# Fitz Dastard — Short Plays character guide

> Fitz Dastard in Short Plays by George Bernard Shaw.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Fitz Dastard, Fitz

**First appearance:** 0011-passion-poison-and-petrifaction

## Snapshot

A scheming villain whose very name announces his trade, Fitz Dastard plots in Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction with the cheerful, overcharged villainy of a stage melodrama.

## Who they are

He inhabits Shaw's burlesque of Victorian melodrama, where the dramatis personae are, as the preface admits, of the stage stagey, challenging the actor to act up to them or beyond them. His villainy is a deliberate overcharge, a puppet's wickedness performed with relish rather than psychology, and the plot turns on the poison and petrifaction his schemes set in motion. He matters because he shows Shaw at play, using the stock villain as a springboard for parody and for the sheer theatrical fun of a hissable antagonist.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_plays_se/characters/fitz_dastard
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- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_plays_se/characters