John Bull's Other Island Large Print Edition By George Bernard Shaw BiblioBazaar (2007), 122 pages ISBN: 978-1434650863 Genre: literature

Reviewed by Israel Drazin - January 3, 2011

"John Bull" is the comic disparaging personification of England, usually found in cartoons by people who want to ridicule England. Bull is usually portrayed as a stout, middle aged man with a Union Jack waist coat, enjoying a glass of beer. John Bull's Other Island refers here to Ireland, the birth place of George Bernard Shaw. Shaw uses this play to mock both England for it snobbery and lack of sufficient education and Ireland for the latter.

Two partners, an Englishman, Broadbent, and an Irishman, Larry, travel to Ireland from England to start a business. The Englishman is convinced that he would be able to overcome the problems in the Irish character. The Irishman left his birth country as a young man. He abandoned an adoring simple country girl, Nora, who has been waiting for him to return and marry her. He wants nothing to do with her because of her simple nature and because he dislikes everything associated with the Irish. It is now eighteen years after he escaped Ireland.

Because of a problem with Larry's car, Broadbent arrives at Larry's father's house before him. Broadbent is foolishly enchanted with everything Irish, and proposes to Nora within minutes after meeting her. She declines his offer at that time. The citizens of the town offer Larry a position in the Parliament, but he refuses. Broadbent, enraptured with Ireland agrees to become a member of Parliament, although he neither understands the Irish character or Irish politics. Broadbent's ignorance and his mistakes afford Shaw an opportunity to highlight the ridiculous character of the English and the Irish, as Shaw sees them.

• Heartbreak Hotel, by George Bernard Shaw.
  One of the distinguished comic dramatist's more somber plays, this entertaining allegory examines apathy, confusion and lack of purpose as causes of major world problems, with larger-than-life characters representing the evils of the modern world.
  
  
• Androcles and the Lion, by George Bernard Shaw.
  Shaw focuses his satiric ire upon the way his and other governments are mismanaged and how Christianity is improperly practiced in this two-act comedy.