Targets of Shaw’s Polemic in Mrs. Warren’s Profession

Shaw is interested in social issues, he’s thinking about the world on a social level and he attacks certain aspects of society in the play. He’s polemical and all the characters in a way are representative of people in society; they’re representations of different aspects of society. We have what we call “new woman”, we have the religious hypocrites, we have the greedy capitalist, for example.

One of the arguments in the whole play is that; in the Victorian mindset, prostitutes are judged morally because it's a moral failing of women to become prostitutes. We see the idea of a fallen woman.

Shaw shows us the horrible economic conditions that poor women face that lead them into this profession. He doesn’t approve of prostitution, but in many respects, Kitty Warren is able to explain why she became a prostitute; and what were the terrible economic conditions that made her a prostitute. So she's not a good woman, but it's not like a moral thing, she's not a totally bad woman either. It's complex. Shaws shows us that one has to view prostitution within the context of the options that poor women had, and a lot of other options involved them being sexually exploited as a barmaid or bodily exploited through working in factories. In the play, Kitty is argues Shaw's point for him.

Another important thing he attacks is the hypocrisy of this kind of upper class—who has this supposedly morally superior position, but actually are terrible. For example, we see Crofts; a man with lots of money who thinks he can buy anything, including women and wives. We find out that he is actually a business partner of Kitty and he makes a lot of money out of prostitution. He represents capitalists, there's no kind of ethic in his investments. No moral ethic. He tries to justify himself by saying everyone does this, that's the way the world it is, even.

Shaw shows us the whole of the “best people in society” is built upon hypocrisy. He attacks the hypocrisy of religion through the Frank’s father Samuel as well— who represents the church and the hypocrisy of the Church.

He also attacks important things such as; the false idea of respectability, non-existed moral values of the people top of society, people who are silent about what really goes on, the way no one asks any questions about how people make their money, the way women are treated and how limited their options are and of course, class.