Major Barbara, Shakespeare Theatre

Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw
Shakespeare Theatre

Major Barbara, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1905, is a play that seeks to understand religion or spirituality. Shaw introduced what has come to be known as the "discussion play" — that is, works primarily driven by debate of ideas. In this play, Shaw delved into the concept of spirituality by pitting two opposing concepts portrayed by a father and his daughter. Barbara, a major in the Salvation Army, argues that salvation is spiritual, apart from the cares of this world and cannot be purchased with money. Andrew Undershaft, her father, argues that salvation is material and is obtained with money. Poverty is the opposite of salvation; indeed, the term "salvation" means salvation from poverty.

Throughout recorded history, people have struggled to understand spirituality. Shaw did not attempt to examine all concepts of religion, but instead chose to examine two "classes" of ideas of religion — the spiritual approach vs. the material approach. Recall the biblical phrase that man cannot serve both God and mammon. Shaw argued that man cannot accept a spiritual salvation until he has first obtained sufficient money to permit himself to live comfortably. Thus, Shaw argued that material salvation must preceed spiritual salvation.

In the play, Shaw argues (through Undershaft) that the "sin" of poverty is the cause of the world's problems, and that "salvation" from poverty lies within oneself. One is "saved" from poverty through one's own decision to let go of poverty and then taking the steps to overcome it. Shaw argues that people decide whether to accept lives of poverty or to be saved from poverty. In the play, Undershaft describes his own epiphany leading to his own "salvation". One is reminded of Nelson Mandela's quote that his own sister chose poverty and slavery for herself by choosing not to be educated. In the play, Shaw describes the conversion of Barbara by her father to his concept of salvation.

George Bernard Shaw was born a Protestant in a predominantly Catholic Dublin in 1856. In 1884, Shaw joined the Fabian Society, an organization of middle-class socialists dedicated to mass education and legislative reform in England. He remained active in the Fabian Society until his death at age 94 in 1950. With the outbreak of World War I, which for him tolled the death knell of the capitalist system, Shaw published a series of anti-war newspaper articles entitled "Common Sense about the War." This series temporarily ruined his public reputation until 1923, when his Saint Joan returned his glory. Shaw won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925.