In "The Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman," set in 3000 AD, an elderly Briton tourist visiting an island where long-lived people reside has contracted "discouragement," a dire sickness when short-livers interact with long-livers over sixty. He meets a woman who is assigned to protect him, and they converse with difficulty due to their cultural...More
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays. With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political...More
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays. With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, Arms and the Man in 1894. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen, he sought to introduce a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas.
Book Summary
In "The Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman," set in 3000 AD, an elderly Briton tourist visiting an island where long-lived people reside has contracted "discouragement," a dire sickness when short-livers interact with long-livers over sixty. He meets a woman who is assigned to protect him, and they converse with difficulty due to their cultural differences. The Prime Minister, who is also his son-in-law, and the Emperor of Turania, traveling incognito, have come to the island to consult the oracle. When they reach the temple, the Emperor demands direction to the oracle, and when the veiled woman reveals herself to be the oracle, he becomes belligerent. She tells him he will die of discouragement if he talks to elders, so he asks her how he can continue fighting until he dies, and she tells him to "die now, before the tide of glory turns." He hands her a pistol and when she fires, he shrieks and falls but rises once again, and she disappears. The Prime Minister asks if it would be expedient to hold elections, and the oracle tells him, "Go home, poor fool," as she had done with his predecessor, Sir Fuller Eastwind. The story ends with the party returning to their ship.
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