Beyond Laughter:Humor In Bernard Shaw’s Plays

This thesis analyzes George Bernard Shaw’s humor in his three plays:Pygmalion,Candida,and In Good King Charles’ s Golden Days,exploring the stylistic charm behind specific techniques and skills,Shaw’s social concerns,and his forward thinking which goes beyond the Victorian Era.Humor in Bernard Shaw’s plays is studied from three perspectives: verbal humor,physical humor,and situational humor.Verbal humor is closely related with linguistics,especially conversation analysis in pragmatics,but the textual analysis here is mostly based on specific techniques in Shaw’s plays.As for physical humor and situational humor,the humor theories mainly include the superiority theory,the relief theory,and the incongruity theory.By close reading,literature reviews,biographic inquiry and classification research,combined with relevant humor theories,the study on humor in Bernard Shaw’s plays is divided into three parts: dramatic construction,thematic expression,and universal social concerns.Firstly,Shavian humor helps to construct the plays by shaping characters,developing plots,creating atmosphere,and revealing themes.Secondly,by employing humor in his drama,Shaw conveys his views concerning feminism,Fabian socialism,religions,and so on.Lastly,Bernard Shaw’s plays use humor to express some universal concerns and values which go far beyond Shaw’s time and echoes in contemporary society.The study on the humor in Bernard Shaw’s plays can not only deepen understanding of Shavian plays and thoughts,but also provide contemporary drama writing,especially comedy writing,with certain reference such as humor being beyond laughter in many levels.