Breaking Social Norms in the 19th Century Mrs. Warren’s Profession by Bernard Shaw is a play about a 22 year old named Vivie Warren who has been at several different boarding schools all her life, because of this she doesn’t have much of a relationship with her mother, Mrs. Warren, who is a former prostitute and now owns a string of brothels yet she has always left her daughter in the dark about what her job is and what’s paying for her to go to Cambridge.Vivie Warren defies the norms for a woman in the 19th century by being well educated, confident and very self sufficient. By rejecting two marriage proposals she shows her hard headed approach on life. Vivie Warren shows confidence, self sufficiency, and morality throughout the story, being
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It’s obvious that Vivie had to have known that her mother was once a prostitute, but when she found out that she owned many brothels and was making large profits from other women doing her dirty work, she must try to shed some light on how corrupt what her mother is doing to those women. "I always wanted to be a good woman. I tried honest work; and I was slave-driven until I cursed the day I ever heard of honest work. I was a good mother; and because I made my daughter a good woman she turns me out as if I were a leper. Oh, if I only had my life to live over again! I'd talk to that lying clergyman in the school. From this time forth, so help me Heaven in my last hour, I’ll do wrong and nothing but wrong. And I’ll prosper on it" (Shaw, 1848). Although Mrs. Warren tries to make Vivie understand what she did and why she did it, she does it in a way that shows Vivie how resentful towards her she is for it, saying that if her mother had given her the opportunities she’s given to Vivie, that she wouldn’t complain about how she did it. "If you're going to pick and choose your acquaintances on moral principles, you'd better clear out of this country, unless you want to cut yourself out of all decent society" (Shaw,1823). Although really everyone around her is against Vivie’s feelings about her mother’s profession, she still stays true to what she knows is ultimately
It’s obvious that Vivie had to have known that her mother was once a prostitute, but when she found out that she owned many brothels and was making large profits from other women doing her dirty work, she must try to shed some light on how corrupt what her mother is doing to those women. "I always wanted to be a good woman. I tried honest work; and I was slave-driven until I cursed the day I ever heard of honest work. I was a good mother; and because I made my daughter a good woman she turns me out as if I were a leper. Oh, if I only had my life to live over again! I'd talk to that lying clergyman in the school. From this time forth, so help me Heaven in my last hour, I’ll do wrong and nothing but wrong. And I’ll prosper on it" (Shaw, 1848). Although Mrs. Warren tries to make Vivie understand what she did and why she did it, she does it in a way that shows Vivie how resentful towards her she is for it, saying that if her mother had given her the opportunities she’s given to Vivie, that she wouldn’t complain about how she did it. "If you're going to pick and choose your acquaintances on moral principles, you'd better clear out of this country, unless you want to cut yourself out of all decent society" (Shaw,1823). Although really everyone around her is against Vivie’s feelings about her mother’s profession, she still stays true to what she knows is ultimately