Man and Superman, George Bernard Shaw [hardest books to read txt] 📗

confidence of girls. Octavius Ann doesn’t say that, Jack. Tanner What else does she mean? Straker Catching sight of Ann coming from the house. Miss Whitefield, gentlemen. He dismounts and strolls away down the avenue with the air of a man who knows he is no longer wanted. Ann Coming between Octavius and Tanner. Good morning, Jack. I have come to tell you that poor Rhoda has got one of her headaches and cannot go out with you today in the car. It is a cruel disappointment to her, poor child! Tanner What do you say now, Tavy. Octavius Surely you cannot misunderstand, Jack. Ann is showing you the kindest consideration, even at the cost of deceiving you. Ann What do you mean? Tanner Would you like to cure Rhoda’s headache, Ann? Ann Of course. Tanner Then tell her what you said just now; and add that you arrived about two minutes after I had received her letter and read it. Ann Rhoda has written to you! Tanner With full particulars. Octavius Never mind him, Ann. You were right, quite right. Ann was only doing her duty, Jack; and you know it. Doing it in the kindest way, too. Ann Going to Octavius. How kind you are, Tavy! How helpful! How well you understand! Octavius beams. Tanner Aye: tighten the coils. You love her, Tavy, don’t you? Octavius She knows I do. Ann Hush. For shame, Tavy! Tanner Oh, I give you leave. I am your guardian; and I commit you to Tavy’s care for the next hour. Ann No, Jack. I must speak to you about Rhoda. Ricky: will you go back to the house and entertain your American friend? He’s rather on Mamma’s hands so early in the morning. She wants to finish her housekeeping. Octavius I fly, dearest Ann. He kisses her hand. Ann Tenderly. Ricky Ticky Tavy! He looks at her with an eloquent blush, and runs off. Tanner Bluntly. Now look here, Ann. This time you’ve landed yourself; and if Tavy were not in love with you past all salvation he’d have found out what an incorrigible liar you are. Ann You misunderstand, Jack. I didn’t dare tell Tavy the truth. Tanner No: your daring is generally in the opposite direction. What the devil do you mean by telling Rhoda that I am too vicious to associate with her? How can I ever have any human or decent relations with her again, now that you have poisoned her mind in that abominable way? Ann I know you are incapable of behaving badly. Tanner Then why did you lie to her? Ann I had to. Tanner Had to! Ann Mother made me. Tanner His eye flashing. Ha! I might have known it. The mother! Always the mother! Ann It was that dreadful book of yours. You know how timid mother is. All timid women are conventional: we must be conventional, Jack, or we are so cruelly, so vilely misunderstood. Even you, who are a man, cannot say what you think without being misunderstood and vilified⁠—yes: I admit it: I have had to vilify you. Do you want to have poor Rhoda misunderstood and vilified to the same way? Would it be right for mother to let her expose herself to such treatment before she is old enough to judge for herself? Tanner In short, the way to avoid misunderstanding is for everybody to lie and slander and insinuate and pretend as hard as they can. That is what obeying your mother comes to. Ann I love my mother, Jack. Tanner Working himself up into a sociological rage. Is that any reason why you are not to call your soul your own? Oh, I protest against this vile abjection of youth to age! Look at fashionable society as you know it. What does it pretend to be? An exquisite dance of nymphs. What is it? A horrible procession of wretched girls, each in the claws of a cynical, cunning, avaricious, disillusioned, ignorantly experienced, foul-minded old woman whom she calls mother, and whose duty it is to corrupt her mind and sell her to the highest bidder. Why do these unhappy slaves marry anybody, however old and vile, sooner than not marry at all? Because marriage is their only means of escape from these decrepit fiends who hide their selfish ambitions, their jealous hatreds of the young rivals who have supplanted them, under the mask of maternal duty and family affection. Such things are abominable: the voice of nature proclaims for the daughter a father’s care and for the son a mother’s. The law for father and son and mother and daughter is not the law of love: it is the law of revolution, of emancipation, of final supersession of the old and worn-out by the young and capable. I tell you, the first duty of manhood and womanhood is a Declaration of Independence: the man who pleads his father’s authority is no man: the woman who pleads her mother’s authority is unfit to bear citizens to a free people. Ann Watching him with quiet curiosity. I suppose you will go in seriously for politics some day, Jack. Tanner Heavily let down. Eh? What? Wh⁠—? Collecting his scattered wits. What has that got to do with what I have been saying? Ann You talk so well. Tanner Talk! Talk! It means nothing to you but talk. Well, go back to your mother, and help her to poison Rhoda’s imagination as she has poisoned yours. It is the tame elephants who enjoy capturing the wild ones. Ann I am getting on. Yesterday I was a boa constrictor: today I am an elephant. Tanner Yes. So pack your trunk and begone; I have no more to say to you. Ann You are so utterly unreasonable and impracticable. What can I do? Tanner Do! Break your chains. Go your way according to your own conscience and not according to your mother’s. Get your mind clean and vigorous; and learn to enjoy a fast ride in a motor car instead of seeing nothing in it but an excuse for a detestable intrigue. Come with me to Marseilles