Narrate the Significance of Hell Scene of "Man and Superman"

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.