Theatrical Posture, Theatrical Style: Fluidity of Body and Mind in Widowers' Houses

This article examines the relationship between posture and performance in Shaw's 1892 drama Widowers' Houses. It begins by outlining the distinctly legible melodramatic style so popular in the earlier nineteenth century, before placing Shaw's flexible and equivocal characters in the context of the “rigid moral distinctions” Michael Booth identifies in English Melodrama as central to the melodramatic genre. It then demonstrates how Shaw manipulates these well-worn conventions in Widowers' Houses; in so doing, this article argues, Shaw establishes new postures of flexibility, which in turn facilitate new styles of villainy.