You Never Can Tell as a Drama of Ideas

A drama of ideas is a type of drama which deals with certain ideas. In this type of drama a social problem is illustrated and usually a solution is suggested. In a drama of ideas the dramatic characters express the thoughts and feelings of the dramatist. In such a drama the structure and characterization are of little importance; the importance is given on discussion. There is practically no action in a drama of ideas. The characters talk and here conversation is equivalent to action.

You Never Can Tell is a drama of ideas. It deals with Shaw’s anti-romantic attitude towards love. Shaw here exposes the romantic passion. The love of Valentine for Gloria is not the kind of romantic love. Mrs. Clandon has fashioned Gloria into a perfect pattern of twentieth century womanhood and is confident that Gloria will resist her weakness for love. Instead of training Gloria as a shy girl in the old-fashioned way, Mrs. Clandon makes her a new woman by giving her Higher Education of women. This has made her free and unconventional. Valentine’s attack in the duel of love is also unconventional. He does not go down on his knees before her. He neither does worship and adore her like a romantic lover. Instead, he embraces and kisses her impetuously. He applies his new method to overcome all the resistance of a new woman. His action is more direct and realistic and so he wins the heart of Gloria easily.

To Shaw, drama was pre-eminently a medium for articulating his own ideas and philosophy. He enunciated the philosophy of life force which seeks to perfect creation through evolution. Shaw conceives the life force as working through woman to create man who is designed to carry life to higher levels. In You Never Can Tell Valentine falls in love with Gloria at first sight. His blood was oxygenated when he. Saw her in the morning. The same sensation happened to her. Being a rationalist, Gloria wants a scientific explanation of this feeling. Valentine says that this feeling is the working of Nature. It is Nature which works through the hearts of men and women who are nothing but toys in the hands of Nature. Nature, here, is synonymous with life force. As Valentine and Gloria are the vehicles of life force, they cannot resist the influence of Nature. It is the plan of life force that woman should be the hunter and man should be the hunted. Gloria being the victim of life force hunted Valentine by captivating him in the morning with her charm and beauty.

In You Never Can Tell Shaw deals with his ideas about marriage. The waiter, Walter Boon is the mouthpiece of Shaw. He delivers the message of the drama. The message is that young men and women at the point of marrying regard marriage as a source of dread but after all marriages are not so unhappy and uncomfortable as they think Marriages create a paradise on earth by producing happiness and comfort to both the husband and the wife. It is only in a few cases that marriages prove unhappy. But this does not mean that marriage should be condemned indiscriminately.

The play lacks action. A drama of ideas practically has no action and You Never Can Tell lacks action. Only important action in the play is Valentine’s kissing Gloria on her lips. In the play, importance is given on discussion instead of the structure and characterization. Shaw conveys his ideas through dialogues.

Thus, You Never Can Tell is a drama of ideas in which Shaw propagates his realistic view about love and marriage.