The Cup and The Falcon Book

Mrs. Warren's Profession (1883) was first collected in Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant, where Shaw classifies it as one of his "unpleasant" plays. And, boy, is Shaw ever right.

Partly, this is because of the theme of the play: women are drawn into prostitution because of economic necessity, not because of a defect of moral character or the consequences of a disastrous love affair. This in itself is an uncomfortable truth for a Victorian audience, guaranteed to make 'em squirm in their seats. Moreover, Shaw makes it even more difficult for the audience by refusing to manipulate their intellects by enlisting their sentiments. Both the women, the prostitute-turned-madam mother (Kitty Warren) and her sheltered, disapproving daughter (Vivie Warren), are hard-headed and unsympathetic, and both their male friends are rather sleazy characters, capable of flirting with both mother and daughter. Stop looking for honor and love here, Shaw tells us, and get back to the economic issue. That's what's important.

It is a noble experiment, and, although I think it could have used a little more heart, I found Mrs. Warren's Profession both thought provoking and satisfying. I enjoyed reading it enough that I would like to see it performed.

Here are a few excerpts from Kitty's defense of her life choice to her unsympathetic daughter Vivie:
But where can a woman get the money to save in any other business? Could y o u save out of four shillings a week and keep yourself dressed as well? Not you. Of course, if youre a plain woman and can't earn anything more; or if you have a turn for music, or the stage, or newspaper-writing: thats different. But neither Liz nor I had any turn for such things at all: all we had was our appearance and our turn for pleasing men. Do you think we were such fools as to let other people trade in our good looks by employing us as shopgirls, or barmaids, or waitresses, when we could trade in them ourselves and get all the profits instead of starvation wages? Not likely. . .

What is any respectable girl brought up to do but to catch some rich man's fancy and get the benefit of his money by marrying him?--as if a marriage ceremony could make any difference in the right or wrong of the thing! Oh, the hypocrisy of the world makes me sick! Liz and I had to work and save and calculate just like other people; elseways we should be as poor as any good-for-nothing drunken waster of a woman that thinks her luck will last for ever. [With great energy] I despise such people: theyve no character; and if theres a thing I hate in a woman, it's want of character. . .

Of course it's worthwhile to a poor girl, if she can resist temptation and is good-looking and well conducted and sensible. It's far better than any other employment open to her. I always thought that it oughtn't to be. . . But it's so, right or wrong; and a girl must make the best of it. . . I should have been a fool if I'd taken to anything else.