Man and Superman shares a significant connection with Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, which served as Shaw’s inspiration for his play. Listening to the opera can help one appreciate Shaw’s use of music and the lyrical quality of the characters’ dialogue, while also providing an alternate take on the Don Juan narrative.

The timeless favorite Pygmalion is a quintessential Shaw work. It tells the tale of a street girl who, through a wager, is transformed by a gentleman to seamlessly blend into high society by learning refined behavior and speech.

William Congreve’s The Way of the World (1700) is a classic eighteenth-century comedy of manners that revolves around a romantic courtship.

Lord Byron’s unfinished poem Don Juan details the escapades of the lover Don Juan, interwoven with philosophical reflections reminiscent of Shaw’s portrayal of Don Juan.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra introduces his concept of the Superman, which Shaw drew upon for his own interpretation of the Superman.

Arthur Schopenhauer’s essay “The World as Will and Idea” explores the philosophy of a universal or cosmic Will that influences the actions of individuals as well as the workings of nature.