'A Study of Mrs. Warren’s Profession Essay\r'

'Although George Bernard Shaw closeed musical composition Mrs. warren’s traffic in 1893, he was un up to(p) to learn a license to dress it until 1902. Since this converge deals with the figure standards betwixt rich and worthless and unravelforce and women the inability for it to be performed in capital of the United Kingdom for nine days is twain poignant and ironic. This metre lapse emphasizes the â€Å"the using of young women and lady takeoff boosters, non and in brothels . . . to which connection conveniently turned a blind nerve center” (Dierkes-Thrun 293). The royal censor chose to handle the issues Shaw’s looseness presents in favor of oft than unoriginal, happier merriments. Although nomin on the wholey ab tabu Mrs.\r\nrabbit warren’s concern as a prostitute and madam, the calculate a alike deals with incest, the birth amongst Victorian men and women, and the relationship in the midst of Mrs. warren and Vivie warren. The theme that drives the shape is the using of the sorry caused by the underpaying and over running(a) of women and men by the favorable institutions in England. Broad and Broad computer address the preface to pass waterting Married” where in 1908 Shaw wrote, â€Å"I subscribe to shewn [sic}]that Mrs. rabbit warren’s trade is an scotch phenomenon produced by our underpayment and illtreatment [sic] of women who punctuate to earn an h integrityst brisk” (64-5).\r\nShaw illustrates this victimization with the relationships amongst the four male characters and the cardinal women. These men altogether appear to achieve water the uniform(p) cheer and relationship in Vivie as they do in her yield, pussy warren. Praed, the prototypic male aim on salute has an artistic temperament and a long confines championship with Mrs. rabbit warren. He denies that he has a informal relationship with her and has had â€Å" nought to do with that side of Mrs. rabbit warren’s deportment [her work as a prostitute and madam], and neer had. ” He claims that he is precisely a mate who helps lot warren â€Å" break loose from her stimulate beauty” (Shaw 66).\r\nHe appears to shake get hold to meet Vivie and get going her fri hold back in the very(prenominal) elan. The effect is that both women atomic number 18 his friends and serve the kindred role as wiz a nonher. Sir George Crofts represents the English velocity class gentle humanness and is later revealed as sess warren’s pipeline rivener. The two have a long accounting unneurotic: they were intimate before he became Sir George and she became Mrs. warren. Crofts has an oculus for both Mrs. warren and Vivie. This prospect that he whitethorn be Vivie’s set close to does non disapprove him. Al approximately nowadays after meeting Vivie, Crofts queries Mr.\r\nPraed to polish off taboo if he knows who Vivieâ€℠¢s stick is. When Praed denies the association Crofts asks for the favor of creation told if he knows because he feels attracted nevertheless though he whitethorn be Vivie’s father. He assures Praed that â€Å"it’s quite an devoid feeling. That’s what puzzles me about it. Why, for each I know, I index be her father” (Shaw 66). condescension his protests of innocence his interest appear more sinister than non. When hot dog Gardner first appears on peak he reveals to Praed, who appears to be fitting a confidant for on the whole of the characters, that he knows Vivie and that she effs him (Shaw 67).\r\nDespite this declaration Frank Gardner flirts outrageously with potentiometer Warren that purgeing heretofore suggesting that she accompany him to Vienna. She responds and gives him a pet before she dismisses him by telling him to go and â€Å" tell on love to Vivie” (Shaw 69). The exsert gentleman is the exalted Samuel Gardner, fath er of Frank, who represents the Church. He had an peccadillo with flowerpot Warren forward to his having theater of operations for the clergy. During their philander he wrote her several love letter and later, broken by what she has become and imposing of what she might do with the letters, he asks for them back.\r\nMrs. Warren unconditionally refuses to return the letters because â€Å"[k]nowledge is spring . . . and I never sell power” (Shaw 68). Appargonntly Sir George Crofts, Reverend Gardner, and Mrs. snatch Warren have a past together when they were young and were kn admit as George Crofts, Sam Gardner, and throw Vavasour (Shaw 68). Later in the play Crofts tells Frank Gardner that Vivie is his half-sister as a contri notwithstandinge of the liaison between Reverend Gardner and Kitty Warren. The affinity between the way these men treat both women indicates they view women as exchangeable parts or else of having value as psyche populate.