George Bernard Shaw wrote Mrs. Warren’s Profession which is a play focusing on a middle-aged wealthy lady. She becomes wealthy by running brothels. The idea of this play is to show how prostitution was caused. Many women were not treated with as much respect as men and were downplayed. This brought older and single womens’ confidences down which caused them to resort to using their bodies for monetary gain. Since Mrs. Warren is in the prostitute profession she feels the need to remain incognito. Most eighteenth century people look down upon such unwonted work habits and Shaw’s writing of the play really portrays that. An example is when Vivie, Mrs. Warren’s daughter, finds out about what her mom did for money and becomes outraged and disgusted. Throughout the play both mother and daughter are portrayed as having a less-than-compassionate relationship with each other. Bernard Shaw made this play into a drama about people in the Victorian era and the role of prostitution in those days because Shaw wanted to reconcile people around the idea that their treatment of prostitutes was unfair and cruel. This play relates to our groups topic in the way that brothels are forbidden in many religions. One specifically is catholicism. Catholicism and its members, such as nuns are the complete opposite of prostitutes and have completely different values. Nuns stay away from adultery while prostitutes welcome it. Their beliefs of what is morally acceptable differ on every level because of their environment and circumstances.
Metzger, Kay. “An Existential Perspective of Body Beliefs and Health Assessment.” Journal of Religion and Health. VOL. 45, No. 1.(spring 2006). pp. 130-146.
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