George Bernard Shaw
In England, George Bernard Shaw who is an Irish-born playwright and critic brought the problem play to its intellectual peak, both with his plays and with their long and witty prefaces. He wrote frankly and satirically on political and social topics such as class, war, feminism, and the Salvation Army.
Ibsen had a profound effect on the drama both of his own time and in the twentieth century. His plays stimulated the avant-garde theater in Germany and France, and only the plays of George Bernard Shaw had a greater impact in England
His best early plays treat contemporary social issues humorously through the satirical use of love plots and melodrama. Although their content challenges the ruling ideologies of the late Victorian period, their form is often, as Shaw put it, “pleasant.”
George Bernard Shaw's "Candida" as a problem play.
Is Candida a problem play?
yes, 'Candida' is a 'Problem Play'. At its centre lies the problem of love and marriage. Candida, the clergyman Morell's middle-aged and long-married wife, and the 18-year-old poet Eugene Marchbanks grow a relationship ('calf-love'?) between them. The socialist priest and an acclaimed public orator James Mavor Morell gets scared about the relationship because he absolutely depends on Candida in all domestic needs, and if his wife chooses to leave her husband for the sake of her young lover, the outcome would be disastrous. However, at the end, Candida chooses 'the weaker of the two' i.e. Morell. It does not mean that Candida no longer loves the poet; but the poet does not require the services of a devoted wife which Morell desperately requires to promote his public image of an orator and activist. Marchbanks goes out into the dark night with the 'mystery in the poet's heart'.
Candida's choice reflects Shaw's insistence on the importance of the practical wisdom. Candida, unlike Nora, is a thoroughly practical minded woman. Though she is not crude like Burgess, she inherits some of her father's utilitarian philosophy. Her final choice of staying with Morell, is not decided by her love for him but the financial and social security of a married life that she is afraid of risking.
Shaw's ideas about women play with a vital role in Candida. According to Shaw, a woman is primarily a manifestation of Life Force whose primary function is the biological continuity of the race. Consequently Shaw believes that while choosing a mate, a woman would select the one who would be the best father fro her offsprings, eliminating others. He also deals with the idea of women's emancipation in Candida from an entirely practical point of view. By asserting her will on the two men, Candida converts the patriarchal pattern of the Victorian household setup into a matriarchal one.
As a Play of Ideas, Candida is not a pleasant one, the cruel rejection of Marchbanks and the heavy burden of 'mystery' in his soul with which he departs, leaves a sense of bitterness in the minds of the audience. However, the play has a conventional sense of pleasantness in not allowing the institution of marriage to be seriously challenged by love.