Philosophic ideas expressed in the Hell-scene in Man and Superman

George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman is the first masterpiece of the 20^th century English Literature. It established a noticeable break with the Victorian traditions of thinking and literary practice. The Hell Scene is the most significant part of the drama where Shaw has expressed his philosophical outlook with utmost sincerity. Man and Superman is often presented on the stage without the Hell Scene, but it reduces the mark of the play into an ordinary comedy. The whole act is

a Talky' one but the purpose is to bring out the Shavian ideas on faith, sin, virtues, duty, civilization, the Life force etc.

The Hell scene of the play is actually a fantasy. It might mean parody or an adaptation. But in the play, it is more a parody that an adaptation. We get a combination of the real and the fantastic in it. The third act- the Hell scene is abounding with mostly by the conversation of Don Juan and the Devil. By making the conversation sparkling with wit and humour, the author has made it vitally attractive. All the discussions are of profound nature, but they have been carried out with perfect clarity of language.

In Man and Superman Shaw presents the old Spanish story of Don Juan, a story of libertine and ravisher. The dialogue in hell is meant to be metaphorical. It takes place in the mind of John Tanner, who has a lot of conflicts in him, quite unsolved. We can take them to be eternal conflicts that all men face. The doubts, contrary impulses and fears Tanner feels at the end of the 2^nd Act and during his interaction with Mendoza in the beginning of the 3^rd Act are given vent through the dialogue. The residents of Hell are romantics, torturing themselves by following endless pleasures. But Don Juan is different. He cannot find any happiness in mere pleasure. It would be foolish to think one has to face hardship and trouble just for the sake of amusement. Don Juan is horrified at the prospects of an eternity of pleasure. This shows he is a highly evolved creature, a philosophic man.

The Devil, the romantic stands for carefree, self-justified pleasures of the senses. Don Juan represents the intellectual who seeks higher forms of happiness or blessedness. The devil speaks eloquently for a sensual life. And we find a part in us agreeing with those views. Don Juan though agrees with some of the premises of the Devil, refutes his arguments in favour of a sensuous life. He talks of the desirability of a life of intellectual pursuits. We find a part in us agreeing with his views too. It is interesting to note that neither the devil nor Don Juan wins the argument. Each presents his views that are all. In Hell there are only agreeable amusements, and hard facts. It is a pleasant place to be for some people, even like the land of Lotus Eaters. Shaw's idea of hell is that of a pleasure resort of some sort in a fabulous place, it seems.

Dona Ana is no match for the three persons, being intellectually much inferior. She is often at a loss, amongst them, but she shows an impressive single mindedness. She is neither of hell nor of heaven and may embrace both. At the end of the scene she vanishes into nothing. And as a vehicle of life, as an important person in the process of evolution, she is indispensable. However, the devil finds no use for her.

Devil asks what the purpose of life is. Don Juan has no definite answer. He merely says if there is no purpose for life one will have to be found out. Life force has given consciousness to man for self-realization. Life is incessantly at work to discover its purpose and its ultimate destiny. For the devil, there is no reason why man should progress any further. Man has shown his skill in inventing instruments of destruction. Death is what captures his imagination, not life.

The Devil's repeated reference to his religion of love and beauty only disgusts Don Juan, and when he learns that there are no artistic people in Heaven, he is anxious to leave. In response to the question of how to get there, the statue replies the very philosophic statement: "The frontier between Heaven and Hell is only the difference between two ways of looking at things."

Apart from the fact that Man and Superman is acted without the Hell scene, the scene is ideologically and significantly well-integrated with the rest of the play. Many critics have praised the Hell scene as a great Landmark with which the new comedy, the comedy of purpose has been established in England. Thus, we may say that although the Hell scene makes the play impossible to be staged in one go, it is undoubtedly the inevitable part of the drama.