Books like Candida

With Arms and the Man (1894) Shaw created his first great play: later the same year, with Candida Shaw created his first great starring role for an actress.The play itself—a drama of ideas masquerading as a three act love triangle (or vice versa)--is clear in its objectives. The beautiful and charming young matron Candida is torn between her devoted but smug middle-aged husband, the Christian Socialist lecturer and minister James Morell, and the passionate young l’art pour l’art poet Eugene Marchbanks, who wishes to save her from her prosaic middle-class and transform her into a muse-with-benefits. Which one—if either—will Candida choose?The audience cares about Candida’s choice because the part of Candida itself is compelling. What precisely makes such a starring female role? Well, using Shakespeare’s Cleopatra as an example—Shakespeare, whom Shaw pretended to despise but learned much from—such a great woman must be prepared for. She must never be the first one on stage, for the other characters must have time to talk about with admiration and envy, as in the following two passages spoken by her husband and his female secretary:\ ”We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. Get a wife like my Candida and you’ll always be in arrear of your repayment.”\ and\ “Candida here, and Candida there, and Candida everywhere!..It’s enough to drive anyone out of their senses...to hear a woman raved about in that absurd manner merely because she’s got good hair and a tolerable figure.”\ And then, when the talked-of woman finally arrives, she must not be--at least at first--too explicit in her statements or definite in her attitudes. She must be enigmatic, with something of the goddess about her, as mysterious as the Kore Logos’ archaic smile.Oddly enough, Candida’s greatness wasn’t recognized at first. Perhaps because Oscar Wilde was then at the height of success, the poet Marchbanks was often seen as the better of the three major roles. It wasn’t until 1924, when Katherine Cornell made Candida her own, that the greatness of Shaw’s creation began to be recognized.I’ll conclude with a portion of Candida’s superb third act speech, in which she tells both James and Eugene and Marchbanks how much female effort it has taken to keep her husband “strong,” “clever,” and “happy”:\ Ask James's mother and his three sisters what it cost to save James the trouble of doing anything but be strong and clever and happy. Ask ME what it costs to be James's mother and three sisters and wife and mother to his children all in one. Ask Prossy and Maria how troublesome the house is even when we have no visitors to help us to slice the onions. Ask the tradesmen who want to worry James and spoil his beautiful sermons who it is that puts them off. When there is money to give, he gives it: when there is money to refuse, I refuse it. I build a castle of comfort and indulgence and love for him, and stand sentinel always to keep little vulgar cares out. I make him master here, though he does not know it, and could not tell you a moment ago how it came to be so...And when he thought I might go away with you, his only anxiety was what should become of ME! And to tempt me to stay he offered me… his strength for MY defence, his industry for my livelihood, his position for my dignity...\ \