Criticism of Colonialism in George Bernard Shaw’s play “John Bull’s Other Island”

Abstract

Conveniently titled after a cartoon character, George Bernard Shaw’s play John Bull’s Other Island sneers at the legacy of colonialism, intolerance, and paternalism. This paper analyzes Mr. Shaw’s attempt to ‘reconcile’ England and Ireland in order to achieve synthesis between the colonizer and the colonized. It also answers whether it is possible to overcome the hostility caused by colonialism, and whether humanity can avoid and disregard the most important feature of colonial discourse Homi Bhabha wrote about: namely, “its dependence on the concept of ‘fixity’ in the ideological construction of otherness”. Finally, the reading of John Bull’s Other Island as the sovereign critique of colonialism exposes G. B. Shaw’s practical artistic solutions to stifling the symbolic and cultural violence, which continues long after the colonizers have granted the colony the right to Home Rule.