By extension, Shaw uses this "exposition of Ibsenism"[1] to illustrate the imperfections of British society, notably employing to that end an imaginary "community of a thousand persons," divided into three categories: Philistines, Idealists, and the lone Realist.
The essay originated in response to a call for papers from the Fabian Society in the spring of 1890, "put forward under the general heading 'Socialism in Contemporary Literature.
[5]: 3 Shaw, unlike Arnold who viewed Philistines as obstacles to human and cultural progress, constructs this type as relatively harmless though it includes the majority of society.
Johnny Tarleton in Misalliance is an ordinary, vaguely incompetent business man; Colonel Daniel Craven in The Philanderer is a well-meaning, gullible retired officer.
As active rather than passive, the idealist is to be considered dangerous due to his desire to uphold and defend values such as duty and altruism at the expense of individual life and happiness.
He is characterized by a "devotion to romantic illusions" such as that of honor and self-sacrifice and the "plausible" excuses with which he seeks to justify the extremes of his conduct (which invariably consist of an "attack on the nonconformist".
[5]: 263 Clearly type-cast as a realist and practically as a new species, the Superman will, according to Shaw, "undoubtedly […] empty a good deal of respectable morality out like so much dirty water, and replace it by new and strange customs".