George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara"

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that George Bernard Shaw presents his belief that religious organizations for the most part are a sham because their minions will gladly embrace the money of the most wretched people if it will help them to pay their own bills. The paper then suggests that, at the same time, the character of Major Barbara in Shaw's play of the same name, while dismayed by the seeming hypocrisy of the Salvation Army, does not so much recoil from her holy mission as she returns to it with a more realistic understanding of how the world really works - and that doing good may, in the final analysis, involve making certain accommodations that the idealistic and naive might find appalling.

From the Paper:

"In the end, Barbara dejectedly walks away from the Salvation Army (Shaw, 113-114; for a good description of how the experience seared Barbara to the quick, please see page 145 of the text) and assumes - it is her father's idea - control of the munitions factory (Shaw, 123-124). From her experiences she has learned a few things that are of the greatest importance: money really is power; Christian organizations can surely be bought for the right price; all men, like her father, who deign to be good men only have the luxury of being so when they are wealthy (for her father's treatise on why he finds poverty so abominable, please see pages 147-148); and evil in life (and those with blasted principles) cannot be avoided."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Shaw, George Bernard. Major Barbara. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1917. Questia.com. 3 Jul. 2007 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=7298396#>

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