Significance of Hell Scene of "Man and Superman":
The Hell Scene is the
most significant part of the drama where Shaw has expressed his philosophical
outlook with utmost sincerity. The Hell Scene of the play is actually a
fantasy. It might mean a parody or an adaptation. But in the play, it is more a
parody than an adaptation. We get a combination of the real and the fantastic
in it. The third act- the Hell Scene is abundant with mostly by the
conversation of Don Juan and the Devil. By making the conversation sparkling
with wit and humour, the author has made it vitally attractive. The ideas
expressed in this scene are very important. All the discussions are of profound
nature, but they have been carried out with perfect clarity of language.
When Ana, the shadow
representative of Ann Whitefield in Hell, introduces the subject of women in
relation to men, Don Juan is no less emphatic. He explains that, as woman sees
it, man's role is to get bread for her children. Woman instinctively knows that
her great mission is to bear children:
When the Devil asks Don Juan if Hell offers him all that he sought in life, Juan says that Hell offers
only disappointments to him. He says: "I tell you that as long as I can
conceive something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to
bring it into existence of clearing the way for it. That is the law of my life.
In a word, the Life force works within him with its "incessant aspiration
to higher organization, wider, deeper, intenser self-consciousness, and clearer
self-understanding", all pointing to the ultimate emergence of the
Superman.
The Devil's repeated
reference to his religion of love and beauty only disgusts Don Juan, and when
he learns that there are no artistic people in Heaven, he is anxious to leave.
In response to the question of how to get there, the statue replies the very
philosophic statement: "The frontier between Heaven and Hell is only the
difference between two ways of looking at things."
Apart from the fact
that Man and Superman is acted without the Hell scene, the Scene is
ideologically and significantly well-integrated with the rest of the play. Many
critics have praised the Hell Scene as a great Landmark with which the new
comedy, the comedy of purpose has been established in England. The central
theme of the play Lite force and creative evolution is discussed in detail in
the scene. Other ideas also are casually hinted with more significance in this
scene. Thus, we may say that although the Hell Scene makes the play impossible
to be staged in one go, it is undoubtedly the inevitable part of the drama.
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