Man of Destiny Book

Shaw's one-act play about Napoleon, The Man of Destiny (1897). is memorable for at least four reasons: 1) it gives us a glimpse of an indisputably great man at the point when he begins to realize his greatness, 2) it presents us with a battle of minds and wills between that great man and an equally resourceful woman, 3) it is filled with witty, diverting dialogue, and 4) it allows G.B.S.--through the mouth of Napoleon'to deliver a devastating assessment of the character of the English people.

The play takes place at a Northern Italian inn where Napoleon has set up his temporary headquarters. It is two days after the battle of Lodi, a battle which'though indecisive in its outcome'helped convince Napoleon he was indeed a "man of destiny," more gifted than his fellow generals. The general is determined to retrieve a packet of stolen dispatches and letters which'he suspects'are now in the possession of an attractive Englishwoman who is staying at the inn. The search for this packet'and the contents of one particular letter'are at the center of this absorbing and entertaining play.

Here follows an excerpt of Napoleon's assessment of the English character (which I believe could'with a few minor alterations--be equally well applied to the American people): No Englishman is too low to have scruples: no Englishman is high enough to be free from their tyranny. But every Englishman is born with a certain miraculous power that makes him master of the world. When he wants a thing, he never tells himself that he wants it. He waits patiently until there comes into his mind, no one knows how, a burning conviction that it is his moral and religious duty to conquer those who have got the thing he wants. Then he becomes irresistible….He is never at a loss for an effective moral attitude. As the great champion of freedom and national independence, he conquers and annexes half the world, and calls it Colonization. When he wants a new market for his adulterated Manchester goods, he sends a missionary to teach the natives the gospel of peace. The natives kill the missionary: he flies to arms in defence of Christianity; fights for it; conquers for it; and takes the market as a reward from heaven. In defence of his island shores, he puts a chaplain on board his ship; nails a flag with a cross on it to his top-gallant mast; and sails to the ends of the earth, sinking, burning and destroying all who dispute the empire of the seas with him. He boasts that a slave is free the moment his foot touches British soil; and he sells the children of his poor at six years of age to work under the lash in his factories for sixteen hours a day.