Although George Bernard Shaw finished composing Mrs. Warren’s Profession in 1893. he was unable to acquire a licence to present it until 1902. Since this drama deals with the dual criterions between rich and hapless and work forces and adult females the inability for it to be performed in London for nine old ages is both affecting and dry. This clip oversight emphasizes the “the victimization of immature adult females and misss. non merely in whorehouses. . . to which society handily turned a unsighted eye” ( Dierkes-Thrun 293 ) . The royal censor chose to disregard the issues Shaw’s drama nowadayss in favour of more conventional. happier dramas. Although nominally about Mrs.
Warren’s profession as a cocotte and dame. the drama besides deals with incest. the relationship between Victorian work forces and adult females. and the relationship between Mrs. Warren and Vivie Warren. The subject that drives the drama is the victimization of the hapless caused by the underpaying and overworking of adult females and work forces by the societal establishments in England. Broad and Broad cite the foreword to Getting Married” where in 1908 Shaw wrote. “I have shewn [ sic } ] that Mrs. Warren’s Profession is an economic phenomenon produced by our underpayment and illtreatment [ sic ] of adult females who try to gain an honest living” ( 64-5 ) .
Shaw illustrates this victimization with the relationships between the four male characters and the two adult females. These work forces all appear to hold the same involvement and relationship in Vivie as they do in her female parent. Kitty Warren. Praed. the first male looking on phase has an artistic disposition and a long term friendly relationship with Mrs. Warren. He denies that he has a sexual relationship with her and has had “nothing to make with that side of Mrs. Warren’s life [ her profession as a cocotte and dame ] . and ne’er had. ” He claims that he is merely a friend who helps Kitty Warren “escape from her ain beauty” ( Shaw 66 ) .
He appears to hold come to run into Vivie and go her friend in the same manner. The consequence is that both adult females are his friends and serve the same function as one another. Sir George Crofts represents the English upper category gentleman and is subsequently revealed as Kitty Warren’s concern spouse. The two have a long history together: they were intimate before he became Sir George and she became Mrs. Warren. Crofts has an oculus for both Mrs. Warren and Vivie. This chance that he may be Vivie’s male parent does non discourage him. Almost instantly after run intoing Vivie. Crofts queries Mr.
Praed to happen out if he knows who Vivie’s male parent is. When Praed denies the cognition Crofts asks for the favour of being told if he knows because he feels attracted even though he may be Vivie’s male parent. He assures Praed that “it’s rather an guiltless feeling. That’s what puzzles me about it. Why. for all I know. I might be her father” ( Shaw 66 ) . Despite his protests of artlessness his involvement appear more sinister than non. When Frank Gardner foremost appears on phase he reveals to Praed. who appears to be going a intimate for all of the characters. that he knows Vivie and that she loves him ( Shaw 67 ) .
Despite this declaration Frank Gardner flirts outrageously with Kitty Warren that flushing even proposing that she accompany him to Vienna. She responds and gives him a buss before she dismisses him by stating him to travel and “make love to Vivie” ( Shaw 69 ) . The last gentleman is the Reverend Samuel Gardner. male parent of Frank. who represents the Church. He had an injudiciousness with Kitty Warren prior to his holding studied for the clergy. During their love affair he wrote her several love letters and subsequently. embarrassed by what she has become and fearful of what she might make with the letters. he asks for them back.
Mrs. Warren categorically refuses to return the letters because “ [ k ] nowledge is power. . . and I ne’er sell power” ( Shaw 68 ) . Apparently Sir George Crofts. Reverend Gardner. and Mrs. Kitty Warren have a past together when they were immature and were known as George Crofts. Sam Gardner. and Miss Vavasour ( Shaw 68 ) . Later in the drama Crofts tells Frank Gardner that Vivie is his half sister as a consequence of the affair between Reverend Gardner and Kitty Warren. The similarity between the manner these work forces treat both adult females indicates they view adult females as interchangeable parts alternatively of holding value as single people.
It is non merely the work forces who uses Mrs. Warren ; Vivie besides makes usage of her female parent as a tool. Shaw describes Vivie as “an attractive specimen of the reasonable. able. highly-educated immature middle-class Englishwoman” ( Shaw 62 ) . At the beginning of the drama Vivie does non even bother picking up her female parent at the train station. This is apprehensible because Vivie does non truly cognize her female parent who has spent most of her clip in Brussels and Vienna with occasional visits to England ( Shaw 64 ) . Although she admits her female parent ever provided for her by paying for her health professionals and schools. there is no daughter-mother relationship.
Vivie fancies herself as being in control of her life. She plans on being the modern adult female or new adult female who will do her ain manner by utilizing the mathematics she has studied and excelled in to work “in the City. and work at actuarial computations and conveyancing [ sic ] . . . with one oculus at the Stock Exchange” ( Shaw 63 ) . She wants nil from her female parent except my menu to London to get down there to-morrow gaining my ain life. . . ” ( Shaw 64 ) . This is clearly the self-praise of person who has ne’er had to supply for herself but has had her support and instruction handed to her.
She tells of her work experience when she had She had worked for six hebdomads the old May where she did computations. but her position of working is non realistic with ideas of twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours working that may go plodding. but more like the imaginings of a school miss who temporarily worked beneath her fiscal station as lark. She imagines this experience has non merely provided her with tools to do her ain life. but will fulfill her societal life as because when she stayed with her friend Honoria she spent her eventides with her friend where “in the eventides we smoked and talked. and ne’er dreamt of traveling out except for exercising.
