Feminism in the plays of George Bernard Shaw Pygmalion Candida Saint Joan and Mrs Warren Profession

Abstract

Saw the infants doomed to suffering, newlineSaw the maidens slaves to lust, newlineSaw the starving mothers barter, newlineSouls and bodies for a crust, newlineThen she rose with the inward vision, newlineNerving all her powers for good; newlineFeeling one with the suffering sisters newlineIn perfected Womanhood. newlineThe above lines demonstrate how the acknowledgement of shared history of opppression made newlinewomen come together for the revolutionary movement that came to be known as Feminism.The newlinefeminine consciousness was raised by many movements to liberate and encourage women to take newlineinitiatives and come out from the long oppressed womanhood. Two early stands for womenand#8223;s newlineright were taken by Mary Wallstonecroft and John Stuart Mill. Mary Wallstonecroft projected newlineher bold and startingly new ideas and concepts in Vindication Of the Rights of Woman(1792). newlineJohn Stuart Milland#8223;s Subjection of Women(1869),often called the feminist Bible, created a lot of newlinecontroversy and antagonism. However, he thought that his intention in writing the book was for newlinethe general development of the society and the individualand#8223;s liberty.His sympathy towards newlinefeminism was one aspect of his conviction of an individual liberty.He stated that womenand#8223;s newlineposition was not natural but was the result of political oppresssion by men. Elaborating Milland#8223;s newlineidea Gail Finny reflects that : newline2 newlineMilland#8223;s Subjection of Women(1869) deplores the fact that women have been socially conditioned newlineto live for others and deny themselves,to shut themselves off from productive newlineoccupations,and,worst of all,to assent in their own subjection. newlineThis shows that the widely used term Feminismand#8223; is a new term for the same old thought newlinewhich has its seeds and origin in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But the term newline Feminismand#8223; came into being in 1895.This was the time when Bernard Shaw was an upcoming newlinedramatist and social worker. Feminismand#8223; is a theoretical and literary term with newlinehistorical,sociological,political,psychological connotations. Commenting on the extensiveness of newlinefeminism, Gail Finny defines it as a historical or so