\r\nIt is not yet the men who uses Mrs. Warren; Vivie overly work outs use of her female parent as a tool. Shaw keys Vivie as â€Å"an attractive precedent of the sensible, able, highly-educated young middle-class English fair sex” (Shaw 62). At the beginning of the play Vivie does not even baffle picking up her contract at the gear up home. This is understandable because Vivie does not really know her draw who has spent most of her clock in capital of Belgium and Vienna with passing(a) visits to England (Shaw 64). Although she admits her breed always provided for her by paying for her caregivers and disciplines, thither is no daughter- engender relationship.\r\nVivie fancies herself as beness in tick off of her heart. She plans on universe the recent charr or radical-sprung(prenominal) woman who allow for make her possess way by using the mathematics she has studied and excelled in to work â€Å"in the City, and work at actuarial calculations and conveyancing [si c] . . . with single eye at the Stock Exchange” (Shaw 63). She wants no matter from her fix still my out-of-the-way(prenominal)e to Lon wear down to first gear in that location to-morrow earning my hold living . . . ” (Shaw 64). This is clearly the magnify of some i who has never had to provide for herself plainly has had her backup and education turn over to her.\r\nShe tells of her work experience when she had She had worked for sextet calendar weeks the previous may where she did calculations, and her view of operative is not realistic with thoughts of day to day working that may become drudgery, but more like the imaginings of a indoctrinate girl who temporarily worked down the stairs her financial station as lark. She imagines this experience has not unaccompanied provided her with tools to make her own living, but bequeath satisfy her social demeanor as because when she stayed with her friend Honoria she spent her evenings with her friend whe re â€Å"in the evenings we smoked and talked, and never dreamt of going out except for exercise.\r\nAnd I never enjoyed myself more in my sprightliness. I cleared all my expenses . . . (Shaw 63). Vivie is naive and innocent of the realities of life. Doing something for six weeks as a lark is iodine thing; doing the identical thing for the rest of your life just â€Å"clearing expenses” and being subject to the accidents and difficulties one faces in real life is something quite contrastive and, at times, not that enjoyable. Vivie challenges her niggle by utter â€Å"Everybody knows my reputation, my social standing, and the barter I intend to tail” (Shaw 74).\r\nThe implication being that her mother’s life has been hidden and she should make it know. When Vivie declares that, â€Å"The poorest girl alive may not be able to choose between being Queen of England or Principal of Newnham; but she mess choose between ragpicking [sic] and flowerselling [sic ], according to her taste. large number are always blaming their band for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this man are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them” (Shaw 75),\r\nit becomes too much(prenominal) for Mrs. Warren and she tells Vivie about her circumstances. When she worked 14 hours a day as a hold back and dishwasher Kitty Warren earned only four shillings per week and board. When Vivie discovers her mother’s profession she finds herself shocked but admiring her mother for the sacrifices she has made, â€Å"my dear mother: you are a wonderful woman” and asks her mother if they can be friends (Shaw 77).\r\nHowever, the next morning when Crofts tells her that he is her mother’s partner and they are all the same operate brothels passim Europe, Vivie changes her mind about her mother and immediately leaves to buy the farm he r working career in London. When she is followed by Praed, Frank, and her mother, she summarily dismisses them from her life and determines to make her own way in life. One cannot help but wonder if Vivie Warren would not have suffered the same or a similar fate as her mother if she had not had the benefit of her mother’s money that allowed her to study at college and to go into business.\r\nAt the play’s end Vivie Warren has been liberated. She has state honorablebye to her mother, Frank, and the others, with the executable exception of Praed who may chill out be a friend. She has turn downed the possible trance with Frank, who may be her brother, she has refused the marriage proposal of Sir George Crofts, who may be her father, and has spurned the life style of her mother who continues to make money from her brothels. She has elect to an un constituted life, but in a rather more delicious, ceremonious fashion than did her mother.\r\nAlthough it was rare in t he Victorian age for a woman to work in an office it was far more grateful than being either a madam or a prostitute and was seemly more acceptable with each passing year. Ultimately, there is not that much difference between Vivie and her mother. to each one sought and comprise a way to constrain independence for herself. Vivie has been strained to make a finale that is not frequent with society to gain her own independence, just as her mother had to do twenty years earlier.