The Truth about Candida

Extract

When Archibald Henderson once wrote that a fitting sub-title for Bernard Shaw's Candida would be “A Mystery”, he was not thinking so much of the famous but ambiguous “secret in the poet's heart” as he was of the motivation and interpretation of the characters as a whole. For of course the tantalizing “secret” is embedded only in the final stage direction and would therefore not challenge the spectator for solution; but the problem of the meaning of the characters and their relationships forms the backbone of the whole play, whether read or seen. Perhaps the fact that for years critic after critic, reader after reader, spectator after spectator have interpreted Candida, Morell, and Marchbanks according to their own temperaments and predilections may help to explain why the play, like the similarly enigmatic Hamlet of Shaw's self-selected arch-rival, has proved to be one of the most popular in the repertoire. To judge from most of the printed comments on Shaw's play, and particularly on its heroine, it still remains a mystery. At least, there is little agreement as to its interpretation.