Man and Superman

Subtitled as ‘A Comedy and a Philosophy’, George Bernard Shaw published Man and Superman
in 1903, and it was fully staged in 1915 at theyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. The title comes from
Friedrich Nietzche’s ideas about the Ubermensch or ‘Superman’. The plot centers on John Tanner,
and Ann Whitefield and her persistent efforts to make him marry her. Written in a response to a
request for a ‘Don Juan’ play, it is based on his belief in the conflict between man as the spiritual
creator and woman as the guardian of the biological continuity of the human race. Shaw, in this
work, incorporates the concept of ‘life force’ and succeeds in painting a satirical view of the eternal
battle of the sexes.