Man and Superman was published by Constable in 1903 and first performed (without the third-act dream sequence) at the Royal Court Theatre in 1905. The full play, including the self-contained third act known as “Don Juan in Hell,” is rarely performed complete — it runs to over four hours — but it is Shaw’s most ambitious dramatic work: a comedy of sexual pursuit that contains, embedded within it, a philosophical dialogue on the meaning of life, death, and evolution.
The surface plot is a comedy of manners. Jack Tanner, a wealthy young radical who has written “The Revolutionist’s Handbook” (printed as an appendix to the play), is pursued by Ann Whitfield, a beautiful, determined young woman who has decided to marry him. Tanner resists — he sees marriage as a trap, a biological snare set by the “Life Force” to ensure the reproduction of the species — but Ann’s pursuit is implacable, and the play ends with his surrender. The comedy lies in the gap between Tanner’s intellectual sophistication (he talks brilliantly about freedom, revolution, and the emancipation of the individual) and his biological helplessness (he cannot resist the woman who has chosen him).
The third act transforms the comedy into philosophy. Tanner falls asleep in the Sierra Nevada and dreams himself as Don Juan Tenorio, engaged in a debate with the Devil, the Statue (the Commander), and Doña Ana about the purpose of existence. Don Juan argues that life’s purpose is the evolution of consciousness — the creation of a being capable of understanding the universe — and that the Life Force drives sexual selection toward this end. The Devil argues for pleasure, comfort, and the avoidance of suffering. The Statue argues for honor and convention. Ana, who has just died and arrived in Hell, discovers that Heaven is not a place of happiness but a place of contemplation, and that the truly interesting people prefer Hell.
This debate — witty, relentless, intellectually thrilling — is Shaw’s supreme achievement as a thinker. His Life Force philosophy, drawn from Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and (in distorted form) Darwin, may not survive rigorous philosophical scrutiny, but as dramatic material it is magnificent: the ideas are genuinely interesting, the arguments are genuinely contested, and the language is Shaw at his most electrically alive.
Collecting Man and Superman
First edition (Constable, London, 1903): Green cloth. Includes “The Revolutionist’s Handbook and Pocket Companion.”
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $200–$600
- First American edition (Brentano’s): $100–$300
- Later editions: $10–$25