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Dylan Tarr
ENG 362
Johnsen
12/2/2014
Capitalism in Major Barbara
Shaw’s 1905 play Major Barbara, takes a very interesting stand on the practice of
capitalism. Many writers attest to the idea that capitalism is a greedy institution that benefits
nobody but the business owner. Shaw’s play reinforces the opposite. Instead of creating an image
of a fat, greedy, snubbed-nosed capitalist he creates Undershaft. In Major Barbara, capitalism
and the entrepreneur are presented as the sole savoir of mankind, replacing religion and morality.
Religion is a major plot point in the play. Shaw turns capitalism into a religion. A
traditional view of faith, taking the form of Christianity, is seen through the protagonist, Barbara,
as the soul trait that decides if an individual is good or bad. Major Barbara represents an idyllic
socialist left. She has devoted her whole life to saving souls and believes she is doing the most
good while working in a Salvation Army shelter. Barbara sees religion as a defining factor. So
much so that she asks her father, “By the way, papa, what is your religion—in case I have to
introduce you again,” (Shaw) as if a religious affiliation can serve as a place holder for one’s
name or entire personality.
This sort of question is posed to Undershaft many times throughout the play. Each time
Undershaft is asked to define himself, he refers to himself as simply a millionaire. He answers
Barbara’s question by saying, “My religion? Well, my dear, I am a Millionaire. That is my
religion,” putting his trust in money instead of a god or a deity (Shaw). Undershaft attests that,
“All religious organizations exist by selling themselves to the rich,” as if to say that everyone’s
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true deity is a millionaire donating to a religious charity (Shaw). Only pages later, Undershaft’s
theory becomes fact. Barbara’s shelter is on the verge of closing. If Major Barbara and her coworkers cannot raise enough money to stay in business they will lose the shelter. A group of
capitalists, that includes Undershaft, agree to donate enough money to keep the shelter open. The
shelter takes the money and Undershaft’s theory materializes into fact.
Organized religion is shown to be quite hypocritical as well. Barbara refuses
Undershaft’s money, stating that it is money made from, “bad blood on [Undershaft’s] hands,”
referring to the arms dealing that Undershaft deals in to make said money. But the shelter does
eventually end up accepting money from a group of capitalists that includes Undershaft. Barbara
and her co-workers take money made from so called “immoral” means of distilling whiskey and
other vices, once again, including Undershafts arms foundry as if spreading this “blood money”
around will make it more moral (Shaw). This again illuminates Undershaft’s theory. Either way
it is cut, millionaires are the only ones who keep the shelter afloat and fund the Salvation Army.
Initially, one woman who works at the shelter suggests they pray for the money (Shaw).
Obviously, this is not a viable solution. In the end the capitalists save the shelter and all those
who pray are actually praying to millionaires, not god; they just do not know it. Mrs. Baines, a
woman working at the Salvation Army shelter, cries, “Thank God!” to which Undershaft replies,
“You don’t thank me?” for he is the “God” that granted the Salvation Army shelter it’s further
existence. Capitalism also provides the individual with everything they need in Shaw’s Major
Barbara.
Undershaft explains to Barbara how the money he made selling guns provided her with
clothes, food, shelter, and enough money to live in the current manner that she does. He goes on
to say that his wealth has enabled him to support her lifestyle (Shaw). Without Undershaft’s
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munition and weapons factory, Barbara would not have the money to live a life working in the
Salvation Army shelter. He goes on to say that he has even saved her from every humans true
seven deadly sins, being, “food, clothing, firing, rent, taxes, respectability, and children,” only
money could save her from all that. Undershaft, “saved her from the crime of poverty,”
something that religious handouts cannot do. The misfortunes of those who do not invest in
capitalism are demonstrated in the play as well.
In the opening scene of Act II, a female and male resident of the Salvation Army shelter
bicker: Rummy and Price. They represent the impoverished that are kept poor by the manner in
which religion and the Salvation Army handle poverty. Rummy and Price come back day after
day for a piece of bread and butter (Shaw). They receive enough sustenance to stay alive, but not
enough to escape their poverty. Rummy asks Price, “Who saved you, Mr. Price? Was it Major
Barbara?” the use of the word “saved” is humorous because those who come to the shelter are
not saved, but the opposite. They are merely sustained. Undershaft says, “It is cheap work
converting starving men with a Bible in one hand and a slice of bread in the other,” (Shaw)
showing that those at the shelter do not save anyone, but entice and keep the poor docile. The
poor are kept down and their situation is reinforced through religion. Instead of progressing up
the social ladder, their condition is encouraged to remain stagnant due to the shelter’s handouts.
Rummy and Price have succumbed to most of the seven deadly sins that Undershaft lists. On the
other side of the spectrum lies Undershaft’s method of “saving” the poor.
Instead of just giving the poor food and shelter he gives them jobs. Undershaft refuses to
bequeath his foundry to his son. He states, “Yes: he could learn the office routine without
understanding the business, like all the other sons; and the firm would go on by its own
momentum until … an Italian or a German—would invent a new method and cut him out,”
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Undershaft means that no progress can be achieved through simply giving out donations and
handouts (Shaw). Unlike those at the shelters, who receive their handouts and stagnate,
Undershaft wants his son to search for a job that he feels a true passion for and work at it until it
propels him to success. Just as he expects his son to work for his money, he expects all of the
poor English to do the same. Capitalism is shown as the real agent of change, not religion.
