Misalliance

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is revered as one of the great British dramatists, credited not only with memorable works, but the revival of the then-suffering English theatre. Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland, left mostly to his own devices after his mother ran off to London to pursue a musical career. He educated himself for the most part, and eventually worked for a real estate agent. This experience founded in him a concern for social injustices, seeing poverty and general unfairness afoot, and would go on to address this in many of his works. In 1876, Shaw joined his mother in London where he would finally attain literary success. Written the first decade of the twentieth century, "Misalliance" is a sort of continuation of another of Shaw's play, "Getting Married". Set over the course of an afternoon, this play furthers Shaw's opinion that divorce should be an easily attainable thing.