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Literature Review

As an outstanding Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925 and an Oscar in 1938. At first, he intended to refuse the Nobel Prize since he had no desire for public honor; however, later on he accepted the honor upon his wife's request, but he refused the bounty used to finance the translation of his fellow playwright August Strindberg's works from Swedish to English.

Even though he made quite a few excellent musical and literary comments, Bernard Shaw showed more interest in drama. All his life, he composed more than 60 plays, the majority of which focused on prevailing social problems including education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege. At the beginning of his writing career, Bernard Shaw wrote several undesirable novels. Gradually, with profound humor, Shaws plays became increasingly popular and welcomed. His plays were first staged in the 1890s and then he became an accomplished playwright. When approaching 50, Shaw produced those outstanding works with mature views such as Caesar and Cleopatra in 1898, Man and Superman in 1903, Major Barbara in 1905 and The Doctor's Dilemma in 1906. On the other hand, as a passionate socialist, Shaw expressed his views on and feelings for the Fabian Society in many brochures and speeches.

The year of 1907 witnessed the publication of Shaws Major Barbara which was finished in 1905. The three-act play is the most Shavian of Shaws plays (Bloom 2011) and was first produced at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1905 by J.E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker. Ten years later, on December 9, 1915, Major Barbara was first staged on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre (Wikipedia). According to Shaw, what he wrote in his play was what he observed in the actual life. This play reflects the British social life in the unique era that the poor have nothing to eat while the rich love nothing but money. Many scholars speak highly of the play because of its profound social influences and the character of the heroine, Major Barbara. She is a pious Christian since she aspires to devote herself to rescuing souls of the poor by working as an officer in the Salvation Army. She looks down on the way how her father makes money; however, she ultimately accepts the stark fact. In conclusion, Barbara possesses many favorable features in her personality.

From the above discussion, we can feel that there are three aspects in terms of the human inner world, which can be elaborated on from the perspective of Sigmund Freuds The Ego and the Id, namely, the ego, the superego and the id. According to Freud, these three parts combined can produce very complicated behaviors. The ego deals with reality; the id meets basic needs; the superego equals the combination of reality and morality. As the clue of the novel alludes to the severely spiritual conflict of Barbaras ego, superego and id, this thesis will analyze her personality under the guidance of Freud's theory of mental structure.

1. 1. Previous Studies onMajor Barbara

Major Barbara rocked that age; as a result, it has become the favorite of literary critics. Many scholars analyze it from perspectives of themes, language, and characterization.

Themes such as social problems are the top concern. Most of the social problems in Bernard Shaws plays stem from the actual life. In the opinion of Huang Jiade (1989), Shaws plays were mirrors of the real life, without creating stories, imaginary plots or distorting human emotions. Zhou Hongyan (2011) gave a relatively thorough analysis of the conflict between money and religion and Barbaras final choice. According to Zhou, every charitable institution had to rely on the richs donation if wanting to exist for long. Mr. Undershaft, Barbaras father, whose religion was money and fortune, believed that religious organizations were the tool with which the rich oppressed the poor. However, they dont study the relationship between the social problems and the personality of the heroine, Major Barbara. Wei Jinmei (2011) discussed the social problems from the perspective of realism and tried to illustrate its relevant characteristics under dramatic structure.

Some scholars focus on feminism in Bernard Shaws plays. Li Jingyi and Sun Mei (2008) made an analysis from the feminist perspective and concluded that female images who had both social ideal and philosophical thoughts in Shaws plays reflect modern womens excellent qualities, such as independence, wisdom, kindness and braveness, and refusal to rely on men, which could thus spur the feminist movement. Zhang Mingai (2009) pointed out that Major Barbara reflected that Barbara was his spokesperson of the views on society, religion and marriage. Yang Xue (2011) agreed that Bernard Shaw described an independent and brave lady who differed from the traditional women images in that Shaw intended to arouse womens consciousness of independence and passion for participating in social affairs. However, such scholars dont conduct further study of Barbaras inner world.

As a world-reowned play, Major Barbara has been translated into many languages, including Chinese. Chen Xiaoli and Zhang Yuanyuan (2011) compared two translated versions of Major Barbara with the theory of translation strategy and the audience acceptance in order to find the simplest way of translation that could exert the best effect. He Ning (2009) believed that the language in George Bernard Shaw's drama was simple, sharp and sophisticated. The language features of Major Barbara were studied in three aspects: detailed stage instructions, long discussion, spoken language and dialect. In Rosanne G. Potters opinion (1989), research on changes in Shaw's rhetoric in Major Barbara led him to a heuristic for gaining literary critical control over computer output. Potter analyzed the language in Major Barbara in the eleven-step process.

Yang Xue (2011) tried to understand Barbaras character in the aspects of autognosis, rebellion against male chauvinism, and the awareness of social responsibility. Camelia Manea and Anca Popescu (2010) insisted that Barbara Undershaft who seceded herself from the established social order and her family be a typical Shavian character: a rebel and a libertine. It is easy to find that the relevant researches on Major Barbara have failed to analyze Barbaras character under the framework of the psychological theory. This is why the author of this thesis will conduct a detailed research on her personality under the guidance of Sigmund Freuds structural theory of personality which will consist of three parts: the ego, superego and the id.