Abstract
Shaw’s plays often involve “seeing double,” which Richard Hornby defines as “seeing through one level of performance to another” (Drama 35). In Major Barbara, an inner play in Act I lets the audience in on secrets that are withheld from the characters onstage. Other examples of “seeing double” are our awareness of mythological content (such as the Cinderella subplay in Pygmalion), and our ability to navigate smoothly between reality and stagecraft.
Shaw’s “double vision” has two purposes: to provide entertainment, and to challenge us to think more deeply about the topics he’s exploring.
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Reynolds, J. (2022). Seeing Double. In: Language and Metadrama in Major Barbara and Pygmalion. Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96071-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96071-1_4
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