Strife is a three-act play written by John Galsworthy.
It is his third play and casts spells on them and sends them on their way, to the amusement of the
the play highlights the social issues. It was produced in the year 1909 at the
Duke of York Theatre. The title “strife” has a biblical meaning which
means bitter conflict.
The theme in this play is capital and labour. The action takes place on 7th
february at the Trenartha Tin Plate Work. The factory workers involve in a
prolonged strike. There arises a conflict between the company chairman
John Anthony and the workers leader Roberts. Both are very stern and
adamant to compromise.
Anthony was the chairman for 32 years and he is determined to fight and
win. In his thirty two years of experience he has won four strikes. He was
certain that he could win the strike once more. The directors felt unfair
about the stern nature of Anthony. The directors were aware about the
outcome of this prolonged strike.
Simon Harness, a Trades union official go as a mediator between Roberts
and Anthony. His meet with the chairman resulted in failure because
Anthony remained obstinate. At the same time the leader of workers was
not ready to yield.
The plight of the workers were grewing worse. Some workers were ready to
give up the strike, but Robert remained stubborn. The workers and their
family members were suffering due to starvation. Roberts wife was dying
out of hunger. She had been the maid of Underwood. Underwood, the
daughter of Anthony has tried to help Mrs. Roberts by providing her food.
But the proud and arrogant leader Robert refuses to accept the help from the
daughter of John Anthony. She pleads to accept the help and save the life of
his wife and end the strike.
Harness held a meeting with the workers and most of the strikers consented
to end in compromise. But Robert was not ready to go for a compromise.
He gave a speech and he tried to convince his workers not to go for a
compromise. A young woman came forward in the meeting and announced
Robert about his wife’s death.
Doctor Faustus, a well-respected German scholar, grows dissatisfied with
the limits of traditional forms of knowledge—logic, medicine, law, and
religion—and decides that he wants to learn to practice magic. His friends
Valdes and Cornelius instruct him in the black arts, and he begins his new
career as a magician by summoning up Mephastophilis, a devil. Despite
Mephastophilis’s warnings about the horrors of hell, Faustus tells the devil
to return to his master, Lucifer, with an offer of Faustus’s soul in exchange
for twenty-four years of service from Mephastophilis. Meanwhile, Wagner,
Faustus’s servant, has picked up some magical ability and uses it to press a
clown named Robin into his service. Mephastophilis returns to Faustus with
word that Lucifer has accepted Faustus’s offer. Faustus experiences some
misgivings and wonders if he should repent and save his soul; in the end,
though, he agrees to the deal, signing it with his blood. As soon as he does
so, the words “Homo fuge,” Latin for “O man, fly,” appear branded on his
arm. Faustus again has second thoughts, but Mephastophilis bestows rich
gifts on him and gives him a book of spells to learn. Later, Mephastophilis
answers all of his questions about the nature of the world, refusing to
answer only when Faustus asks him who made the universe. This refusal
prompts yet another bout of misgivings in Faustus, but Mephastophilis and
Lucifer bring in personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins to prance about
in front of Faustus, and he is impressed enough to quiet his doubts.
Featured on Sparknotes Armed with his new powers and attended by
Mephastophilis, Faustus begins to travel. He goes to the pope’s court in
Rome, makes himself invisible, and plays a series of tricks. He disrupts the
pope’s banquet by stealing food and boxing the pope’s ears. Following this
incident, he travels through the courts of Europe, with his fame spreading
as he goes. Eventually, he is invited to the court of the German emperor,
Charles V (the enemy of the pope), who asks Faustus to allow him to see
Alexander the Great, the famed fourth-century BCE Macedonian king and
conqueror. Faustus conjures up an image of Alexander, and Charles is
suitably impressed. A knight scoffs at Faustus’s powers, and Faustus
chastises him by making antlers sprout from his head. Furious, the knight
vows revenge. Meanwhile, Robin, Wagner’s clown, has picked up some
magic on his own, and with his fellow stablehand, Rafe, he undergoes a
number of comic misadventures. At one point, he manages to summon
Mephastophilis, who threatens to turn Robin and Rafe into animals (or
perhaps even does transform them; the text isn’t clear) to punish them for
their foolishness.
Faustus then goes on with his travels, playing a trick on a horse-courser
along the way. Faustus sells him a horse that turns into a heap of straw
when ridden into a river. Eventually, Faustus is invited to the court of the
Duke of Vanholt, where he performs various feats. The horse-courser
shows up there, along with Robin, a man named Dick (Rafe in the A text),
and various others who have fallen victim to Faustus’s trickery. But Faustus
duke and duchess. As the twenty-four years of his deal with Lucifer come
to a close, Faustus begins to dread his impending death. He has
Mephastophilis call up Helen of Troy, the famous beauty from the ancient
world, and uses her presence to impress a group of scholars. An old man
urges Faustus to repent, but Faustus drives him away. Faustus summons
Helen again and exclaims rapturously about her beauty. But time is
growing short. Faustus tells the scholars about his pact, and they are horror-
stricken and resolve to pray for him. On the final night before the expiration
of the twenty-four years, Faustus is overcome by fear and remorse. He begs
for mercy, but it is too late. At midnight, a host of devils appears and
carries his soul off to hell. In the morning, the scholars find Faustus’s limbs
and decide to hold a funeral for him.
The Fresh Reads Main Menu Summary of George Bernard Shaw’s Candida
Candida is a domestic comedy written by George Bernard Shaw. Candida is
a three-act play revolving around Candida, an attractive and vibrant lady,
James Mavor Morell, a clergyman and Candida’s husband and Marchbanks,
an eighteen year old boy entranced with Candida. The play is primarily a
love triangle but has elements of wit, positive exploration of love, marriage,
loyalty and position of women in the family. The play has a comic tone yet
provokes the thoughts of the viewers.
Short Summary James Morell is a very popular speaker. His father-in-law,
Burgess comes to meet him and they decide to put an end to an old quarrel.
An adolescent poet, Eugene Marchbanks, is in love with Morell’s wife,
Candida. Eugene shocks and infuriates Morell by telling him that he loves
his wife and that Morell is nothing more than a preacher with empty words.
Morell, in rage, seizes him by his collar. Candida comes and smells that
there is something wrong. On her invitation, Eugene stays for dinner.
The play moves slowly towards the climax. Eugene’s views about love are
described. His reaction to Candida’s routine domestic tasks is both
revealing as well as amusing. Candida’s repetition of words of Marchbanks
pierces the heart of Morell. He is shocked that his own wife feels that his
speeches are useless. Her praise of Eugene is too much for him. But his
faith in her is not shaken. He leaves her and Eugene back at home and goes
out, with others, to deliver his lecture.
In the only private meeting between Candida and Eugene, the best of both
the characters is revealed. Eugene gains unusual insight in his love for
Candida. His love becomes spiritual. However, Morell forces him to accept
the challenge. Both ask Candida to choose one of them. Candida chooses
her husband as he is emotionally weaker of the two and is totally dependent
on her. Eugene, broken hearted, leaves the stage. Nobody knows anything
about the ‘secret’ in his heart.
In a part of English high society where gossip runs rampant, a tangle of
love has formed. Lady Sneerwell is in love with a young, rebellious man
named Charles Surface. However, Charles is in love with Maria, as is his
brother Joseph. Maria is in love with Charles, but Lady Sneerwell and
Joseph plot to ruin this relationship through rumors of unfaithfulness on
Charles' part. At the same time, an older man named Sir Peter Teazle has
taken a young wife from the country, now called Lady Teazle; after only a
few months of marriage they now bicker constantly about money, driving
Lady Teazle to contemplate an affair with Joseph Surface.
The plot thickens when Sir Oliver Surface, the rich uncle of Joseph and
Charles, returns to town from abroad. He schemes to test the rumors he has
heard of Joseph being the well-bred and deserving brother and Charles
having fallen into ruin; to do so, he goes to each of them in disguise. He
disguises himself as a money lender named Mr. Premium to investigate
Charles's spending habits, and is infuriated when he sees Charles living
lavishly while driving the family far into debt. Charles proposes to sell him
all he has left, the collection of family portraits, angering his uncle even
more; however he forgives him when Charles refuses to sell the painting of
his uncle.
The tangle of love and rumors becomes clear when, while Lady Teazle is
visiting Joseph Surface, her husband comes to call. Lady Teazle hides
behind a screen and listens to their conversation. Then, Charles Surface
comes to call on his brother as well; Sir Teazle, hoping to see whether
Charles is having an affair with his wife as has been rumored, also tries to
hide behind the screen. He sees what he thinks is simply a young woman
Joseph has been trying to hide. Sir Teazle hides in the closet instead, but
when Charles starts to talk about Joseph's relationship with Lady Teazle,
Joseph reveals that Sir Teazle is hiding in the closet, and Charles pulls him
out. When Joseph goes out of the room momentarily, Sir Teazle tells
Charles about the young woman he thinks is hiding behind the screen, and
they pull it down to reveal his wife.
Sir Oliver visits Joseph dressed as one of their poor relations looking for
money. Sir Oliver is disappointed to find that Joseph is only kind on the
surface, but will not do anything material to help his relative.
The play ends with Sir Oliver revealing his plot and his findings to Charles
and Joseph. Everyone realizes that Lady Sneerwell and her servant Snake
orchestrated the rumor about Charles and Lady Teazle. Act One begins with
the character Mr. Hardcastle. He has chosen a husband for his daughter,
Kate, whom neither of them have met. Kate’s husband-to-be is a reserved
man of good looks, and the son of Mr. Hardcastle’s old friend Sir Charles
Marlow. In the second scene, Tony Lumpkin, Hardcastle’s stepson, is
enjoying a reverie at the Three Pigeons Tavern. Two gentlemen arrive,
named Marlow and Hastings, and report that they are lost. They are looking
for Hardcastle’s house. Tony decides to play a joke on them, and gives
them directions, but describes his stepfather’s house as an inn. He tells
them it’s run by an eccentric man who thinks himself a gentleman.

