In Major Barbara the heroine Barbara Undershaft, a major in the
Salvation Army, finds that salvation is a complicated matter requiring more
than simple faith. To be effective that faith must engage in dialectical
play with, among other things, knowledge, creative moral intelligence, and
“executive power,” which in practical terms, in this play, means marrying a
professor of Greek and making a pact with her “devil” of a father. First
Undershaft visits her Salvation Army shelter in the London slums, where the
poor are ministered to, and then she, Cusins, and the family visit his
munitions factories at Perivale St. Andrews, where the poor are employed.
Barbara thinks that in going from shelter to factory she’s going from the
path to heaven to the path to hell, and an audience raised on melodrama
would agree, seeing in her father’s attempts to convert her the familiar
pattern of the designing “heavy’s” beggaring of the pure, innocent heroine.
“BARBARA. Do
you think I can be happy in this vulgar silly dress?
I doubt who have worn the uniform. Do you understand what you have
done to me? Yesterday I had a man's soul in my hand. I set him in
the way of life with his face to salvation. But when we took your
money he turned back to drunkenness and derision. [With intense
conviction] I will never forgive you that. If I had a child, and
you destroyed its body with your explosives—if you murdered
Dolly with your horrible guns—I could forgive you if my
forgiveness would open the gates of heaven to you. But to take a
human soul from me, and turn it into the soul of a wolf! That is
worse than any murder.”
In the play’s concluding scenes, Undershaft intensifies
his wooing of Barbara and Cusins, trying to convince them that they can
create the heaven on earth they yearn for only by exercising, based on the
superstition that the spiritually pure must be free from the taint of
all-corrupting power. For every human relationship is a power relationship,
and all money is “tainted.” This is a discussion drama leaving a disputable
and confusing topic, aiming at discussing conflict between ideal and real
paradox as well as corrupt, capitalistic negative influence upon human. It
tears open the hypocritical veil of the Salvation Army, and at the same
time, reveals that a society and people’s spiritual development can be
achieved only on the basis of ample materials. The work is a disputable
topic and till now few would feel pleasant to face the fact it reveals. It’s
a confusing and embarrassing drama explicitly pointing out that stable
economic basis is indispensable for the improvement of human spiritual
development.
Pygmalion (1913) is a popular comedy depicting a
phonetician Hoggins trains a flower girl Eliza
with London accent to a cultured lady with decent diction and elegant
behavior. It satirizes parochialism with the basis of judging from
appearance and dressing and eulogizes the girl’s honesty and purity. The
open ending stimulated more directors to choose a romantic scene.
Though some hold the opinion that Shaw’s dramas are a bit
out-of-date, creative writing style and concentration on realistic problems
influenced the development of English drama through the 20th century. His
contribution to English drama cannot be taken no notice of and he is
unsurpassable like Shakespeare.
In Major Barbara the heroine Barbara Undershaft, a major in the
Salvation Army, finds that salvation is a complicated matter requiring more
than simple faith. To be effective that faith must engage in dialectical
play with, among other things, knowledge, creative moral intelligence, and
“executive power,” which in practical terms, in this play, means marrying a
professor of Greek and making a pact with her “devil” of a father. First
Undershaft visits her Salvation Army shelter in the London slums, where the
poor are ministered to, and then she, Cusins, and the family visit his
munitions factories at Perivale St. Andrews, where the poor are employed.
Barbara thinks that in going from shelter to factory she’s going from the
path to heaven to the path to hell, and an audience raised on melodrama
would agree, seeing in her father’s attempts to convert her the familiar
pattern of the designing “heavy’s” beggaring of the pure, innocent heroine.
with London accent to a cultured lady with decent diction and elegant
behavior. It satirizes parochialism with the basis of judging from
appearance and dressing and eulogizes the girl’s honesty and purity. The
open ending stimulated more directors to choose a romantic scene. 