Priscilla Claire P.

Ordonez III Gumamela

Mrs. Eusebio English III

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. -George Bernard ShawA. Family Background George Bernard Shaw was born in Synge Street, Dublin, Ireland on 26 July 1856 to George Carr Shaw (181485), an unsuccessful grain merchant and sometime civil servant, and Lucinda Elizabeth Shaw, ne Gurly (18301913), a professional singer. He had two sisters, Lucinda Frances (18531920), a singer of musical comedy and light opera, and Elinor Agnes (185576). Shaw's father was also an alcoholic and therefore there was very little money to spend on George's education. B. Educational Background Shaw briefly attended the Wesley College, Dublin, a grammar school operated by the Methodist Church in Ireland, before moving to a private school near Dalkey and then transferring to Dublin's Central Model School. He ended his formal education at the Dublin English Scientific and Commercial Day School. He harboured a lifelong animosity toward schools and teachers, saying: "Schools and schoolmasters, as we have them today, are not popular as places of education and teachers, but rather prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents". C. Political and Economic Condition In the past Dublin city was regarded as a stronghold for Fianna Fil, however following the Irish local elections, 2004 the party was eclipsed by the centre-left Labour Party.Labour further increased its number of councillors at the 2009 local elections and currently has the largest number of TD's from the city (10 out of 22). In the 2012 Genereal Election the city elected 10 Labour Party, Fine Gael, Sinn Fin, People Before Profit Alliance and 2 independent TDs. Fianna Fil lost all of its sitting TDs in the city.

Dublin is the largest city and capital of Ireland, and is the country's economic hub. As well as being the location of the national parliament and most of the civil service, Dublin is also the focal point of media and culture in the county. Ireland's transportation network radiates from the city. Dublin is seen as a vibrant, cosmopolitan city, with a high standard of living.

D. Essay Valedictory by George Bernard Shaw As I lie here, helpless and disabled, or, at best, nailed by one foot to the floor like a doomed Strasburg goose, a sense of injury grows on me. For nearly four years--to be precise, since New Year 1895--I have been the slave of the theatre. It has tethered me to the mile radius of foul and sooty air which has its center in the Strand, as a goat is tethered in the little circle of cropped and trampled grass that makes the meadow ashamed. Every week it clamours for its tale of written words; so that I am like a man fighting a windmill: I have hardly time to stagger to my feet from the knock-down blow of one sail, when the next strikes me down. Now I ask, is it reasonable to expect me to spend my life in this way? For just consider my position. Do I receive any spontaneous recognition for the prodigies of skill and industry I lavish on an unworthy institution and a stupid public? Not a bit of it: half my time is spent in telling people what a clever man I am. It is no use merely doing clever things in England. The English do not know what to think until they are coached, laboriously and insistently for years, in the proper and becoming opinion. For ten years past, with an unprecedented pertinacity and obstination, I have been dinning into the public head that I am an extraordinarily witty, brilliant, and clever man. That is now part of the public opinion of England; and no power in heaven or on earth will ever change it. I may dodder and dote; I may potboil and platitudinise; I may become the butt and chopping-block of all the bright, original spirits of the rising generation; but my reputation shall not suffer: it is built up fast and solid, like Shakespeare's, on an impregnable basis of dogmatic reiteration.

Unfortunately, the building process has been a most painful one to me, because I arn congenitally an extremely modest man. Shyness is the form my vanity and selfconsciousness take by nature. It is humiliating, too, after making the most dazzling displays of professional ability, to have to tell people how clever it all is. Besides, they get so tired of it, that finally, without dreaming of disputing the alleged brilliancy, they begin to detest it. I sometimes get quite frantic letters from people who feel that they cannot stand me any longer. Then there are the managers. Are they grateful? No: they are simply forbearing. Instead of looking up to me as their guide, philosopher and friend, they regard me merely as the author of a series of weekly outrages on their profession and their privacy. Worse than the managers are the Shakespeareans. When I began to write, William was a divinity and a bore. Now he is a fellow-creature; and his plays have reached an unprecedented pitch of popularity. And yet his worshippers overwhelm my name with insult. These circumstances will not bear thinking of. I have never had time to think of them before; but now I have nothing else to do. When a man of normal habits is ill, everyone hastens to assure him that he is going to recover. When a Vegetarian is ill (which fortunately very seldom happens), everyone assures him that he is going to die, and that they told him so, and that it serves him right. They implore him to take at least a little gravy, so as to give himself a chance of lasting out the night. They tell him awful stories of cases just like his own which ended fatally after indescribable torments; and when he tremblingly inquires whether the victims were not hardened meat-eaters, they tell him he must not talk, as it is not good for him. Ten times a day I am compelled to reflect on my past life, and on the limited prospect of three weeks or so of lingering moribundity which is held up to me as my probable future, with the intensity of a drowning man. And I can never justify to myself the spending of four years on dramatic criticism. I have sworn an oath to endure no more of it. Never again will I cross the threshold of a theatre. The subject is exhausted; and so am I. Still, the gaiety of nations must not be eclipsed. The long string of beautiful ladies who are at present in the square without, awaiting, under the supervision of two gallant

policemen, their turn at my bedside, must be reassured when they protest, as they will, that the light of their life will go out if my dramatic articles cease. To each of them I will present the flower left by her predecessor, and assure her that there are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it. The younger generation is knocking at the door; and as I open it there steps spritely in the incomparable Max [Beerbohm]. For the rest, let Max speak for himself. I am off duty for ever, and am going to sleep. E. Point of View of the Author 1.) The authors main point of view in the essay, Valedictory, is focusing on his life as a playwright, and how it is both a burden and a blessing. He mocks the people working around him and despises the fact that all he does is tell others how clever he is. He is tired of the theatre, and so is the theatre to him. 2.) The authors other major point of view in the essay is his supposed farewell message to the public. He describes how new talent shall be discovered upon his departure, and that readers should not protest if ever his work would stop. He strains on going to sleep and becoming off-duty.

F. My Opinion about Authors Point of View The author, George Bernard Shaw, offers a humorous yet valuable essay detailing his life as a playwright and how he views his work. He isnt afraid of criticizing peoples ideas and opinions about him and his writings. He stresses the fact that all he ever does in the theatre is writing and telling everyone how great, clever and wise he is. He places a sarcastic twist upon the essay, which also serves as his farewell letter. Although placing a heavy belief on his severe illness, he actually managed to stay alive for another half century after finishing this essay. Even from this one essay, you can easily tell that he is one gifted writer.