GEORGE BERNARD SHAW -

MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION

Letteratura Inglese
Università di Pisa
4 pag.

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GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

George Bernard Shaw (Dublino, 26 luglio 1856 – Ayot St Lawrence, 2 novembre 1950) è stato uno
scrittore, drammaturgo, aforista, linguista e critico musicale irlandese.

Mrs Warren's Profession

In questa opera Shaw affronta, in piena epoca vittoriana, il tema della prostituzione senza
retorica o falsi moralismi. Il nome reale della professione non viene mai menzionato, ma il
pubblico comprende da una serie di allusioni nei discorsi dei personaggi che la protagonista fu
prima una prostituta e poi la direttrice di un bordello. Il motivo che la portò a intraprendere
quella professione fu la povertà che patì durante la sua gioventù e l'impossibilità di trovare
un'occupazione decente. Questo quadro esemplifica una caratteristica tipica presente in molte
opere di Shaw, ovvero l'uso del dialogo tra i personaggi per sviluppare una tesi. Il discorso di Mrs
Warren è stato attentamente costruito da un punto di vista retorico.

La sua discussione inizia con esempi tratti dalla vita reale e da questa base trae le sue
conclusioni, arrivando alla convinzione che la prostituzione è un reato creato e sfruttato da una
società ipocrita. Shaw in realtà assolve Mrs Warren dal reato sociale di preferire la prostituzione
alla povertà e nell'opera mette nella bocca di Mrs Warren le sue parole, facendole dire ciò che
lui pensa con lo scopo di attaccare la società Vittoriana per la sua ipocrisia nel condannare ciò
che lei stessa ha creato, e per favorire invece la riforma sociale. Questa accusa è anche
confermata nella prefazione, nella quale lo scrittore chiaramente espone quali fossero le
motivazioni e gli obiettivi che lo hanno portato a scrivere l'opera.

La professione della signora Warren (Mrs. Warren's Profession) è una commedia in quattro atti
scritta da Bernard Shaw nel 1893 facente parte della raccolta Commedie sgradevoli.

Trama

L'opera ha per protagonista la signora Warren, una prostituta, e la sua pudica figlia Vivie, a cui
ha dato un posto al sole nella società; la vana ricerca di una riconciliazione con la figlia si
conclude nel finale quando Vivie deciderà di intraprendere le sue scelte, in dissenso con i piani
della madre.

Summary

The story centers on the relationship between Mrs Kitty Warren and her daughter, Vivie. Mrs.
Warren, a former prostitute and current brothel owner, is described as "on the whole, a genial
and fairly presentable old blackguard of a woman." Vivie, an intelligent and pragmatic young
woman who just graduated from college, has come home to get acquainted with her mother for
the first time in her life.[1] The play focuses on how their relationship changes when Vivie learns
what her mother does for a living. It explains why Mrs. Warren became a prostitute, condemns
the hypocrisies relating to prostitution, and criticizes the limited employment opportunities
available for women in Victorian Britain.

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Plot

Vivie Warren, a thoroughly modern young woman, has just graduated from the University of
Cambridge with honours in Mathematics (equal Third Wrangler), and is available for suitors. Her
mother, Mrs. Warren (her name changed to hide her identity and give the impression that she is
married), arranges for her to meet her friend Mr. Praed, a middle-aged, handsome architect, at
the home where Vivie is staying. Mrs. Warren arrives with her business partner, Sir George
Crofts, who is attracted to Vivie despite their 25-year age difference. Vivie is romantically
involved with the youthful Frank Gardner, who sees her as his meal ticket. His father, the
(married) Reverend Samuel Gardner, has a history with Vivie's mother. As we discover later, he
may be Vivie's out-of-wedlock father, which would make Vivie and Frank half-siblings. Mrs.
Warren successfully justifies to her daughter how she chose her particular profession in order to
support her daughter and give her the opportunities she never had. She saved enough money to
buy into the business with her sister, and she now owns (with Sir George) a chain of brothels
across Europe. Vivie is, at first, horrified by the revelation, but then lauds her mother as a
champion. However, the reconciliation ends when Vivie finds out that her mother continues to
run the business even though she no longer needs to. Vivie takes an office job in the city and
dumps Frank, vowing she will never marry. She disowns her mother, and Mrs. Warren is left
heartbroken, having looked forward to growing old with her daughter.

Characters

Mrs. Kitty Warren: An attractive, middle-aged businesswoman and former prostitute, made
wealthy by running a string of brothels.

Mr. Praed: A friend of Mrs. Warren, middle-aged and attractive, a good man.

Sir George Crofts: Mrs. Warren's business partner. A middle-aged, stodgy, entitled member of the
upper class.

Reverend Samuel Gardner: A local minister and (possibly) Vivie's biological father.

Vivie Warren: Mrs. Warren's daughter, recently graduated from University with honours.

Frank Gardner: Youthful son of Reverend Gardner.

Origins

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 shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution
to keep body and soul together."

He explained the source of the play in a letter to the Daily Chronicle on 28 April 1898:

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Miss Janet Achurch [an actress and friend of Shaw’s] mentioned to me a novel by some French
writer [Yvette by Guy de Maupassant] as having a dramatisable story in it. It being hopeless to
get me to read anything, she told me the story... In the following autumn I was the guest of a
lady [Beatrice Webb] of very distinguished ability—one whose knowledge of English social types
is as remarkable as her command of industrial and political questions. She suggested that I
should put on the stage a real modern lady of the governing class—not the sort of thing that
theatrical and critical authorities imagine such a lady to be. I did so; and the result was Miss
Vivie Warren ... Mrs. Warren herself was my version of the heroine of the romance narrated by
Miss Achurch. The tremendously effective scene—which a baby could write if its sight were
normal—in which she justifies herself, is only a paraphrase of a scene in a novel of my own,
Cashel Byron's Profession (hence the title, Mrs Warren's Profession), in which a prize-fighter
shows how he was driven into the ring exactly as Mrs. Warren was driven on the streets.

