A Struggle for an Independent Identity for Two: Mrs. Warren’s Profession

This article deals with a particular way of reading Mrs. Warren’s Profession from an ignored point of view. It aims to exhibit the enormous challenges and struggles of a mother to protect herself and her only child from the social and economic constraints of the society. It might be regarded as a common duty for a mother to do so; however, what if she sacrifices herself for her daughter by selling her body in the time of Victorian Era when the social constraints were on the rise in terms of moral codes and when the principle of “prudery” was adopted? During the Victorian Era, a great majority of the plays dealth extensively with the issue of prostitution that there appeared a new form of theatre named Brothel Drama. As a social critic, George Bernard Shaw, to attract especially women's attention to their inured subordinate and captived position, wrote Mrs. Warren’s Profession for the determination of women in more then a hundred and twenty years ago at the time when such issues were even forbidden to mention. Today, also, “prostitution” not only as an occupation but as a word is also a taboo for the majority of the society. But under those unpleasant conditions of mentioned occupation, Shaw drew a mother character representing holy maternal instinct, who struggles to gain a place within society for both herself and her daughter.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Motherhood, Prostitution, Independent Identity

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