Mrs. Warren's Profession (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: Miss Warren, Miss Vivie, Sir George Crofts (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

astonishing range of associated documents, provides an invaluable resource for students -- Jean Chothia, University of Cambridge --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Middle-aged Mrs. Warren is a madam, proprietress of a string of successful brothels. Her daughter, Vivie, is a modern young woman, but not so modern that she's not shocked to discover the source of her mother's wealth. The clash of these two strong-willed but culturally constrained Victorian women is the spark that ignites the ironic wit of one of George Bernard Shaw's greatest plays, a withering critique of male domination, sexual hypocrisy, and societal convention. Initially banned after its 1893 publication with its startling frankness, Mrs. Warren's Profession remains a powerful work of progressive theater. Irish playwright GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (1856-1950) won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925 and an Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay in 1938, the only person to achieve both honors. Among his many renowned plays are Arms and the Man (1894), Candida (1894), Man and Superman (1903), Major Barbara (1905), and Pygmalion (1913).

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Product Details

• Paperback: 60 pages
• Publisher: Cosimo Classics (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159605980X
• ISBN-13: 978-1596059801
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #734,256 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Savage Social Satire of Economics and Hypocrisy, June 5, 2004

By	Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Mrs. Warren's Profession (Hardcover)

Although it was written in the late 1800s, censorship issues kept George Bernard Shaw's MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION off the stage for close to a decade, and it did not debut publically on the London stage until about 1900. Even after this delay, moralists denounced it as a scandalous play--and it remained controversial well into the mid-20th Century.

The basic story concerns a pragmatic young woman, Vivie, who has spent her life in boarding schools, seeing her mother only on rare occasions. Upon graduation, she now directly confronts her mother and learns the bitter truth: Mrs. Warren is a former prostitute who has risen to the rank of a high class madam, and all of Vivie's education has been built on the profits of her profession. But the play takes an unexpected twist, for instead of sensationalizing or sentimentalizing prostitution, Shaw gives us Mrs. Warren as a business woman who took the only opportunity available to her and through commonsense and a strong work ethic parlayed her meager beginnings into a fortune of note.

The obvious reason for public outcry against the play was Shaw's refusal to condemn Mrs. Warren for prostitution; less obvious but more powerful is the fact that Shaw condemns virtually every character and the society in which they move as grossly hypocritical. It is an incredibly hypocritical society that has forced Mrs. Warren to decide between the virtue of starvation and the sin of success; while easily the most sympathetic role in the play, Mrs. Warren emerges as a garden-variety hypocrite of limited insight; and while we may admire Vivie for her clarity of thought and apparent virtue, she emerges as a young woman of such ferocious self-determination that she is ultimately difficult to like.

MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION was among Shaw's earliest plays, and it pales a bit in comparison to his later, more theatrically sophistocated works; consequently it is seldom revived today. Even so, it is a powerful example of the new style Shaw would forge in theatre, a dark comedy overflowing with complex ideas and wickedly funny ironies. Shaw's tone of voice is both distinct and unique, he reads from the page as well as he plays on the stage, and he would exert a profound influence on drama throughout the 20th Century. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mrs. Warren's Profession, June 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Mrs. Warren's Profession - starring Shirley Knight, Kaitlin Hopkins, and Dakin Matthews (Audio Theatre Series) (Audio Cassette)

Shaw does a wonderful job at showing her "job" without having to tell you. It gives it more of an off limits feel for the job and also makes the listener feel like they are there. Powerful and compelling.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mrs.Warrens Profession: women in society, September 4, 2001

By	Lucy (WVU, WV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mrs. Warren's Profession (Paperback)

The play Mrs. Warren's Profession was good, the main charcter was not Mrs. Warren but her daughter Vivie who goes back in and forth in every act between love and hate for her mother who has been a prostitue and ran some brothels. Vivie is convienced her mother could have made a better choice for herself than prostitution. Mrs. Warren has kept Vivie out of the brothels all of her life and gave her the best in education and up bring. But even though she has done all of that Vivie is not content on being there any longer with her mother. End the end Vivie leaves her mother and Mrs. Warren holds her self together unappoligic for anything she has done. This play was a great example of how women had two choices at the time the play was set in marriage or prostitution which were both forms of slavery. Shaw knew how hard it was for women in society and wanted more for them, than just mother hood and marriage.