Shavian Dramaturjiyi İcat Etmek: George Bernard Shaw’un Widowers’ Houses Oyununda “Nahoş” İkilemlerin Çıkış Noktası

Year 2025, Volume: 27 Issue: 4, 1297 - 1309, 22.12.2025

Banu Öğünç

https://doi.org/10.32709/akusosbil.1669362

Abstract

George Bernard Shaw ve William Archer arasında ortak bir çalışma olarak başlayan Widower’s Houses isimli oyun aslında ‘well-made play’ (iyi kurulu oyun) örneği olarak planlanmıştır. İlk yazma denemelerinin üstünden geçen yedi yıl sonrasında, Shaw yarım kalmış bu oyun metnini Henrik Ibsen etkisinde kalarak, edindiği sosyalist düşüncelerini yansıtacak bir biçimde tamamlamaya karar verdi. Viktorya dönemi sahnesine hâkim olan melodram geleneğine karşı çıkan Shaw, Ibsen ve Karl Marx’tan etkilenerek gerçekçilik akımını sahneye taşıdı ve tiyatro izleyicisini aktardığı sevimsiz problemlerle yüzleşmeye zorladı. Neticede Shaw’un sahnelenen ilk oyunu olan Widower’s Houses, onun dramaturjisinin ilk örneği haline gelir. Kariyeri boyunca oyunlarında aktardığı sosyalist fikirler bu oyun ile aktarılmaya başlanmıştır. Bununla beraber, evlilik, sınıf, para gibi temaların karakterler üzerinden işlenişi Shaw’un dramaturjisinin örnekleri olarak sayılabilir. Böylelikle bir sıfat olan ‘Shavian’ kavramının kaynağı bu ilk sahnelenen oyununa dayandırılabilir. Sonuç olarak bu makale, George Bernard Shaw’ın Widower’s Houses adlı oyunu Shaw’un Shavian dramaturjisinin izini sürmek adına yeniden ele almayı ve İngiliz Tiyatrosunda sevimsiz konuların ilk etkisini tartışmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

George Bernard Shaw , Widowers’ Houses , Henrik Ibsen , Shavian

Inventing Shavian Dramaturgy: Origins of “Unpleasant” Dilemmas in George Bernard Shaw’s Widowers’ Houses

Abstract

Initiated as a collaboration between George Bernard Shaw and William Archer, Widower’s Houses was planned to be an example of ‘a well-made play’. Later, Shaw decided to complete this unfinished text to turn it into a play that would eventually present his socialist ideas influenced by Henrik Ibsen. Challenging the melodrama tradition of the Victorian stage, Shaw introduced realism under the influence of Ibsen and Karl Marx and provoked his audience regarding the unpleasant problems in his view. Eventually, Shaw’s first staged play Widower’s Houses turns into a preliminary example of his dramaturgy. The socialist ideas Shaw reflects dedicatedly throughout his career begin to appear with this play. Moreover, Shaw’s treatment of such themes like marriage, class, and money through characters can be considered as part of his legacy and consistent dramaturgy. Thus, the origins of the meaning of the adjective ‘Shavian’ can be traced in this first staged play of Shaw. Consequently, this study aims to revisit George Bernard Shaw’s first staged play Widower’s Houses with the aim of pursuing the origins of Shaw’s Shavian dramaturgy and to discuss the early impact of the unpleasant on the British stage.

Keywords

George Bernard Shaw , Widowers’ Houses , Henrik Ibsen , Shavian

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