Saints, Sinners, and Capitalists: The Subversion of Moral Authority in Major Barbara, Saint Joan, and Mrs. Warren’s Profession

Abstract

This article examines how George Bernard Shaw subverts conventional moral authority in Major Barbara, Saint Joan, and Mrs. Warren’s Profession, exposing the ideological contradictions within religion, capitalism, and social respectability. This study hypothesizes that Shaw redefines moral authority in Major Barbara, Saint Joan, and Mrs. Warren’s Profession as a socially constructed discourse shaped by capitalist, religious, and institutional forces, thereby destabilizing fixed notions of virtue and vice. Through a comparative analysis, the study argues that Shaw dismantles the binary between virtue and vice, revealing morality as a socially constructed and institutionally sustained discourse. According to the study, while Major Barbara exposes the dependence of religious ethics on capitalist wealth, Saint Joan foregrounds the challenge of individual conscience to institutional orthodoxy and Mrs. Warren’s Profession redefines moral judgment as a product of economic necessity rather than personal failure. Drawing on ethical criticism and a Marxist framework informed by feminist theory, the article demonstrates that Shaw reconfigures moral authority as unstable and socially constructed. It posits that Shaw’s drama exposes the mechanisms through which moral legitimacy is constructed and challenged, anticipating modern debates on ethics, power, and social justice.