I was just reading George Bernard Shaw: A Very Short Introduction and learning about how his philosophy informed his plays. In particular, I learned why the play Pygmalion, which I recently read and which is the origin of the popular musical My Fair Lady, has an odd appendix which tells of the main characters’ continued life stories after the events of the play — as Shaw imagined them. Apparently, audiences pined for a love story between Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, and Shaw never wanted that. Apparently, when Shaw saw what actors and directors were doing to tilt the story toward that love affair, he felt the need to add a postscript to set things straight.
