Searching for a Superwoman

Paper Summary:

This paper begins by discussing the ability of the main character, Tarleton's wife, and points out the irony of her outward hyper-morality. Hypatia, his daughter, is the next woman to be considered. The paper describes how her inner vibrancy is reigned in and dimmed by the feminine social role that is forced on her. Hypatia finally breaks away from this, but in doing so, she becomes cruel and hardened in breaking men's hearts. Finally, the writer contrasts these two with the character of Lina, who arrives in the second half of the play. From the far-away land of Poland, Lina's amazing personality may be presumed to be an effect of growing up outside of straitlaced British society. She is independent, career-oriented, and, unlike the rest of the household, not afraid to question social conventions and gender stereotypes.

From the Paper:

"Misalliance is on one level an exploration of whether the evolution of Shaw's "superwoman" is possible in a society morally and socially similar to England's at the turn of the 20th century. Shaw, a progressive and a feminist (who, in "Man and Superman" preaches against "the domestic miseries of the slaves of the wedding ring" (p. 169)), was concerned with the bettering of humanity, both male and female. In the first half of his play (prior to the plane crash), the moral and social limitations and restrictions of early 1900s British society are lithely debated. In the second half, Shaw employs the utterly fantastical entrance of Lina, his ideal "superwoman" (and conveniently a foreigner completely removed from the societal confines governing the other characters) to demonstrate his opinion of existing social norms. Lina's presence evokes comparison between she " the feminist ideal of efficiency, vibrancy, self-control, and independence " and the women produced by English society at the time (or in any similar society) Mrs. Tarleton, wife of a well-meaning, philandering underwear salesman, and their daughter Hypatia. And so the audience can determine for themselves if the societal restrictions discussed in the first half inhibit women from reaching their full potential, as demonstrated by the extraordinary Lina of the second half."

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