And I ne’er enjoyed myself more in my life. I cleared all my disbursals. . . ( Shaw 63 ) . Vivie is naif and guiltless of the worlds of life. Making something for six hebdomads as a lark is one thing ; making the same thing for the remainder of your life merely “clearing expenses” and being capable to the accidents and troubles one faces in existent life is something rather different and. at times. non that gratifying. Vivie challenges her female parent by stating “Everybody knows my repute. my societal standing. and the profession I intend to pursue” ( Shaw 74 ) . The deduction being that her mother’s life has been hidden and she should do it known.
When Vivie declares that. “The poorest miss alive may non be able to take between being Queen of England or Principal of Newnham ; but she can take between ragpicking [ sic ] and flowerselling [ sic ] . harmonizing to her gustatory sensation. Peoples are ever faulting their fortunes for what they are. I don’t believe in fortunes. The people who get on in this universe are the people who get up and look for the fortunes they want. and. if they can’t happen them. do them” ( Shaw 75 ) . it becomes excessively much for Mrs. Warren and she tells Vivie about her fortunes.
When she worked 14 hours a twenty-four hours as a waitress and dish washer Kitty Warren earned merely four shillings per hebdomad and board. When Vivie discovers her mother’s profession she finds herself shocked but look up toing her female parent for the forfeits she has made. “my beloved female parent: you are a fantastic woman” and asks her female parent if they can be friends ( Shaw 77 ) . However. the following forenoon when Crofts tells her that he is her mother’s spouse and they are still operate whorehouses throughout Europe. Vivie changes her head about her female parent and instantly leaves to get down her working calling in London.
When she is followed by Praed. Frank. and her female parent. she summarily dismisses them from her life and determines to do her ain manner in life. One can non assist but inquire if Vivie Warren would non hold suffered the same or a similar destiny as her female parent if she had non had the benefit of her mother’s money that allowed her to analyze at college and to travel into concern. At the play’s terminal Vivie Warren has been liberated. She has said adieu to her female parent. Frank. and the others. with the possible exclusion of Praed who may still be a friend.
She has rejected the possible love affair with Frank. who may be her brother. she has refused the matrimony proposal of Sir George Crofts. who may be her male parent. and has rejected the life style of her female parent who continues to do money from her whorehouses. She has chosen to an unconventional life. but in a instead more acceptable. conventional manner than did her female parent. Although it was rare in the Victorian age for a adult female to work in an office it was far more acceptable than being either a dame or a cocotte and was going more acceptable with each go throughing twelvemonth.
Ultimately. there is non that much difference between Vivie and her female parent. Each sought and found a manner to make independency for herself. Vivie has been forced to do a determination that is non popular with society to derive her ain independency. merely as her female parent had to make twenty old ages earlier. Merely as her female parent had to reject her conventional life. Vivie had to reject the life offered to her by Kitty Warren. Liggins offers an interesting analysis about Vivie’s rejection of her mother’s life style by doing reference of the construct of the new adult female.
Vivie sees herself as a new adult female who has clip for nil other than concern. Liggins postulates that Mrs. Warren’s Profession is about the relationship between the new adult female and the cocotte. Shaw portrays Kitty Warren as a incorrigible coquette who could ne’er be accepted in society. Vivie chooses a life that exempts her from being a portion of society as she has no respect for it. The new adult female has carved out a new niche in life but the new adult female. merely like the conventional adult female and conventional adult male respects harlotry as immoral and accordingly opens the door to go on economic poorness for the hapless.
Mrs. Warren’s Profession is a really interesting drama. By today’s criterions it is reasonably tame and is suited for high school pupils. Shaw does a good occupation assailing conventional mores. However. he pulls his clouts and fails to complete off the Victorian conventions ( Harris 176 ) . Therefore the reader is non wholly satisfied. One feels it could hold been a stronger drama than it is. Harris writes that “there is no drama in all Shaw’s plants as full of brilliant girls as this one.
It could be one of the greatest play of all clip and it is unforgettable. but it fails to accomplish timeless greatness” ( Harris 176 ) . Harris suggests two ground why the drama does non rather work ; he believes that either Shaw did non cognize how to manage the issues. which appears to be a good decision since Shaw does non depict or even name Mrs. Warren’s Profession ; or Shaw “was afraid to drive right through to the terminal of it. ” In either instance. as written Mrs. Warren’s Profession fails to decide the issues ; virtually everything is the same at the concluding drape as it was at the beginning of the drama.
Kitty Warren is a dame. Vivie Warren is an independent new adult female and the work forces are left seeking to restart their “pre-Vivie lives. ” Unfortunately the dual criterions between rich and hapless. and adult male and adult female remain. The hapless are still victims of these dual criterions. Works Cited Broad. C. Lewis and Broad. Violet M. Dictionary to the Plays and Novels of Bernard Shaw. London: A. & A ; C. Black. 1929. Dierkes-Thrun. Petra. “Incest and Trafficking of Women in Mrs. Warren’s Profession: ‘It Runs in the Family.
‘” English Literature in Transition 1880-1920 49. 3 ( 2006 ) : 293-305. Dukore. Bernard F. Bernard Shaw. Dramatist: Aspects of Shavian Drama. Columbia. Moment: University of Missouri Press. 1973. Harris. Frank. Bernard Shaw. New York: League of America. 1931 ) . Liggins. Emma. Prostitution and Social Purity in the 1880s and 1890s. Critical Survey 15. 3 ( 2003 ) . Shaw. Bernard. The Complete Plays of Bernard Shaw. London: Constable. 1931. Note. this edition does non include line Numberss of the drama so the page figure is used for commendations.
