Mr. Shaw has some of Shakespeare's carelessness over details. I have
sometimes wondered why Claudius succeeded to his brother's throne when
Hamlet was alive to do so. There is an explanation of this curious
succession in Frazer's "The Golden Bough," but I do not suppose that
the facts cited by Sir James Frazer were known to Shakespeare and even
if it were, he has not made the matter dramatically clear. Hamlet
does not appear to resent his uncle's accession to the throne of
Denmark. His resentment is roused by the marriage of his mother to her
brother-in-law. He probably never liked his uncle, but he is willing
to live in his castle as his heir. Shakespeare was always ready to
sacrifice verisimilitude to dramatic effects. Ophelia, for example,
is denied complete Christian burial because the Church authorities
suspect her of having committed suicide, although the account of her
death clearly establishes that she was accidentally drowned through
the breaking of a branch. Hamlet, too, is unaware of Ophelia's death
or dementia when he arrives in the graveyard where she is to be
buried, although he has been in the company of Horatio for some time,
and Horatio is fully acquainted with the circumstances of Ophelia's
misfortunes and death and knows that there have been passages of love
between Hamlet and her. Very little trouble was needed to put these
minor matters right, but when a god is creating a universe, he is
unlikely to trouble himself greatly about specks of dust. Mr. Shaw
shows himself equally indifferent to details when they no longer
serve his purpose. He has been charged with spoofing his audience on
occasion, notably in the first act of "Man and Superman" where he
trumps up a case of impending maternity for shocking effects, and
then, his purpose achieved, says no more about it for the remainder
of the play! He brings the Undershaft family together in the first
act of "Major Barbara" in the pretence that they are about to discuss
important questions of family finance which are never once discussed
during the act! I do not believe that Mr. Shaw had any intention of
spoofing his audience when he invented these situations. He simply did
not bother about the details. He had used the effect for his purpose,
and since it was no longer serviceable to him, he scrapped it without
even troubling to clear away the debris--which, presumably, is what
His God will do with us when He no longer needs us. Less happens in
the first act of "Major Barbara" than in any other first act by Mr.
Shaw. It is a protasis from which all mention of plot is deliberately
omitted. Bottom, had he been at Mr. Shaw's elbow while the play was
being written, might have begged him to "grow to a point," but Bottom
would have had less success with Mr. Shaw than he had with Quince, for
Bottom's point was a dramatic one, whereas Mr. Shaw's is doctrinal; and
a propounder of doctrine pays little heeds to the laws of stagecraft
or anything else. The mystic gets his way because he can neither be
frightened nor disconcerted. Death and Tradition have no terrors
for him. That is why, in face of the opposition of common sense and
practical experience, he always does what he wants to do.