ENGLISH THEATRE OF 19th
AND 20th CENTURIES GROUP A
SURNAME: Giarratana NAME: Melania
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
AUGUSTUS DOES
HIS BIT
First performed at the Court Theatre, 21st
January 1917, London, UK
Lord Augustus Highcastle is the character of
this play together with Mr Horatio Floyd Beamish (a clerk) and a Lady whose
name is not known.
As the author lets us know, Augustus is a distinguished member of the
governing class and the Mayor of Little Pifflington,
who wears the uniform of a colonel; the clerk is an old man whose appearance
and way of expressing himself produces incompetence. The woman is very
beautiful and wears eye-catching dresses. The Mayor is very presumptuous and
proud of himself, he treats the clerk very badly and he does not get tired of
saying that every good English citizen has to do his bit to help his country;
he speaks in formal English which seems better compared to the clerk’s
slang. The woman behaves like
a coquette.
The story develops during the First World War in the Mayor’s
parlour of the Town Hall; it is about a big joke played on Augustus by his
brother in law Blueloo and the Lady. Augustus is in
possession of a list of guns that must be kept hidden, but he is so foolish
that he lets the Lady take it just by flirting with him. He did not know that
it was the object of a bet between the Lady and Blueloo.
When he is told the truth by the Lady, he gets angry at the first moment and
accuses her of “abusing the confidence of the hard working officials who
are doing their bit for their country whilst our gallant fellows are perishing in the trenches”. Later, when the Lady tells
him “I am sure you won’t grudge them a little fun at your
expense” referring to the fellow, Augustus gets amiably and accepts the
joke because he wants to do his bit for his country.
The irony of this play makes the reader/audience think about the
absurdity of the war and the foolishness of those who believe in it. The clerk represents
that part of people who do not go to fight in the trenches and remain in the
cities suffering with hunger and poverty during the war; he represents that
part of people that always looses the wars because they are the victims of the
politicians’ recklessness.
Another theme that the play deals with is one of the recurrent themes
treated by the contemporary theatre: the social class discrimination. The same
Augustus demonstrates his racism saying “…discipline is absolutely
necessary in dealing with the lower middle classes”. Then and nowadays
the social status justifies many of the worst crimes committed by powerful and
not powerful people against innocent victims of gratuitous violence.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G.B. Shaw “Augustus Does His
Bit”
Auto-evaluation: Notable
Academic year 2005/2006
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés
López
© Melania Giarratana
megia@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de Valčncia
Press