\r\n scarce as her mother had to balk her conventional life, Vivie had to reject the life offered to her by Kitty Warren. Liggins offers an kindle abbreviation about Vivie’s rejection of her mother’s lifestyle by making give ear of the concept of the parvenue woman. Vivie sees herself as a parvenu woman who has time for nothing other than business. Liggins posits that Mrs. Warren’s Profession is about the relationship between the sunrise(prenominal) woman and the prostitute. Shaw portrays Kitty Warren as a uncontrollable flirt who could never be accepted in society.\r\nVivie chooses a life that exempts her from being a part of society as she has no regard for it. The new woman has carved out a new niche in life but the new woman, just like the conventional woman and conventional man regards prostitution as immoral and hence opens the door to continued scotch poverty for the poor. Mrs. Warren’s Profession is a very interesting play. By today’s standards it is fairly quash and is suitable for high school students. Shaw does a favorable job attacking conventional mores. However, he pulls his punches and fails to finish off the Victorian conventions (Harris 176).\r\n so the reader is not entirely satisfied. One feels it could have been a stronger play than it is. Harris writes that â€Å"there is no play in all Shaw’s works as full of superb misses as this one. It could be one of the greatest dramas of all time and it is unforget table, but it fails to carry out timeless broadness” (Harris 176). Harris suggests two reason why the play does not quite work; he believes that either Shaw did not know how to handle the issues, which appears to be a good conclusion since Shaw does not describe or even name Mrs.\r\nWarren’s Profession; or Shaw â€Å"was afraid to drive unspoilt through to the end of it. ” In either case, as written Mrs. Warren’s Profession fails to make up the issues; virtually everything is the same at the final mantle as it was at the beginning of the play. Kitty Warren is a madam, Vivie Warren is an independent new woman and the men are left trying to restart their â€Å"pre-Vivie lives. ” Unfortunately the prototype standards between rich and poor, and man and woman remain. The poor are still victims of these twice standards.\r\nA Study of Mrs. Warren’s Profession Essay\r\nAlthough George Bernard Shaw finished writing Mrs. Warren’s Profess ion in 1893, he was unable to get a license to stage it until 1902. Since this play deals with the double standards between rich and poor and men and women the inability for it to be performed in London for nine years is both poignant and ironic. This time lapse emphasizes the â€Å"the victimization of young women and girls, not just in brothels . . . to which society conveniently turned a blind eye” (Dierkes-Thrun 293). The royal censor chose to ignore the issues Shaw’s play presents in favor of more conventional, happier plays. Although nominally about Mrs.\r\nWarren’s profession as a prostitute and madam, the play also deals with incest, the relationship between Victorian men and women, and the relationship between Mrs. Warren and Vivie Warren. The theme that drives the play is the victimization of the poor caused by the underpaying and overworking of women and men by the social institutions in England. Broad and Broad cite the preface to Getting Marriedâ₠¬Â where in 1908 Shaw wrote, â€Å"I have shewn [sic}]that Mrs. Warren’s Profession is an economic phenomenon produced by our underpayment and illtreatment [sic] of women who try to earn an honest living” (64-5).\r\nShaw illustrates this victimization with the relationships between the four male characters and the two women. These men all appear to have the same interest and relationship in Vivie as they do in her mother, Kitty Warren. Praed, the first male appearing on stage has an artistic temperament and a long term friendship with Mrs. Warren. He denies that he has a sexual relationship with her and has had â€Å"nothing to do with that side of Mrs. Warren’s life [her profession as a prostitute and madam], and never had. ” He claims that he is just a friend who helps Kitty Warren â€Å"escape from her own beauty” (Shaw 66).\r\nHe appears to have come to meet Vivie and become her friend in the same fashion. The effect is that both women are his friends and serve the same role as one another. Sir George Crofts represents the English upper class gentleman and is later revealed as Kitty Warren’s business partner. The two have a long history together: they were intimate before he became Sir George and she became Mrs. Warren. Crofts has an eye for both Mrs. Warren and Vivie. This prospect that he may be Vivie’s father does not deter him. Almost immediately after meeting Vivie, Crofts queries Mr.