Enter the drawing room of a London parsonage and witness the most unusual love triangle in modern drama. Read George Bernard Shaw’s witty, provocative, and deeply humane comedy completely free online.
Published in 1898, Candida is George Bernard Shaw’s most popular play and his most personal. It is also, characteristically, a provocation disguised as a comedy. Shaw takes the conventional love triangle—husband, wife, and younger man—and turns it inside out. The husband is not a villain; he is a Christian Socialist clergyman, confident in his goodness, certain of his wife’s devotion. The younger man is not a seducer; he is an eighteen-year-old poet, trembling with adolescent passion, convinced that he alone can save the woman he loves. And the wife is not a passive object of contention; she is Candida, the play’s title character, the woman who will decide her own fate.
The triangle: James Morell, a popular preacher and social reformer, adored by his congregation, confident in his marriage. Eugene Marchbanks, a shy, sickly, aristocratic poet who has fallen in love with Candida and believes that she is wasted on the self-satisfied Morell. And Candida herself, the wife, the mother, the woman who must choose between the man who needs her and the man who worships her.
On this page, you can experience Shaw’s most perfect comedy, the play that Bernard Levin called “the best English comedy since Congreve.” We offer the complete 1898 text for online reading.
Book Info
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Title | Candida |
| Author | George Bernard Shaw |
| Year of Publication | 1898 |
| Genre | Drama, Comedy |
| Language | English |
| Legal Status | Public Domain in the U.S. |
| Format | Online Reading |
Read Candida Online
Hear the typewriter click and the poet sigh. Begin Shaw’s most beloved play by entering the parsonage drawing room interactively below.
This preview introduces the confident clergyman, the trembling poet, and the woman they both love. However, the full, witty, surprising drama—the debate on love and marriage, the revelation of Candida’s power, and the final, unexpected choice—is available in the complete text for our subscribers.
A subscription unlocks this cornerstone of modern drama and the complete plays of George Bernard Shaw. Discover the comedy that proves the woman always holds the cards.
About the Play Candida
Candida is a play about strength and weakness, about the illusions of men and the clarity of women, about the nature of love and the economics of marriage. It is also, despite its serious themes, very funny.
James Morell: The Confident Man
Morell is a successful clergyman, a popular speaker, a devoted husband. He is also, Shaw suggests, a man living in a dream of his own goodness. He believes that he is the center of his world, that his wife’s devotion is a tribute to his merits, that his social activism is the highest form of Christian witness. He is not a hypocrite; he genuinely believes these things. But his belief is a form of blindness, a refusal to see that his wife might have her own needs, her own desires, her own life.
Eugene Marchbanks: The Poet
Marchbanks is eighteen, aristocratic, and utterly unsuited to the practical world. He writes poetry, suffers from nerves, and has never done a day’s work. He has fallen in love with Candida and believes that he alone can give her the spiritual companionship she deserves. He is ridiculous and he is also, in his way, right. He sees what Morell cannot: that Candida is not merely a wife and mother but a person, a soul, a mystery.
Candida: The Decider
Candida is the play’s center of gravity. She is practical, loving, utterly clear-eyed about the men who surround her. She loves Morell, but she sees his weaknesses. She pities Marchbanks, but she does not romanticize him. When she is forced to choose between them, she does so not on the basis of passion or pity but on the basis of need. “I give myself to the weaker,” she says. And in that moment, she reveals the truth that has been hidden throughout the play: Morell, for all his strength, is the one who cannot live without her. Marchbanks, for all his weakness, can walk away.
The Economics of Marriage
Shaw was a socialist and a feminist, and Candida reflects his conviction that marriage is an economic institution. Candida manages the household, raises the children, supports her husband’s career. She is, in Shaw’s phrase, “a good wife”—and her goodness has a price. The play asks whether love can survive the economic arrangements that sustain it. The answer is not simple.
The Poetry and the Prose
The play’s central debate is between poetry and prose, between the visionary and the practical, between Marchbanks’s idealism and Morell’s activism. Shaw refuses to choose sides. Marchbanks is right about the importance of beauty, of spirit, of transcendence. Morell is right about the importance of work, of reform, of feeding the hungry. The play does not resolve their opposition; it embodies it.
The Ending
The ending of Candida is one of the most famous in modern drama. Marchbanks leaves, transformed by his experience, ready to write the poetry that will make him famous. Morell remains, chastened, aware for the first time of his dependence on his wife. Candida remains, unchanged, the still point around which both men have turned. The final image is of the poet walking into the night, carrying nothing but his vision.
Why Read the Play Candida Today?
Because it is funny, wise, and deeply humane. Shaw’s characters are not puppets for his ideas; they are people, struggling to love and be loved, to understand themselves and each other. The play asks questions that have no easy answers: What do we owe to those who love us? What do we owe to ourselves? How do we know when we are truly loved? It does not answer these questions. It only stages them, brilliantly, and leaves us to decide.
FAQ
Is this play autobiographical?
In part. Shaw was himself a kind of Marchbanks—a young, awkward, idealistic writer—and he had complicated relationships with women who were, like Candida, stronger than they appeared.
Why is it called Candida?
Candida means “white” or “pure” in Latin. The name is ironic; Candida is not pure in any conventional sense. She is complex, contradictory, fully human.
Is this a feminist play?
Yes, in Shaw’s distinctive way. It centers a woman’s choice, takes her seriously, and refuses to reduce her to a symbol. It also acknowledges the constraints within which women must make their choices.
How long is it?
Approximately 80 pages in standard editions. It is a full-length play, usually performed in three acts.
Can I read it on my phone?
Yes. Shaw’s dialogue is brisk, his wit is sharp, his characters are vivid. Read it in an afternoon; think about it for years.