Shaw paints a difference between earned wealth and wealth through association. Charles
and Sarah are Just like Rummy and Price. Even though they are rich, that does not make them
intelligent or industrious. Charles and Sarah just sit around Lady Britomart’s house and make
childish comments and bicker (Shaw). Even Lady Britomart herself is a comical portrayal of
inherited wealth. She is fat, billowy and obsessed with appearance and proper etiquette (Shaw).
She has raised her son, Stephen, to be a submissive mother’s boy, who is too afraid to speak his
mind (Shaw). However, when he does he is immediately shut up by his mother and criticized for
not having an opinion of his own (Shaw).
The play also dispels socialistic romanticism. Cusins, who represents the middle class
academic left, stereotypically champions the poor. He states, “Barbara is in love with the
common people. So am I. Have you never felt the romance of that love?” (Shaw). Undershaft
replies, “I have been a common man and a poor man; and it has no romance for me,” (Shaw) and
dispels the myth that poverty is romantic, ousting Cusins by revealing that the academic has
never been impoverished, therefore he has no right to champion the poor (Shaw). These religious
organizations that are run by people who champion the proletariat just lead to more poverty by
creating a false romanticism around poverty. Only money can make a real difference, even if that
money is made from so called “immoral” businesses.
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Undershaft’s morality is questioned by Cusins and Barbara due to his work selling
weapons and armaments (Shaw). Lady Britomart thinks she’s solved Undershaft’s questionable
morality by saying, “You must simply sell cannons and weapons to people whose cause is right
and just, and refuse them to foreigners and criminals,” (Shaw). Again, morality is addressed.
Lady Britomart’s “solution” seems alright at first glance, but how does one go about deciding
who’s cause is just and right? Morality is subjective. Undershaft voices his frustration that the
idea of morality is often taken much too lightly by religious folk and socialists. Undershaft says
that many people lack the ability to comprehend mathematics, art, business, and even grammar
but all have a, “knowledge of the secret that has puzzled all the philosophers, baffled all the
lawyers…. The secret of right and wrong,” morality is not something that can be easily
determined, as Britomart, Cusins, Stephen, Charles, Sarah and Barbara think. Undershafts
religion of money has the solution. He says he, “gives arms to all men who offer an honest
price,” for Undershaft’s job is make money, not to decide who is right or wrong (Shaw). In this
way he creates a world in which morality is decided by the victor for, “All have the right to fight:
none have the right to judge,” (Shaw). The truly immoral act would be to sell one group of
people guns and another not, based on one’s subjective moral compass. Through Undershaft’s
devotion to capitalism, he gains several followers by the plays end, most notably Barbara and
Cusins.
Eventually, at the end of the play, Barbara and Cusins “convert” to capitalism. Cusins is
convinced by Undershaft to inherit his business. Cusins says he has sold his soul to Undershaft
for financial stability (Shaw). Cusins realizes that money will make him happier and able to
enjoy his life more than faith will allow. He realizes that faith cannot protect him from poverty
and Undershaft’s seven deadly sins. Cusins states, “My best pupil went out to fight for Hellas.
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My parting gift to him was not a copy of Plato’s Republic, but a revolver and a hundred
Undershaft cartridges,” showing that ideology cannot protect one from everything (Shaw). There
is a time and place for religion, but capitalism and money will not only make one’s life happier,
but longer too. Barbara also leaves the Salvation Army behind. She states that she was happy to
leave the world behind in the Army, but, “the moment our money ran short, it all came back to…
my papa,” (Shaw). Barbara had always really relied on the entrepreneurship money of her
capitalistic father to support her idealistic endeavors. By the end of the play Cusins is working
for Undershaft while Barbara plans to marry him and move into a house in the suburbs (Shaw).
As a final retort to the ineffectiveness of religion, undershaft makes a speech, summing up his
view perfectly:
I hate poverty and slavery worse than any other crimes whatsoever. And let me tell you
this. Poverty and slavery have stood up for centuries to your sermons and leading articles:
they will not stand up to my machine guns. Don’t preach at them: don’t reason with them.
Kill them. (Shaw)
Religion does not solve everything, atrocities still happen even when people pray against them.
The only way to destroy poverty and slavery, is to actively seek them out and obliterate them.
Shaw’s 1905 play is very interesting due to the light it exhibits capitalism in. The play
came out in a time of rapid industrialization that led to many negative societal effects. Many
governments, politicians, and radicals around the world held that socialism was the future, but
here is a play that says the opposite. Shaw seems to have predicted the future with Major
Barbara. Capitalists are not greedy pig faced men, but entrepreneurs simply providing a service.
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In his play, Shaw shows society moving away from organized religion, and towards
consumerism in a positive way, while exploring a unique view of capitalism for any time period.
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Works Cited
Shaw, Bernard. Major Barbara. N.p.: n.p., n.d. No Pagination. Kindle Book.