Major Themes of APPLE CART by SHAW

THE APPLE CART

George Bernard Shaw

Major Themes

1. The Art of War

2. Royalty and Democracy

3. Shavian Humour

4. Capitalism

5. Shavian Socialism

6. Love and Marriage

The ArtOf War

"If two men ride the same horse, one must ride behind."

• Not a literal war. The Apple Cart is the story of a tug of war for power between a King and his Cabinet.

• aka A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS.

• King Magnus and the Prime Minister Joseph Proteus do not see eye to eye.

• Under Shaw's creative hands, the dry political discussion is transmuted into a lively work of art.

"The Apple Cart exposes the unreality of both democracy and royalty as our idealists conceive them"

SHAW

Royalty and Democracy

• The play is a "drama of ideas" and showcases the comparative merits and demerits of democracy and monarchy. In fact according to Shaw, constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy should help and check each other.

• Shaw suggests here that the age of good democracy is gone. Seldom do we come across democrats in the real sense. The Prime Minister Proteus and the members of his cabinet are a set of time-serving politicians. The wealthy business men and the fickle-minded mob are their real masters.
• King Magnus, the constitutional monarch is a clear-sighted, clever politician. Whenever the Cabinet goes wrong, he is there to correct it. The veto is the last resort of the king to be used against the abusers of democracy.
• If one looks closely, they'll see that the real conflict is not between royalty and democracy but of both against plutocracy.

Shaw is for a restricted democracy, a blend of Cabinet government and constitutional monarchy.

Shavian Humour

BOANERGES, the President of the Board of Trade, is a man with comically crude manners. His inferiority complex, his fantastic dress and his certainity that he is the strongest man in England, makes him ridiculous enough.

• The play is a satirical comedy.

• We are sumptuosly fed with brilliant wit and bubbling Shavian humour. In fact, the comic element makes up for all deficiencies in the play.

• Some of the characters are essentially comic figures.

• The Interlude also provides comic relief necessary in the play.

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#comicreliefbreak

Capitalism

• Throughout the play, Shaw condemns the great influence of capitalism on democracy.

• BREAKAGES LIMITED, a big capitalistic concern monopolises all repair work. The company also used to suppress new inventions which were likely to affect it adversely.

• Shaw affirms that the prosperity resulting from capitalism can never last long.

• Thus Shaw esposes the abuse of democracy - the capitalists contol the vote and so the ministers cannot ignore them

Shavian Socialism

• Shaw becomes converted to socialism towards the close of 19th century. In 1929 a Labour government was in office in Britain. It's socialist principles were preached by Shaw.

• Shaw writes superbly on his views of socialism and it is evident in the play. He was critical of capitalism as well as left institutions (trade unions).

• So many of Shaw's socialist friends were shocked to find that in "The Apple Cart" Shaw was on the side of the King against the democratic Cabinet and that he was betraying his faith in socialism. But Shaw, in fact, gives more importance to justice than to political theories. He realizes that ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.

• In the play, King Magnus achieves supreme triumph over his dull-witted Cabinet. But the defeat does not indicate that Shaw has turned an anti-democrat.

• Here, the king is genuinely interested in the welfare of his people and he is not an oppurtunist like the ministers. And Shaw is all contempt for democracy as it is practised in the manner in which we find it in the play.

Love and Marriage

• Shaw portrays original and unconventional views about marriage and love - there is a clean distiction between both.

• In the play, King Magnus is Shaw's mouthpiece and there is nothing illogical, according to Magnus, in keeping a mistress apart from a wife.

• Orinthia is a lady of the fairyland, young, beautiful and romantic. She is fit to love but not to marry. She is a relaxation for Magnus.

• Jemima is a good, responsible and obedient wife.

Janie Dee as Orinthia and Charles Edwards as King Magnus in the Peter Hall Company's production of Bernard Shaw's play "The Apple Cart", directed by Peter Hall at the Theatre Royal in Bath.

• King Magnus enjoys the love and the wife, keeping a sufficient distance between them.

• ROSES and CABBAGES

Orinthia regards herself as a rose and other women as cabbages. Let's take a deeper look at this. Roses are beautiful, they smell good but that's about it. Cabbages neither have beauty nor smell but they are useful. Orinthia is a Rose. Her world is the world of fancy, a make-believe one. She belongs to the fairyland and not to the work day world. Orinthia is the King's beloved, but not the wife. She is the luxury of the king. Jemima is a Cabbage. She is part and parcel of Magnus' workkday world. Although Orinthia is the source of King's casual delight, he does not divorce his Queen on that account. Magnus is true to Jemima and loves and respects her as his wife. Thus the distinction is made clear.

Voila! That's it for the major themes of "The Apple Cart"!

BY

INDULEKHA SAPARNA S KURUP ANJANA KRISHNA K NEETHU CHANDRAN SJISHA J K

Thank you!