Absent Fathers, Headstrong Daughters – Dr. Lisa A.
Wilde
Where
are the fathers in Shaw? They exert a powerful influence on both the plot and
thought of several of Shaw’s plays despite their prolonged absence from their
daughters’ lives. I will be examining the absent fathers in Major Barbara and You Never Can Tell, one highly shrewd, the other supremely
ineffectual, but both signifying a theatrical and philosophical crisis in these
two diverse examinations.