# Mr. Bernard Shaw — What’s Wrong with the World character guide

> Mr. Bernard Shaw in What’s Wrong with the World by G. K. Chesterton.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Shaw, Shaw, himself

**First appearance:** 0001-what-s-wrong-with-the-world

## Snapshot

The celebrated playwright and critic whom Chesterton treats as the cleverest spokesman for a modern freedom rooted in fear of ancestral responsibility.

## Who they are

Shaw appears as the intellectual antagonist whose creative evolution and half-baked philosophies shrink from the awful duty of affirming and handing on human tradition with an unshaken voice. Chesterton grants him brilliance while accusing him and his kind of fleeing the responsibility of telling a child what is true. He matters because the debate with Shaw crystallizes the book's argument about authority, education, and the decay of democracy.

## In the story

### [Dedication](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/dedication)

Referenced indirectly as part of the social misunderstandings, though not named in the excerpt.

### [I: The Medical Mistake](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/i-the-medical-mistake)

Cited as viewing property as a 'toothache,' representing a contrasting ideal to Chesterton's defense of property.

### [The New Hypocrite](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/iii-the-new-hypocrite)

Not directly mentioned in this chapter, but the critique of modern vagueness and the call for dogma implicitly targets Shaw's Fabian pragmatism.

### [IV: The Fear of the Past](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/iv-the-fear-of-the-past)

Referenced implicitly as a modern figure associated with futurist thinking, though not named directly in the excerpt.

### [VI: The Enemies of Property](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/vi-the-enemies-of-property)

Not directly mentioned but could be associated with modern sophists; not used here.

### [VIII: The Wildness of Domesticity](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/viii-the-wildness-of-domesticity)

Not directly mentioned, but the critique of 'free love' and progressive fads implicitly targets Shaw's circle.

### [XI: The Homelessness of Jones](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/xi-the-homelessness-of-jones)

Quoted for his remark that rich men are better on parish councils because they are free from 'financial timidity.'

### [Part III: Feminism: Or the Mistake About Woman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/part-iii-feminism-or-the-mistake-about-woman)

Cited as a representative of modern progressive thought on women.

### [I: The Calvinism of Today](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/i-the-calvinism-of-today)

Reviewed Chesterton's book and admitted to being a Calvinist, prompting Chesterton's critique of his deterministic worldview.

### [VI: Authority the Unavoidable](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/vi-authority-the-unavoidable)

Quoted as hating the idea of forming a child's mind; Chesterton uses this to argue that such a view is impossible and that Shaw shrinks from the responsibility of authority.

### [The Need for Narrowness](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/ix-the-need-for-narrowness)

Mentioned as a representative of a modern creed that competes with Kipling's worldview.

### [X: The Case for the Public Schools](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/x-the-case-for-the-public-schools)

Mentioned indirectly in the context of the Tolstoyan and Kiplingite quarrel, though not by name in this excerpt.

### [I: The Empire of the Insect](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/chapters/i-the-empire-of-the-insect)

Not directly mentioned in this excerpt, but referenced in the broader context of the book; not included here.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/characters/mr_bernard_shaw
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_s_wrong_with_the_world_se/characters