Candida

by Bernard Shaw

"Candida" by Bernard Shaw is a comedy written in 1894. A young poet falls in love with Candida, the wife of a successful clergyman, and attempts to win her away from what he sees as her mundane domestic life. The play challenges Victorian assumptions about love and marriage, asking what women truly desire from their husbands. Candida must ultimately choose between her devoted husband and her passionate admirer—but her choice reveals unexpected truths about strength, dependency, and the nature of love itself.