Eng426 20th century english literature

Themes in Mrs. Warren’s Profession

Gender (In)equality and Women’s Subjugation: The play depicts the stereotypic image of women in the early 20^th century England. They were expected, for instance, to behave in some genteel, dignified manner, showcase feminine sentimentality and romanticism. Praed, speaking to Vivie, a modern girl of some sort, says:

When I was your age, young men and women were afraid of each other: there was no good fellowship. Nothing real. Only gallantry copied out of novels, and as vulgar and affected as it could be. Maidenly reserve! gentlemanly chivalry! always saying no when you meant yes! simple purgatory for shy and sincere souls (Act 1, n.p).

Women were not expected to be as educated as men or be educated in some fields of study as their male counterparts. They were not as educated as the male folk, not exposed to the same work opportunities that the men were; in one word, they were simply raised to marry. Hence, Praed reacts to Vivie’s education in mathematical calculations (which is supposed to be a masculine discipline), and producing recreation interest in only such “masculine” sports as cycling and lawn-tennis rather than romantic view of life – by saying that the educational system is “a monstrous, wicked, rascally system” and is “destroying all that makes womanhood beautiful!” To this, Vivie objects that it would rather be of use for her in the making of herself as a practical person, fully involved in Law and with an eye on Stock Exchange, too. Praed, startled, only exclaims: “You make my blood run cold. Are you to have no romance, no beauty in your life?” Praed, expressing the society’s conception of womanhood, does not expect to find Vivie (being a female) a practical person as men are, but of a sentimental, romantic outlook. Hence,
she is (Praed says) different from her mother’s ideal of her—of course, as well as the society’s.

The character of Vivie represents a rebellion and defiance against the society’s stereotypical conception of womanhood. When Praed says to Mrs. Warren about her: “You see she has really distinguished herself; and I'm not sure, from what I have seen of her, that she is not older than any of us” (in intellect or character, that is to say)—Shaw brings the Feminist ideology of egalitarianism to the fore through her. Shaw represents Vivie as being a product of a type of gender reformation. Shaw’s representation of Vivie is one of his key rebellions against the society’s conventions of womanhood in the play. The society expected women to be subjected to their husbands. She rejects two marriage proposals, dumps her boyfriend and takes an office work in the city to be financially independent.

In the representation of the character of Vivie, Shaw does not only attempt a reformation of gender relations, but he also presents a defiant reformation of women’s representation in literature and theatre. In Shaw’s characterization of Vivie, therefore, he invents a female character that matches up with the conventional representation of male character in literature and theatre, and thereby challenging the conventional pro-masculine space in the English society and theatre/literature at the beginning of the century. Indeed, the era of Modernism in English literature, which the dawn of the century opened, is by and large a violent reassessment and challenge of the existent norms and order in society and literature, one of such being the issue of gender and societal cum literary space.