ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the theories of each in some depth and to show the relevance of both to socialist thought. It explores certain aspects of the debate in detail by concentrating on the works of two of the major protagonists, William Morris and Bernard Shaw. The chapter attempts to grasp that Morris himself was an artist, because Morris's socialist man is also an artist: his basic instinct is creative. Morris then, before ever he became a socialist, was steeped in an intellectual tradition which encompassed writers like Ruskin and, to a lesser extent Carlyle and Arnold, whose inspiration was frequently drawn from medieval civilisation. First Shaw discovered socialism and second he discovered the theatre. Shaw joined the Fabian Society and later became one of its pillars. Shaw began with a criticism of capitalist society which in many respects was similar to Morris's; in fact was common to most socialists.