In Act Two, Hardcastle gathers his servants, who are farmhands, and
explains that he’s expecting a visit from his future son-in-law, Marlow. He
tells the servants that they must behave like the servants of a gentleman,
which confuses them. Meanwhile, on the way to Hardcastle’s house, which
he thinks is an inn, Marlow confesses to Hastings that proper ladies make
him feel shy. When they arrive at Hardcastle’s home, Marlow and Hastings
are rude to him because they think him to be the innkeeper. Hastings meets
Miss Constance Neville, who is Mrs. Hardcastle’s niece. She tells him
they’re not at an inn, but rather at Hardcastle’s house. His response is to try
to get her to elope with him. However, she doesn’t want to abandon her
inheritance. The two devise a plan to get her jewels so that they can elope.
Hastings decides not to tell Marlow he’s not at an inn, because then Marlow
would become embarrassed and ruin Hastings’ and Constance’s
plans.Hastings introduces Marlow to both Constance and Kate Hardcastle,
with whom Marlow is exceedingly shy. Kate finds his reticence off-putting,
despite his handsome features, and wonders if she can be happy as his wife.
Mrs. Hardcastle arrives, and Hastings teases her lack of connection to
London and the fashionable society there. Then, while talking to Tony,
Hastings discovers that Tony’s mother is pressing him to marry Constance,
to keep Constance’s inheritance in the family. Tony hates the idea, so he
promises to help Hastings not only recover Constance’s inheritance, but
also to elope with her.