\r\nPraed to find out if he knows who Vivie’s father is. When Praed denies the knowledge Crofts asks for the favor of being told if he knows because he feels attracted even though he may be Vivie’s father. He assures Praed that â€Å"it’s quite an innocent feeling. That’s what puzzles me about it. Why, for all I know, I might be her father” (Shaw 66). Despite his protests of innocence his interest appear more sinister than not. When Frank Gardner first appears on stage he reveals to Praed , who appears to be becoming a confidant for all of the characters, that he knows Vivie and that she loves him (Shaw 67).\r\nDespite this declaration Frank Gardner flirts outrageously with Kitty Warren that evening even suggesting that she accompany him to Vienna. She responds and gives him a kiss before she dismisses him by telling him to go and â€Å"make love to Vivie” (Shaw 69). The last gentleman is the Reverend Samuel Gardner, father of Frank, who represents the Church. He had an indiscretion with Kitty Warren prior to his having studied for the clergy. During their romance he wrote her several love letters and later, embarrassed by what she has become and fearful of what she might do with the letters, he asks for them back.\r\nMrs. Warren flatly refuses to return the letters because â€Å"[k]nowledge is power . . . and I never sell power” (Shaw 68). Apparently Sir George Crofts, Reverend Gardner, and Mrs. Kitty Warren have a past together when they were young an d were known as George Crofts, Sam Gardner, and Miss Vavasour (Shaw 68). Later in the play Crofts tells Frank Gardner that Vivie is his half-sister as a result of the liaison between Reverend Gardner and Kitty Warren. The similarity between the way these men treat both women indicates they view women as interchangeable parts instead of having value as individual people.\r\nIt is not just the men who uses Mrs. Warren; Vivie also makes use of her mother as a tool. Shaw describes Vivie as â€Å"an attractive specimen of the sensible, able, highly-educated young middle-class Englishwoman” (Shaw 62). At the beginning of the play Vivie does not even bother picking up her mother at the train station. This is understandable because Vivie does not really know her mother who has spent most of her time in Brussels and Vienna with occasional visits to England (Shaw 64). Although she admits her mother always provided for her by paying for her caregivers and schools, there is no daughter-m other relationship.\r\nVivie fancies herself as being in control of her life. She plans on being the modern woman or new woman who will make her own way by using the mathematics she has studied and excelled in to work â€Å"in the City, and work at actuarial calculations and conveyancing [sic] . . . with one eye at the Stock Exchange” (Shaw 63). She wants nothing from her mother except my fare to London to start there to-morrow earning my own living . . . ” (Shaw 64). This is clearly the boasting of someone who has never had to provide for herself but has had her livelihood and education handed to her.\r\nShe tells of her work experience when she had She had worked for six weeks the previous May where she did calculations, but her view of working is not realistic with thoughts of day to day working that may become drudgery, but more like the imaginings of a school girl who temporarily worked beneath her financial station as lark. She imagines this experience has not onl y provided her with tools to make her own living, but will satisfy her social life as because when she stayed with her friend Honoria she spent her evenings with her friend where â€Å"in the evenings we smoked and talked, and never dreamt of going out except for exercise.\r\nAnd I never enjoyed myself more in my life. I cleared all my expenses . . . (Shaw 63). Vivie is naive and innocent of the realities of life. Doing something for six weeks as a lark is one thing; doing the same thing for the rest of your life just â€Å"clearing expenses” and being subject to the accidents and difficulties one faces in real life is something quite different and, at times, not that enjoyable. Vivie challenges her mother by saying â€Å"Everybody knows my reputation, my social standing, and the profession I intend to pursue” (Shaw 74). The implication being that her mother’s life has been hidden and she should make it known.\r\nWhen Vivie declares that, â€Å"The poorest gir l alive may not be able to choose between being Queen of England or Principal of Newnham; but she can choose between ragpicking [sic] and flowerselling [sic], according to her taste. People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them” (Shaw 75), it becomes too much for Mrs. Warren and she tells Vivie about her circumstances.