critics called Saint Joan(Joan d'arc) the playwright\'s masterwork, and it helped Shaw climb back up. He suddenly was called \"Second Shakespeare\". · Joan d'arc premiered in New York in 1923, in London in 1924, and finally Shaw won a Nobel Prize in 1925 for this play.
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