Performance history

Fanny Brough as Mrs. Warren in the 1902 London production. Part of a series of photographs of
the production taken by Frederick H. Evans. According to a note in Cornell University Library's
archive, playwright George Bernard Shaw referred to Evans "the most artistic of photographers."

The play was originally banned by the Lord Chamberlain (Britain's official theatre censor)
because of its frank discussion of prostitution, but was finally performed on Sunday, 5 January
1902, at London's New Lyric Club with the distinguished actor-manager Harley Granville-Barker
as Frank, Fanny Brough as Mrs. Warren, George Goodhart as Sir George Crofts, Julius Knight as
Praed, Madge McIntosh as Vivie and Cosmo Stuart as Rev. Samuel Gardner. Members-only clubs
had been a device to avoid the eye of authority, but actors often also used the opportunity to
invite their fellow-artists to a private showing of a play, usually on Sundays, when theatres were
closed to the public. The first public performance in London took place in 1925.

A 1905 performance in New York, this time on a public stage, was interrupted by the police, who
arrested the cast and crew for violating New York City's version of the Comstock laws.[5] It was
later held not to be in violation of the law,[6] and has been revived on Broadway five times
since. It was recently performed by the Sydney Theatre Company in 2012, and was so popular
that the season was extended.

Vivie's character and the changing role of women

Men who could afford to get married in the Victorian era could make use of “laws that gave him
total control of his wife's person—and her fortune”.[7] Victorian women were expected to
maintain a poised and dignified manner, and to obey their husbands. Vivie defies the Victorian
expectations of an obedient woman: she is educated and entirely self-sufficient. She rejects two
marriage proposals, reflecting her reliance on her work ethic and hard-headed approach to life.
Shaw represents Vivie as the product of a type of gender reformation: a character who is asexual
and "permanently unromantic".

Throughout the play, the boundary between sexual desires and proposed marriages is blurred.
Frank flirts with both Mrs. Warren and Vivie; Mrs. Warren's companion Sir George Crofts proposes
marriage to Vivie despite his relationship with her mother. Critic Petra Dierkes-Thrun argues that
these examples illustrate the way in which Shaw "critiqued the ideological and economic system
that produced her [Mrs. Warren], attacking the problematic double standard of male privilege

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and the deeply entrenched objectification of women, which Shaw saw pervading all levels of
Victorian society down to its most basic nuclear element, the family."

COMMENTO

La professione della signora Warren, scritta nel 1898, fu rappresentata per la prima volta al New
Lyric Club di Londra il 5 gennaio 1902 e subito ritirata per le frecce scagliate dalla censura
dell’Inghilterra vittoriana, causa l’audacia del tema e per le idee sostenute nella trama. La
censura tolse il veto agli allestimenti soltanto nel 1924. Impostata secondo la tradizione del
teatro naturalista francese, l’opera — che fa parte della raccolta Commedie Sgradevoli — è un
saggio straordinariamente esemplare del linguaggio e del tipico umorismo di George Bernard
Shaw (1856-1950), premio Nobel nel 1926. Lo stesso autore, nel 1897 in una corrispondenza con
l’attrice Ellen Terry, sottolineava come questo suo lavoro fosse di gran lunga la migliore
commedia che avesse scritto e la più attuale.

E lo è a tutt’oggi probabilmente, se letta attraverso un certo degrado morale che non sembra
provare troppo pudore nel mostrarsi. La professione a cui allude il titolo è la più antica del
mondo e tanto basta al geniale Shaw per dare vita ad una commedia brillantissima e
dirompente, dove il tema viene affrontato senza moralismi, anzi denunciando l’ipocrisia ed i
compromessi della società. La storia è quella di Vivie, una ragazza brillante, moderna e “di sani
principi”. Cresciuta con spirito fiero e indipendente senza quasi conoscere la madre, scopre
all’improvviso di essere stata generosamente allevata ed educata nelle migliori scuole e
università grazie ai proventi che questa trae da varie case di malaffare sparse in tutt’Europa. Al
suo comprensibile choc, la madre risponde difendendo la propria “professione” e sostenendo una
scelta “imprenditoriale” che l’avrebbe portata con successo ad uscire dalla miseria.

Una scena dello spettacolo

Il denaro guadagnato in questo modo, spiega la distinta signora Warren, non è diverso da quello
ricavato “onestamente” e anzi permette alle sue lavoratrici proventi e condizioni molto più
vantaggiose che se facessero le operaie. Attraverso questa sfrontata provocazione, l’intento
dell’autore non era tanto di destare scandalo quanto piuttosto di denunciare le impossibili
condizioni del proletariato rosa. Le operaie in quegli anni venivano sfruttate e ricavavano infatti
salari miseri che spesso neppure consentivano loro una vita dignitosa, con le immaginabili
conseguenze immorali descritte nell’opera di Shaw. L’idea dello scrittore era lo scontro tra
l’individuo e la società e anche qui, come in Le Case del Vedovo, tutti i personaggi portano una
parte di responsabilità dei mali sociali: come Vivie, che si dedica e si rifugia materialisticamente
negli affari, cosciente del fatto che per farsi strada dovrà essere dura e spietata. Ben delineata
è anche la figura della signora Warren, che si serve di tutti i mezzi per conquistarsi l’affetto
della figlia: la tenerezza materna, il ricatto affettivo, il vittimismo nel giustificare i motivi che
l’hanno spinta nel mondo della prostituzione.

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