Representation of Victorian Society in George Bernard Shaw’sMrs. Warren’s Profession: A Rhetorical Analysis

Abstract

Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw is an attempt to debunk Victorian duality and priggishness.It depicts how Victorians are hollow and superficial beneath the quote of decency, civilization and culture.To mirror the sharp contrast between rhetoric and reality of Victorian society,playwright designs Mrs. Warren as aprotagonist who is a sex worker by her profession.The Victorians in those days prepossessed that the mere cause behind prostitution is female licentiousness and obscenity.Because of this hypothetical attitude, the Victorians, without weighing up the possible factors that could lead to prostitution, used to regard such females as the nemesis of society. However,Shaw flips over common mindset of the people via the play by depicting that prostitution is not the result of female depravitybut it is the productof need and necessity. Heurges the audience to reconsider the issuehinting that it is society who is restricting the equal right of its every member tothe available resources and ultimately leading to such problems.He is successfulto dososince Mrs. Warren at the end of the play irrespective of whather profession is, seemssympatheticand victim of the circumstances.This paper seeks to examine the rhetorical strategies used by Shaw to create such effect in the play. It aims to analyze the ways Shaw employs to persuade the audiences that prostitutes are also the members of our society and they deserve our proper care, attention and respect.The primary focus of the paper is on piste is, style and Kairos. Keywords:double standard, identification, consubstantiality, irony, priggishness, procurers,moral bankruptcy