Getting Married

G.Bernard Shaw

TABEER BAKHT
EP-1815042
Q: What solution does Shaw provide for the problem of conflict of perspectives in “Getting
Married.” Do you agree with this solution?

The subjective perspectives of individuals, though breathing the similar air of events, is what
incites debates and discourses in the society. Many such perspectives are at our disposal in
Bernard Shaw’s Getting Married. The play is more like a big courtroom with excited
witnesses debating over a single subject i.e marriage. However, there is no judge in this
room to decide for everyone and this is where the issue of conflict of perspectives starts
building.

Before diving into this marriage debate, we must first side with Shaw that demolishing the
entire institution of marriage is out of question. Marriage was and will always remain
inevitable. In this world where man likes to pretend himself God, the institution of marriage
wins over him and leaves us with no choice but to say yes to it. Marriage remains a system
superior to any other that man has so far conceived. However, even though we can’t entirely
escape marriage, what we can do is run our tractors of reason and decency to even the
unstable grounds on which the tree of marriage stands. Hence, Shaw presses its readers to
‘improve marriage conditions’. The terms and conditions of marital improvement, however,
are the primary cause of conflict among characters in the play which I will address
henceforth.

Shaw attached a separate marriage situation with each of the characters involved in the
marriage debate. With the revelation of the Edith-Cecil issue, the characters are all set to put
together a single marriage contract that could apply to everyone. Within a short time frame,
readers are introduced to several marriage perspectives each of which is conflicting the
other. Each character had their own notion of what marriage should be based on their own
experiences. Hence, it was more like guesses than evidence. Thus, Soames, who is to put pen
to paper, is seen repeating the same dialogue of “I am still awaiting my instructions.”
Eventually, the contract ended up in pieces and the issue that the couple (Edith and Cecil)
were facing kept lingering like before. Now, with the destruction of the contract and
characters meeting a dead-end with their marriage discussion, some critics claim that the
trouble with this play is that Shaw has shown a sheer pessimistic view and offers no solution
to this issue of conflicting perspectives. This may be true seeing how the marriage
agreement went in vain. However, there is an underlying suggestion that Shaw wanted his
readers to draw their keen eyes upon. With the episode of Edith and Cecil ending up being
married, Shaw attempted to offer his readers an alternative possibility i.e marriage
sometimes do work out. It is essential to understand that Shaw did not entirely condemn the
conception of getting married, rather he offered a candid criticism of the problems that this
institution holds. The failure to build a marriage contract is not due to the complicated
nature of marriage, rather it is the oh-so-many perspectives which society pours that the
couple initially involved in the reunion failed to reach their conclusion. Shaw wants his
reader to understand that marriage itself is heavily pregnant with built-in complications,
hence, there can never be a room made for further complexities. In short, the whys and
hows of society should always be kept at bay. The fact that Edith and Cecil managed to get
married only when moved away from the opinions of others to a place where they were only
a party of two proves Shaw’s point that marriage should be built upon “the grounds that is a
private concern between the two parties with which society has nothing to do.” When
Reginald utters that “we all don’t seem to be getting along”, Shaw wants his readers to
realize that there is no need to get along of so many people when it comes to the question
of marriage. Why should everyone agree on the principals of marriage when the persons
getting married are two?
Through Getting Married Shaw is proposing a total reorganization of society. He was a firm
believer of progression and evolution and wanted the world to be ruled by his philosophy of
life-force. Even when he says that “most laws are stronger than the strongest individual” he
wants society to overcome this weakness by improving its conditions. He wants his reader to
realize that it would certainly be a change if we rearrange.