II.

Early Years

Shaw was born on July 26, 1856, in Dublin, Ireland. His father, from the Protestant Irish upper class, was an unsuccessful and unhappy merchant and an alcoholic. Shaw later described himself as “a social downstart,” in typical fashion reversing the standard phrase “social upstart.” For extra income his mother gave singing lessons. Shaw later remembered her as a distant and unaffectionate mother.

After attending both Protestant and Catholic day schools, Shaw took a clerical job at the age of 16. Thereafter he was self-educated, a situation that may partly explain the originality and independence of his thinking. After his parents’ marriage failed, his mother and sisters went to London. Shaw joined them there in 1876, at the age of 20.