Mrs. Warren's Profession

Getting Biblical about this, should the sins of the fathers be visited upon the children unto the tenth generation? Does this apply to mothers too? Or shall we be a bit more modern and forgiving about it? The daughter in this play took the hard Biblical line and applied it to her mother too, cutting her off from all contact when she found out that her extremely privileged youth and expensive education as a lawyer had been paid for by her mother's hard work first on her back and secondly running houses full of girls who also laid down to work.

She didn't, however, offer to pay her mother back.

Hypocrite.

Tremendously entertaining read featuring lots of good-natured people and one or two who weren't. It puts the pros of prostitution - self-employment, self-determination and high earnings mostly - against the cons - social suicide if you are found out and paternity of a child might be difficult to identify, chief among them.

At the time of writing, 1898, this was a shocking, distasteful story. Now whether or not its shocking depends on who the prostitute is and her exact position in the world of whoredom.

A friend's daughter who had been working in a secretarial position in Hong Kong, turned up on the internet in the missionary position and whether or not she took private clients was kind of irrelevant after that. The family was shocked, horrified and ashamed but did not in any way cut their daughter off, but she attempted suicide anyway.

If we hear of a woman being a street prostitute to support her drug habit, we feel differently than if she had been doing it to support her children. And for women a little further up the scale, the call girls, escorts, part-time whores, there is a sort of good-luck-to-her attitude mixed with a bit of disgust as to why she couldn't find herself a more conventional job. For those at the top of the whoredom tree, the girlfriend possees of Hugh Hefner and his like, there is often fame! Look at The Girls Next Door - Holly, Kendra and the rest, moved on from their $1,000 a week 'pocket money' and sexual obligations twice a week! (See Bunny Tales for details of their job descriptions!)

Mind, this disparity in reaction to prostitution has always existed at the top of society. The working-class girls were socially-unacceptable whores, but the aristocratic ones, working at the very pinnacle of society, were called 'courtesans' and the King's 'favourite' and other such euphemisms and much lauded for their beauty and connections.

The main difference between those days and now is that then social opprobrium was the likely result on people discovering you were a whore, whereas now, its more likely people will sidle up to you and say 'what's it really like, do you uh, enjoy it?' and want to know the sleazy, exciting details! ( )

The play works well as a diatribe against the injustices faced by working women, the inequality of job opportunities, and a debate on 'sin' and honest living. However, the characters are unlikeable, the dialogue forced and the outcome ridiculous. As a piece of writing, Shaw's writing will never fail - as a play, however, it does not suit its genre. ( )

Wikipedia: The story centers on the relationship between Mrs Warren, a prostitute, described by Shaw as "on the whole, a genial and fairly presentable old blackguard of a woman," and her "prudish" daughter, Vivie. Mrs Warren is a middle-aged woman whose Cambridge-educated daughter, Vivie, is horrified to discover that her mother's fortune was made managing high-class whorehouses. The two strong women make a brief reconciliation when Mrs Warren explains her impoverished youth, which originally led her into prostitution. Vivie forgives her mother until learning that the highly profitable business remains in operation.
Shaw said he wrote the play "to draw attention to the truth that prostitution is caused, not by female depravity and male licentiousness, but simply by underpaying, undervaluing, and overworking women so shamefuly that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together." But despite Shaw's claims and its title, the play barely touches the theme of prostitution. Rather, it focuses on the conflicts related to the "new women" of the Victorian era — issues arising because middle-class girls wanted greater social independence in work and education. Other themes include criticism of the sexual triteness of the times and a want for greater social sexual awareness along with equality in the workplace for working women.
The play remains one of Shaw's most frequently revived works, particularly because it is a great deal shorter than most of his other plays.