3 Review(s)

Heartbreak House, A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes,is a play which argues that "cultured, leisured Europe" was drifting toward destruction, and that "Those in a position to guide Europe to safety failed to learn their proper business of political navigation". The "Russian Manner" of the subtitle refers to the style of Anton Chekhov, which Shaw adapts. Major Barbara is a three act play. The story involves an idealistic young woman, Barbara Undershaft, who is engaged in helping the poor as an official(a Major) in the salvation Army in London. For many years Barbara and her siblings have been estranged from their father, Andrew Undershaft, who now reappears as a rich and successful munitions maker. Undershaft the father, gives money to the Salvation Army, which offends Major Barbara who does not want to be connected to his "tainted" wealth. However, the father argues that poverty is a worse problem than munitions, and claims that he is doing more to help society by giving his workers jobs and a steady income than Major Barbara is doing to help them by giving them bread and soup. This play came before society had fully experienced the massive scale of the human cost from modern industrial weapons and warfare.