Major Barbara

July 2018

Major Barbara

Shaw, George Bernard. Major Barbara. Penguin Books, 1979.

Who is more righteous, the Salvation Army Major who can offer a man just enough to convince him he should pretend to convert.  Or the owner of a ballistics factory who has created a model town for his happy workers? This is the type of question that George Bernard Shaw was only too happy to address in the style of the beloved Comedy of Manners. Shaw does not let the audience off easy in Major Barbara, under a veneer of a light comedy about the upper class  is a challenging question about what really helps make the world a better place. The Military Industrialist has a far greater impact on general society while his daughter, who is a major in the Salvation Army, has only a small reach and is dealing with people who are mostly  lying so they can get something to eat that day. While the play is extremely witty, it is clearly written from a cynical point of view, both of religion’s ability to bring about internal change, and capitalisms ability to bring about societal good. Shaw tries to highlight the absurdity of social change through religion and capitalism, but creates straw-man arguments that do not take into account the real good that either institution has brought about. I found this play compelling in its arguments, and very well written, but would like to see Shaw wrestle more with the genuine good that religious organizations have brought about as well as the innovations of capitalism that have helped all of society, and not just a few workers. When you reduce religion and capitalism to nothing but a bad day at a single Salvation Army location and an ammunitions manufacturer, you are making the socialist mindset the only real choice, and ignoring the complexities of both economics and social good.