Man and Superman Study Guide

Man and Superman

Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw

Man and Superman is a 1903 play by George Bernard Shaw. Mr. Whitefield has recently died and has left a will directing the elder Roebuck Ramsden and the revolutionary Jack Tanner to take care of his daughter, Ann. Ramsden mistrusts Tanner and his radical beliefs but Ann does not. Though she does not adopt his belief in anarchy, she courts him and eventually marries him instead of marrying another suitor, Octavius Robinson.

Man and Superman Characters

Table of Contents
  • Hector Malone, Sr. , an elderly gentleman who has worked hard throughout his life to attain a high social status in which he now takes pride.
  • Ann Whitefield , a young woman, graceful, somewhat enigmatic. She corresponds to the character Doña Ana in the Don Juan myth (in Act III, Shaw's stage direction refers to Doña Ana de Ulloa as "so handsome that in the radiance into which her dull yellow halo has suddenly lightened one might almost mistake her for Ann Whitefield").
  • Henry Straker , chauffeur with a cockney accent.
  • John Tanner , also called "Jack Tanner," a well-educated, well-spoken man who takes everything seriously, including himself; a "political firebrand and confirmed bachelor." Allegedly the descendant of Don Juan, as well as the modern representation of the Don Juan character (In Act III, Shaw notes Don Juan's resemblance to Tanner: "Besides, in the brief lifting of his face, now hidden by his hat brim, there was a curious suggestion of Tanner. A more critical, fastidious, handsome face, paler and colder, without Tanner’s impetuous credulity and enthusiasm, and without a touch of his modern plutocratic vulgarity, but still a resemblance, even an identity"). The very name "John Tanner" is obviously an anglicisation of the Spanish name "Juan Tenorio," which is the full name of Don Juan.
  • Violet Robinson , sister of Octavius Robinson. She has been secretly married to Hector Malone, Jr.
  • Mrs. Whitefield , mother of Ann, and widow of the late Mr. Whitefield.
  • Susan Ramsden , the spinster sister of Roebuck Ramsden.
  • Hector Malone, Jr. , an American gentleman who is secretly married to Violet Robinson.
  • Octavius Robinson , an amiable young man who is in love with Ann Whitefield. Brother to Violet Robinson. He represents "Don Ottavio" from the Don Juan myth.
  • Roebuck Ramsden , an aging civil reformer who was friend to the late Mr. Whitefield. He corresponds to the statue in the Don Juan myth, who is in turn the representation of the spirit of Don Gonzalo, the father of Doña Ana (in Act III, Shaw writes of The Statue, "His voice, save for a much more distinguished intonation, is so like the voice of Roebuck Ramsden").
  • Mendoza , an anarchist who collaborates with Tanner. Mendoza is the "President of the League of the Sierra," a self-described brigand and a Jew. He corresponds to Shaw's conception of the Devil as he would be portrayed in the Don Juan myth (Shaw writes of "The Devil" in Act III: "A scarlet halo begins to glow; and into it the Devil rises, very Mephistophelean, and not at all unlike Mendoza, though not so interesting").

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