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Basic Study : MA Final in Seven College Under Dhaka University
Subject Name: Modern Drama (Study Guide)
Subject Code: ENM 504
Written and Edited Credit : Md. Layek Ali
Use : Non-Commercial with free Education Purpose
First Published: February 2022
ISBN: 984-70020-0745-0
Text: You Never Can Tell
Writer: George Bernard Shaw
Text Type: Explanations
Act: I
Exp. These lines, spoken by Valentine to Philip and Dolly, have been quoted from Act I of the play You Never Can 1ell written by George Bernard Shaw. Here Valentine tells them about life in an English seaside resort. Mrs. Clandon settled at Madeira after her separation from her husband with her three children – Gloria, and the twins, Dolly and
Philip. After an absence of eighteen years, the family returns to England to seek advice from an old family friend and solicitor about a delicate family matter. They are staying at the Marine Hotel at a seaside resort in southern England. Dolly goes to a dentist, Valentine, to have her tooth extracted. After she had her tooth pulled out, Philip joins her and invites Valentine to lunch with them at the Marine Hotel. Valentine does not want tO accept their invitation until he knows the name of their father. He tells them about life in an English seaside resort. He says that having no legal father is looked down upon in that society. It is a matter of shame for a person who does not know anything about his father. lt is an indispensable part of social equipment that every respectable person should have a father. dead or alive. Thus, Valentine turns down their inyitation on the
grounds that they know nothing about their father. Being failed as a medical practitioner, he sets up as a dentist. If he wants a future, he has to be a respectable person. If he accepts the invitation of people who have not legal father, alive or dead, he will be lowered down in social estimation and this means ruination of his profession.