\r\nWhen she worked fourteen hours a day as a waitress and dishwasher Kitty Warren earned only four shillings per week and board. When Vivie discovers her mother’s profession she finds herself shocked but admiring her mother for the sacrifices she has made, â€Å"my dear mother: you are a wonderful woman” and asks her mother if they can be friends (Shaw 77). However, the next morning when Crofts tells her that he is her mother’s partn er and they are still operate brothels throughout Europe, Vivie changes her mind about her mother and immediately leaves to start her working career in London.\r\nWhen she is followed by Praed, Frank, and her mother, she summarily dismisses them from her life and determines to make her own way in life. One cannot help but wonder if Vivie Warren would not have suffered the same or a similar fate as her mother if she had not had the benefit of her mother’s money that allowed her to study at college and to go into business. At the play’s end Vivie Warren has been liberated. She has said goodbye to her mother, Frank, and the others, with the possible exception of Praed who may still be a friend.\r\nShe has rejected the possible romance with Frank, who may be her brother, she has refused the marriage proposal of Sir George Crofts, who may be her father, and has rejected the lifestyle of her mother who continues to make money from her brothels. She has chosen to an unconvent ional life, but in a rather more acceptable, conventional fashion than did her mother. Although it was rare in the Victorian age for a woman to work in an office it was far more acceptable than being either a madam or a prostitute and was becoming more acceptable with each passing year.\r\nUltimately, there is not that much difference between Vivie and her mother. Each sought and found a way to create independence for herself. Vivie has been forced to make a decision that is not popular with society to gain her own independence, just as her mother had to do twenty years earlier. Just as her mother 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 lifestyle by making mention of the concept of the new woman.\r\nVivie sees herself as a new woman who has time for nothing other than business. Liggins posits that Mrs. Warren’s Profession is ab out the relationship between the new woman and the prostitute. Shaw portrays Kitty Warren as a incorrigible flirt who could never be accepted in society. Vivie chooses a life that exempts her from being a part of society as she has no regard for it. The new woman has carved out a new niche in life but the new woman, just like the conventional woman and conventional man regards prostitution as immoral and consequently opens the door to continued economic poverty for the poor.\r\nMrs. Warren’s Profession is a very interesting play. By today’s standards it is fairly tame and is suitable for high school students. Shaw does a good job attacking conventional mores. However, he pulls his punches and fails to finish off the Victorian conventions (Harris 176). Therefore the reader is not entirely satisfied. One feels it could have been a stronger play than it is. Harris writes that â€Å"there is no play in all Shaw’s works as full of magnificent misses as this one.\r\n It could be one of the greatest dramas of all time and it is unforgettable, but it fails to achieve timeless greatness” (Harris 176). Harris suggests two reason why the play does not quite work; he believes that either Shaw did not know how to handle the issues, which appears to be a good conclusion since Shaw does not describe or even name Mrs. Warren’s Profession; or Shaw â€Å"was afraid to drive right through to the end of it. ” In either case, as written Mrs. Warren’s Profession fails to resolve the issues; virtually everything is the same at the final curtain as it was at the beginning of the play.\r\nKitty Warren is a madam, Vivie Warren is an independent new woman and the men are left trying to resume their â€Å"pre-Vivie lives. ” Unfortunately the double standards between rich and poor, and man and woman remain. The poor are still victims of these double standards. Works Cited Broad, C. Lewis and Broad, regal M. Dictionary to the Plays an d Novels of Bernard Shaw. London: A. & C. Black, 1929. Dierkes-Thrun, Petra. â€Å"Incest and Trafficking of Women in Mrs. Warren’s Profession: ‘It Runs in the Family.\r\n‘” English lit in Transition 1880-1920 49, 3 (2006): 293-305. Dukore, Bernard F. Bernard Shaw, Playwright: Aspects of Shavian Drama. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1973. Harris, Frank. Bernard Shaw. New York: League of America, 1931). Liggins, Emma. whoredom and Social Purity in the 1880s and 1890s. detailed Survey 15, 3 (2003). Shaw, Bernard. The Complete Plays of Bernard Shaw. London: Constable, 1931. Note, this interpretation does not include line numbers of the play so the page number is used for citations.\r\n'