Shaw tries to deal with the problem of non-establishment religion in this 1905 play. An arms manufacturer has a daughter who wishes to marry a student of Greek. The couple will need money to live on, and she has a post in the salvation Army, partly taken to make up for her father's poor reputation. Her suitor, is at first appalled but finally reconcilled to the family business, and comes to terms with it as a relatively honest trade in a worrld that does rely on force and capital to run. ( )

Still processing. I think there was a lot more there than the average review encompasses. ( )

H1.31-4

This little known play is one of my favorite plays, and the best libertarian play I have ever seen or read. The play concerns the family wealthy Andrew Undershaft. Because he is an amoral weapons manufacturer, he is a social pariah. His high-born wife has separated herself from him to raise their children. The play opens when Mrs. Undershaft realizes her daughters are soon to be engaged, and that the men they will probably choose will not be able to support their new wives. She therefore invites her husband to her home to discuss an increase in the allowance of her girls.

The eldest daughter, Barbara, has rejected the life-style of her wealthy parents, and joined the Salvation Army where, as a major, she runs a soup-kitchen in a London slum. She is in love with a young Greek scholar with no means of support. He volunteers at the soup-kitchen to be close to Barbara.

Undershaft arrives at the home of his wife and can not recognize his children. The comedy of the play occurs because Undershaft is an unrepentant Capitalist to the embarrassment of his family. There is much philosophical discussion as to the efficacy of weapons manufacturing.

Mrs. Undershaft loses control of the evening when Barbara and her father challenge each other as to the righteousness of their chosen paths. Barbara invites her father to come to the rescue mission and see the good work that is done there with the downtrodden. Undershaft agrees to visit the mission if Barbara will visit the arms factory.

Thus the two life styles are laid out and contrasted for us. Undershaft notes that the people who use the mission are made sober but they continue to return to the mission; nothing changes in their lives. Then Barbara becomes disillusioned when the Salvation Army accepts money from Undershaft and a wealthy liquor producer.

In the third act, Undershaft escorts his family through the arms factory. Undershaft points out how he has taken the unemployed downtrodden off the streets, and given them meaningful employment. He has taken the unwashed off the streets and made them sober middle class employees.

In the end, Barbara sees the error of her ways. Arrangements are made for her Greek scholar boyfriend to run the factory when he marries Barbara. He and Barbara will continue to run the arms factory with her father’s philosophy. ( )

Wow is Shaw a master of putting a lot of provocative ideas in a short play. A young lady rejects society to try to save the bellies, livers, and souls of the poor - is she truly a good person? An arms manufacturer claims power over government to get them to make war so he can sell weapons to all who can pay - is he truly a bad person? Is the pragmatic matron or the idealistic professor more likely to hold sway over their own destinies? Or over the destinies of the others in the family?

A line from the beginning that made me realize this polemic was going to be funny is spoken by the society matron, Barbara's mother, a strong & opinionated woman, Let snobbish people say what they please: Barbara shall marry, not the man they like, but the man *I* like."

And an exchange from the end that reminds me of Oscar Wilde, first Lady B. again, "[You] ought to know better than to go about saying that wrong things are true. What does it matter whether they are true if they are wrong?" The arms merchant retorts, "What does it matter whether they are wrong if they are true?"

What indeed? What is right? What is true? What is valuable? What do people need in this life, or in the hereafter? What is our duty to ourselves, to truth, to God, to our family, to our fellow man? Don't expect Shaw to tell you - he wants you to do the work to figure it out for yourself." ( )