Eng426 20th century english literature

Mrs. Warren’s Profession

The play is divided into four acts with just a scene making up each act. Miss Vivie Warren, an intelligent, “strong, confident, self-possessed” young woman of 22, had just finished from college and comes home to get acquainted with her mother for the first time in her life. Her mother Mrs. Kitty Warren (“Mrs.” used in order to hide her true identity that she is unmarried) arranges her meeting with her friend, Praed, a young, handsome architect, and she comes down from London, with her business partner Sir George Crofts, to join them in the cottage garden where the mother and daughter will lodge. Croft is attracted to Vivie, apparently knowing he may not be her biological father as Mrs. Kitty Warren does not disclose the paternity of the child. Vivie is romantically involved with Frank Gardner; a clever and altogether carefree 20 year old youth.

Vivie and her mother do not get along well. Mrs. Warren is described by the author as “domineering, and decidedly vulgar, but, on the whole, a genial and fairly presentable old blackguard of a woman.” (Act 1, n.p). She doesn’t want to accept that Vivie should be treated as a girl with a mind of her own, as a young adult. Vivie is a “sort of perfectly splendid modern young lady,” intelligent, pointedly pragmatic and self-assured, and thus is “so different from [her mother’s] ideal.” (Act 1, n.p)

When with her mother alone at night, Vivie demands her to reveal the source of her income and what she actually does for a living. This is because since she was a child, she had been living either as a boarder in England in school or in college, or living with people paid to take care of her. Her mother stays in Brussels or Vienna and does not let her come to see her there and she only sees her mother when she comes to visit England for a few days; and therefore – she had explained to Praed earlier that day – she hardly knows her mother. After some reluctance and Vivie’s insistence on knowing the facts, Kitty Warren discloses her profession which is the business of managing some brothels throughout Europe and successfully justifies to her daughter why she had to choose such a profession, hinging the justification on poverty and a desire to raise her daughter to be an educated, noble and respectable young lady that she is today. Vivie becomes really proud of her mother and shows understanding on the circumstance of her choice. And that evening, they become closer than before.

Sir George Crofts, on the day following, proposes marriage to Vivie, trying to convince her with what she stands to benefit from his social status as an aristocrat, his financial stakes in businesses, and his business dealing with her mother. Vivie refuses his proposal,

saying that she would rather not have his offer of money, position and status. As to his business with her mother (Vivie says), she has asked her mother what exactly that business is and she has told her the nature of dealings. Crofts is taken aback to hear that Vivie knows the business already but he does not want to be readily taken in as to her having actually known what it is. So he tries to further mystify the nature of the business as some legitimate dealings and from his words Vivie gets to understand that her mother is actually still in the business as at present.

Vivie insults Crofts and he threatens her. Vivie sends an alarm to Frank (her boyfriend) and he appears and threatens to shoot Crofts. Upon being enraged, Crofts tells Frank and Vivie that Frank’s father, the married Reverend Samuel Gardner, who has had a history with Vivie's mother, is in fact Vivie's out-of-wedlock father, making Vivie and Frank half-siblings. Vivie discovers that her mother has continued to run the brothel business even though she no longer needs to. She takes an office job in the city, dumps Frank because they may be half-siblings after all while vowing she will never marry, and she disowns her mother. Mrs. Warren is left heartbroken, having looked forward to her daughter taking care of her in her old age.

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