Analysis of the Text «the Man of Destiny» by George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), a prominent playwright, was born of an impoverish middle-class family in Dublin where he attended a college. In 1876 he started working as a journalist in London. He become a socialist in 1882 and in 1884 joined the Fabian Society, an organization of petty bourgeois intellectuals. In 1887 G. B. Shaw took up writing plays, in which he criticized the vices of bourgeois society. Bernard Shaw is famous for his brilliant dialogues, full of witty paradoxes and often bitterly satirical. He was a friend of the Soviet Union which he visit in 1931. The Man of Destiny is an 1897 play by George Bernard Shaw. It was published as a part of Plays Pleasant, which also included Arms and the Man, Candida and You Never Can Tell. It is based on an historic incident at the early stage of Napoleon Bonaparte's military career following upon his advancement to General.
This text is written in a form of play. The style is informal, with elements of formal. There are such bookish words as “affrighted”, “unvoluntarily”, “reproof”, “enraptured”, “tranquil”, “confronting” and so on. Such words as “lad”, “shew”, “Aha!”, “eh” are informal. Also Author uses present tenses, all that to make us feel that we are the members of this conversation.
The plot is quite simple: a Lady tricked Lieutenant Bonaparte's out of letters on the road in order to intercept a personal one written previously by a woman to a man, who is not her husband and sent to Bonaparte out of sheer malice. He did not know that the love letters were written to his “friend” Director Barras by his wife Josephine before she had met Bonaparte and fell in love with him. And this letters uncovered that she had lied to him about her age, her income, her social position, about everything that silly women lie about. Napoleon attempted to retrieve his despatches while the Lady attempted to keep him from reading the contents of Josephine's personal letter.
There are two main characters – Lady and Napoleon.
This text is written in a form of play. The style is informal, with elements of formal. There are such bookish words as “affrighted”, “unvoluntarily”, “reproof”, “enraptured”, “tranquil”, “confronting” and so on. Such words as “lad”, “shew”, “Aha!”, “eh” are informal. Also Author uses present tenses, all that to make us feel that we are the members of this conversation.
The plot is quite simple: a Lady tricked Lieutenant Bonaparte's out of letters on the road in order to intercept a personal one written previously by a woman to a man, who is not her husband and sent to Bonaparte out of sheer malice. He did not know that the love letters were written to his “friend” Director Barras by his wife Josephine before she had met Bonaparte and fell in love with him. And this letters uncovered that she had lied to him about her age, her income, her social position, about everything that silly women lie about. Napoleon attempted to retrieve his despatches while the Lady attempted to keep him from reading the contents of Josephine's personal letter.
There are two main characters – Lady and Napoleon.