Eng426 20th century english literature

Class Division: Equally crucial and connected to the theme of women’s subjugation, in Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession, is the issue of class division. Wikipedia Encyclopedia notes that Shaw’s play has been said to be a “critique of the ideological and economic system that produced her [Mrs. Warren], attacking the problematic double standard of male privilege and the deeply entrenched objectification of women” (Dierkes-Thrun). Kitty and her sister Lizzy were brought up in poverty as girls and Anne Jane, one of their two half-sisters, died of lead poisoning working in the lead factory. Speaking of the second half-sister, Kitty Warren tells Vivie: “[She] was always held up to us as a model because she married a Government labourer in the Deptford victualling yard…” (Act 2, n.p). The girl- child is expected to look forward to marrying a wealthy or comfortable man. In other words, her success in life is measured in relation to the class of the man she marries.

Therefore, when the half-sister was “held up as a model to us because she married a Government labourer in the Deptford victualling yard”, and it was only “until he took to drink”— that she loses her respectability. The idea comes off with more directness when Mrs. Warren rhetorically asks: “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?” (Act 2, n.p).

In essence, the female gender tends to occupy a lower class of society’s class, in the general sense, than the male gender occupies.

0. 
   Characterisation in Mrs. Warren’s Profession
   

Mrs. Kitty Warren: she is the eponymous character and heroine in the play who at an early age is driven by poverty to work as a prostitute so as to make ends meet. She becomes a prostitute not because she had a choice or because of moral weakness but because of financial constraints. Miss Kitty Vacasour later known as Mrs. Kitty Warren was born in poverty. In a society that frowns on women stepping out of the boundaries laid down for them, Kitty rises up to challenge the status quo and it is her profession as a prostitute that makes her become a respected woman and able to raise and educate her daughter.


Vivie Warren: is Mrs. Kitty Warren’s daughter. She is around twenty – two years of age and is portrayed as an independent young lady who is confident of herself and her ideas. She is a graduate of Cambridge. She is an unconventional young lady who has decided to “set up chambers in the city, and work at actuarial calculations and conveyancing” (Act 1, n.p). She is not interested in her mother’s ideal of her especially as she does not know anything about her mother. It is during her holiday at the cottage that Vivie learns about her mother’s past especially her profession because she lived in the boarding house for a long time. Though she admires her mother’s independence and courage she decides to be independent and free herself of her mother’s dream or ideal for her. She makes it known to her mother that she intends to take a different path from her mother’s.