Act Three once again opens with Hardcastle, who is confused as to why his
friend, Sir Marlow, would recommend his son for Kate, since he finds
young Marlow to be rude. Kate and her father discuss Marlow as though
he’s two different people, since Marlow treats Hardcastle rudely, as he
would an innkeeper, and is reserved and shy around Kate because he knows
her to be a lady. Meanwhile, Tony sends Constance’s jewels to Hastings.
Without knowing of their plan, Constance asks Mrs. Hardcastle if she can
wear her jewels, intent on taking them with her when she elopes. Tony tells
his mother to tell Constance that the jewels are lost, which she does.

Kate finds out about the joke Tony has been playing on Marlow and
Hastings by telling them the house is an inn. She doesn’t reveal the
deception, but instead insists on perpetuating it. Marlow mistakes Kate for a
barmaid, and flirts with her. Hardcastle catches them flirting and Marlow
runs off, but Kate, who now likes Marlow, is certain she can prove he is
respectable.In Act Four, Constance informs Hastings that they’re expecting
Sir Marlow to visit. Hastings, meanwhile, has sent Constance’s jewels to
Marlow for safekeeping, but without any instructions, so Marlow gives
them to one of the servants, thinking her the landlady of the inn. The
servant brings the jewels to Mrs. Hardcastle. Marlow is in the midst of
telling Hastings about the barmaid he fancies—who is actually Kate—when
Hastings asks about the jewels. Marlow answers that he returned them to
the landlady. Hastings decides that he and Constance will have to elope
without the jewels.

Marlow finally realizes the house is not an inn after Hardcastle gets upset
that Marlow has encouraged the servants to get drunk. Kate confirms this,
but continues to pretend she is a barmaid. Marlow tells her that he would
marry her if society and his father allowed it, but he says this is unlikely.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Hardcastle, who now has Constance’s jewels again,
presses Tony to marry Constance. However, Tony has already prepared
horses for Constance to elope with Hastings. Mrs. Hardcastle finds out
about the elopement and whisks Constance away to her Aunt Pedigree’s
home. Marlow becomes angry with Hastings for not telling him the home
was not, in fact, an inn. Hastings is angry with Marlow for returning the
jewels to Mrs. Hardcastle. With Constance gone, there seems little hope,
but Tony comes up with another plan.

In Act Five, Sir Marlow and Hardcastle discuss Marlow and Kate’s
marriage. Tony, meanwhile, doesn’t take Mrs. Hardcastle and Constance to
Aunt Pedigree’s, as he is supposed to. Instead, he ultimately leads them
back to where they started. Constance decides not to elope, but hopes that
the Hardcastles will give their approval and her inheritance so that she can
honorably marry Hastings. Marlow learns Kate’s true identity. The play
ends with both couples marrying.