Customer Reviews

The Doctor's Dilemma: A Tragedy (Shaw Library)

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THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA is one of Shaw's most biting critical commentaries...this time on doctors. Shaw hated doctors, as a result of a botched operation on his foot, so here he portrays them as a group of ignorant, bull-headed windbags. All, that is, except for one doctor, who has actually found a cure for tuberculosis. The "dilemma" in the title is whether to use the cure on a talented young painter who is a moral and ethical sleazebag, or on an upstanding middle-aged physician who is a good soul, albeit a boring and relatively mundane one. All this is complicated by the fact that the doctor is in love with the painter's wife! The biggest problem with the play is that it has lost some of its impetus in the last century. Antibiotics can now cure tuberculosis, and the medical profession is far more restricted in its use of "experimental" treatments than it was then. However, Shaw's wit and invective is still poignant even at the end of the twentieth century. A must-read for Bernard Shaw enthusiasts....

This is a humorous take on the serious issue of a doctor being forced to choose between patients in a life or death situation. In this case the doctor must choose between a friend and a rival with his personal feelings playing havoc with him. This is Shaw's comedic way of bringing up the issue of doctors being made to play God when medicine is in short supply, and he compels us to think about how those decisions are made.
Shaw pokes fun at his cast of characters who mirror people in real life. He raises valid questions about medical ethics while making you laugh at the inanity of it all. This is a wonderful masterpiece, funny, relevant, and great food for thought.
George Bernard Shaw created numerous masterpieces over the span of his writing career. He has the distinction of being the only person to ever be awarded both an Oscar and the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was a very humble and conscientious man, a political activist and a vegetarian. His conscientiousness shows in his work by his inability to write meaningless fluff at a time when fluff dominated the stage. His trademark is his classic use of ample humor in dramas with serious subject matter. It takes a special kind of genius to be able to pull that off as flawlessly as he did.

In this excellent story a doctor finds himself personally and ethically conflicted when he must decide whom he will give the only cure to, a poor medical colleague who is a good man or a brilliant artist who is an unpleasant individual and whose wife the doctor is in love with.
The characters in this tale are amazingly well conceived, the premise is most intriguing, and the dialogue is very witty.
This is a brilliant work that examines serious issues that occurred, and still occur, in the medical field. The theme of the play raises the question of what happens when life-saving treatments are so scarce or expensive that only some people can have them while others must go without. In those cases who should decide who gets treated and for what reasons?

Shaw is my favorite of the Victorian playwrights. His works were revolutionary in many ways. Use of humor was rare and exceptional for playwrights during that era, but Shaw was not afraid to make audiences laugh. He also tackled serious moral, political, and social issues in his plays at a time when sappy dramas were all the rage. He was truly bold and innovative and greatly contributed to dramatic art. He had an amazing gift, the ability to make people think while simultaneously making them laugh.

Reading Shaw's works are a genuine treat. All of his plays are fabulous. His characters are memorable, and his humor is brilliant.

Sometimes I forget that doctors are just as susceptible to allowing their feelings to get in the way of doing their job as anyone else. This was a great story about a doctor struggling with the feelings he had for the people in his care and how it affected his decision regarding their treatment.

I thought the way that Shaw characterized the medical staff was hilarious, and the dilemma he put the doctor in was very intriguing. I couldn't wait to find out who he chose and was tempted to skip ahead to see.

This story was smart and funny. I loved it and wanted more when it was over. I'll have to buy another one of his books. I just love his style.

I can't resist any chance I can get to peek into the mind of a genius, and Shaw was a true genius. This story was delightful and brilliant.